NAFTA and the geography of North American trade

Howard Wall

No 2000-017, Working Papers from Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Abstract: Debates over the desirability a preferential trading area (PTA) begin with the supposition that it will have two effects on trade: it will increase trade between PTA members, and decrease trade between members and non-members. This paper demonstrates, however, that at the regional level the effects of NAFTA have been much more complicated than what is normally supposed. Specifically, I find that NAFTA has meant (i) less trade between Eastern Canada and the United States and Mexico, (ii) more trade between Central Canada and the United States and Mexico, and (iii) more trade between Western Canada and Mexico, but no change in the volume of trade between Western Canada and the United States. I also find that NAFTA has decreased trade between Canadian regions and both Europe and Asia, while increasing Mexico's trade with Asia.

Keywords: North; American; Free; Trade; Agreement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2002
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Published in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review, March 01, 2003, 85 (2), pp. 13-26

Downloads: (external link)
http://research.stlouisfed.org/wp/more/2000-017 (application/pdf)
http://research.stlouisfed.org/wp/2000/2000-017.pdf

Related works:
Journal Article: NAFTA and the geography of North American trade (2003)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fip:fedlwp:2000-017

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Scott St. Louis ().