Trade Facilitation Measures under Free Trade Agreements: Are They Discriminatory against Non-Members?

Shintaro Hamanaka (), Aiken Tafgar () and Dorothea Lazaro
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Shintaro Hamanaka: Asian Development Bank, Postal: 6 ADB Avenue, Mandaluyong City, 1550 Metro Manila, Philippines, http://www.adb.org
Aiken Tafgar: Asian Development Bank, Postal: 6 ADB Avenue, Mandaluyong City, 1550 Metro Manila, Philippines, http://www.adb.org

No 55, Working Papers on Regional Economic Integration from Asian Development Bank

Abstract: Are trade facilitation measures under free trade agreements (FTAs) discriminatory? This important question has yet to be sufficiently explored by the existing literature on trade facilitation. Despite the multilateral scope and non-discriminatory objectives of trade facilitation measures, some trade facilitation measures under FTAs can be discriminatory, similar to those in preferential tariff elimination. Based on a review of FTAs in Asia and the Pacific, this study provides detailed empirical analysis on whether or not trade facilitation provisions in FTAs are exclusive to contracting FTA partners and how the measures can be discriminatory against non-members.

Keywords: Trade facilitation; free trade agreements (FTAs); discriminatory measures; national treatment (NT); most-favored-nation (MFN) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F13 F15 F42 F53 F59 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32 pages
Date: 2010-07-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-int and nep-sea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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