Does membership in a regional preferential trade arrangement make a country more or less protectionist?

Faezeh Foroutan

No 1898, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: The author explores whether a systematic relationship exists between a developing country's participation in a preferential regional trade agreement (RTA) and the restrictiveness of its trade regime. The motivation for her study is provided by the current debate about whether regional trading blocs are a stepping-stone toward a more liberal global trading system and whether these blocs have changed over time so that the"new"blocs differ meaningfully from the"old"ones in terms of openness to the rest of the world. She restricts analysis to reciprocal RTAs involving developing countries in partnership either with industrial countries (North-South RTAs) or with other developing countries (South-South RTAs). Nearly every developing country belongs to one or more RTAs, so the author develops criteria for distinguishing effective from noneffective regional blocs. She then taps into many sources of data to compare levels of restrictiveness. She finds no evidence that participation in a regional trade agreement necessarily leads to a more liberal important regime.

Keywords: Trade Policy; Payment Systems&Infrastructure; Environmental Economics&Policies; Economic Theory&Research; Rules of Origin; Environmental Economics&Policies; Economic Theory&Research; TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT; Trade and Regional Integration; Trade Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1998-03-31
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (32)

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