IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/anname/v526y1993i1p164-171.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Compatibility of Regional Economic Blocs and the GATT

Author

Listed:
  • ERNEST H. PREEG

Abstract

Regional economic blocs are compatible with the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) multilateral trading system through Article XXIV, which provides for customs unions and free trade agreements. However, both the European Community and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) raise questions about the GATT criterion that the level of import restrictions to nonmembers is not higher than before the bloc formation. The actual trade impact of regional economic blocs is likely to be strongly trade-creating, while trade flows within the overall trading system are approaching parity between preferential and nonpreferential trade. NAFTA and the Enterprise for the Americas Initiative have unleashed a dynamic toward further bloc formation, especially for the Asian-Pacific region, which will have to be resolved during the 1990s. Questions on whether regional free trade arrangements will ultimately converge toward multilateral free trade, and in what form, cannot yet be answered and will depend on future political as well as economic relationships.

Suggested Citation

  • Ernest H. Preeg, 1993. "The Compatibility of Regional Economic Blocs and the GATT," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 526(1), pages 164-171, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:526:y:1993:i:1:p:164-171
    DOI: 10.1177/0002716293526001013
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0002716293526001013
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0002716293526001013?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:526:y:1993:i:1:p:164-171. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.