The scope and complexity of international trading arrangements in the Middle East, as well as their spotty historical record of success, underscores the urgent need for an adequate understanding of the relative costs and benefits of participation in preferential trading arrangements and, more generally, of changes in the domestic import regimes. This paper seeks to address this problem by providing estimates of the adjustment costs associated with two broad classes of hypothetical trade policy scenarios scenarios for Syria: Participation in preferential trading arrangements, and changes in the domestic import regime. We find that the revenue consequences of the first scenario may be substantial, while our analysis of the second scenario suggests that the number of tariff bands can be reduced to a lower number, while ensuring revenue neutrality, via the introduction of a VAT of sufficient but reasonable size.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by University Library of Munich, Germany in its series MPRA Paper with number
17613.
Find related papers by JEL classification: P33 - Economic Systems - - Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions - - - International Linkages O24 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy - - - Trade Policy; Factor Movement; Foreign Exchange Policy O53 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Asia including Middle East F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Country and Industry Studies of Trade
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports: