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

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  • Foroutan, Faezeh
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    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.

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    Bibliographic Info

    Paper provided by The World Bank in its series Policy Research Working Paper Series with number 1898.

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    Date of creation: 31 Mar 1998
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    Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:1898

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    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;

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    References

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    Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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    1. Jeffrey A. Frankel and Shang-Jin Wei., 1996. "ASEAN in a Regional Perspective," Center for International and Development Economics Research (CIDER) Working Papers C96-074, University of California at Berkeley.
    2. Merle Holden, 2005. "Trade Liberalisation In South Africa Once Again," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 73(4), pages 776-784, December.
    3. Michelle Casario, 1996. "North American Free Trade Agreement Bilateral Trade Effects," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 14(1), pages 36-47, 01.
    4. Panagariya, Arvind, 1993. "Should East Asia go regional? No, no and maybe," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1209, The World Bank.
    5. Harrison, Glenn W. & Rutherford, Thomas F. & Tarr, David G., 1996. "Economic implications for Turkey of a customs union with the European Union," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1599, The World Bank.
    6. Sven Arndt, 1996. "North American Free Trade: An assessment," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 77-92, January.
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    Cited by:
    1. Antoni Estevadeordal & Christian Volpe Martincus & Mitsuyo Ando, 2009. "Complements or Substitutes?: Preferential and Multilateral Trade Liberalization at the Sectoral Level," IDB Publications 9332, Inter-American Development Bank.
    2. Longo, Robert & Sekkat, Khalid, 2004. "Economic Obstacles to Expanding Intra-African Trade," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(8), pages 1309-1321, August.
    3. Ornelas, Emanuel, 2008. "Feasible multilateralism and the effects of regionalism," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(1), pages 202-224, January.
    4. Ornelas, Emanuel, 2005. "Trade creating free trade areas and the undermining of multilateralism," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(7), pages 1717-1735, October.
    5. de Castro Alxandre Samy & Goldin, Ian & Pereira da Silva, Luiz A., 2002. "Relative returns to policy reform - evidence from controlled cross-country regressions," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2898, The World Bank.
    6. Baybars Karacaovali & Nuno Limao, 2005. "The Clash Of Liberalizations: Preferential Vs. Multilateral Trade Liberalization In The European Union," International Trade and Finance Association Conference Papers 1037, International Trade and Finance Association.
    7. Soloaga, Isidro & Alan Wintersb, L., 2001. "Regionalism in the nineties: what effect on trade?," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 1-29, March.
    8. Correa, Paulo & Dayoub, Mariam & Francisco, Manuela, 2007. "Identifying supply-side constraints to export performance in Ecuador : an exercise with Investment Climate Survey data," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4179, The World Bank.
    9. Soloaga, Isidro & Winters, L. Alan, 1999. "How has regionalism in the 1990s affected trade?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2156, The World Bank.
    10. Nuno Limao, 2006. "Preferential Trade Agreements as Stumbling Blocks for Multilateral Trade Liberalization: Evidence for the United States," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(3), pages 896-914, June.

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