IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/jintdv/v27y2015i2p251-272.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Preferential Trade Agreements Between the Monetary Community of Central Africa and the European Union: Stumbling or Building Blocks? A General Equilibrium Approach

Author

Listed:
  • Guyslain K. Ngeleza
  • Andrew Muhammad

Abstract

This paper uses a computable general equilibrium approach to simulate two opposing views describing regional trade agreements either as building blocks for or stumbling blocks to multilateral trade liberalisation. This study focuses on the regional trade agreement between the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC) and the European Union (EU). Results show that, although a regional trade agreement may slightly raise welfare among the members of the agreement, the cost to nonmembers can be high. The regional breakdown in our design considers 14 regions, allowing for country‐specific analysis for one least‐developed country (Democratic Republic of Congo) and one non‐least‐developed country (Cameroon). Multilateral liberalisation amplifies welfare gain for Cameroon. The Democratic Republic of Congo, with its weaker institutional capacity, is affected negatively. An EU‐CEMAC regional free trade agreement without multilateralism produces gains for both Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • Guyslain K. Ngeleza & Andrew Muhammad, 2015. "Preferential Trade Agreements Between the Monetary Community of Central Africa and the European Union: Stumbling or Building Blocks? A General Equilibrium Approach," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(2), pages 251-272, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:jintdv:v:27:y:2015:i:2:p:251-272
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pravin Krishna, 1998. "Regionalism and Multilateralism: A Political Economy Approach," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 113(1), pages 227-251.
    2. Louise Curran & Lars Nilsson & Douglas Brew, 2008. "The Economic Partnership Agreements: Rationale, Misperceptions and Non-trade Aspects," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 26(5), pages 529-553, September.
    3. Scott McDonald & Terrie Walmsley, 2008. "Bilateral Free Trade Agreements and Customs Unions: The Impact of the EU Republic of South Africa Free Trade Agreement on Botswana," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(8), pages 993-1029, August.
    4. Hertel, Thomas, 1997. "Global Trade Analysis: Modeling and applications," GTAP Books, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Department of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University, number 7685, December.
    5. Arvind Panagariya, 2000. "Preferential Trade Liberalization: The Traditional Theory and New Developments," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 38(2), pages 287-331, June.
    6. Stefano Ponte & Jesper Raakjaer & Liam Campling, 2007. "Swimming Upstream: Market Access for African Fish Exports in the Context of WTO and EU Negotiations and Regulation," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 25(1), pages 113-138, January.
    7. Costas Hadjiyiannis, 2004. "Regionalism and Multilateral Trade Liberalization with Asymmetric Countries," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(3), pages 395-411, August.
    8. Arvind Panagariya & Jagdish Bhagwati, 1996. "The Economics of Preferential Trade Agreements," Books, American Enterprise Institute, number 51856, September.
    9. Arvind Panagariya, 1999. "The Regionalism Debate: An Overview," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(4), pages 477-512, June.
    10. Mr. Andrew Berg & Anne O. Krueger, 2003. "Trade, Growth, and Poverty: A Selective Survey," IMF Working Papers 2003/030, International Monetary Fund.
    11. Smith, Alasdair & Venables, Anthony J., 1988. "Completing the internal market in the European Community : Some industry simulations," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(7), pages 1501-1525, September.
    12. Baybars Karacaovali & Nuno Limão, 2018. "The clash of liberalizations: Preferential vs. multilateral trade liberalization in the European Union," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Policy Externalities and International Trade Agreements, chapter 14, pages 373-401, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    13. Nuno Limão, 2018. "Preferential Trade Agreements as Stumbling Blocks for Multilateral Trade Liberalization: Evidence for the United States," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Policy Externalities and International Trade Agreements, chapter 13, pages 353-371, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    14. L. ALAN WINTERS & NEIL McCULLOCH & ANDREW McKAY, 2015. "Trade Liberalization and Poverty: The Evidence So Far," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Non-Tariff Barriers, Regionalism and Poverty Essays in Applied International Trade Analysis, chapter 14, pages 271-314, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    15. Yongzheng Yang & Mr. Sanjeev Gupta, 2005. "Regional Trade Arrangements in Africa: Past Performance and the Way Forward," IMF Working Papers 2005/036, International Monetary Fund.
    16. Bagwell, Kyle & Staiger, Robert W., 2001. "Reciprocity, non-discrimination and preferential agreements in the multilateral trading system," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 281-325, June.
    17. Lawrence E. Hinkle & Maurice Schiff, 2004. "Economic Partnership Agreements Between Sub‐Saharan Africa and the EU: A Development Perspective," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(9), pages 1321-1333, September.
    18. Pascal Lamy, 2002. "Stepping Stones or Stumbling Blocks? The EU’s Approach Towards the Problem of Multilateralism vs Regionalism in Trade Policy," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(10), pages 1399-1413, November.
    19. Mr. Charalambos G Tsangarides & Mr. Jan Kees Martijn, 2007. "Trade Reform in the CEMAC: Developments and Opportunities," IMF Working Papers 2007/137, International Monetary Fund.
    20. Mareike Meyn, 2008. "Economic Partnership Agreements: A 'Historic Step' Towards a 'Partnership of Equals'?," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 26(5), pages 515-528, September.
    21. John Romalis, 2007. "Market Access, Openness and Growth," NBER Working Papers 13048, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    22. Unknown, 2005. "Forward," 2005 Conference: Slovenia in the EU - Challenges for Agriculture, Food Science and Rural Affairs, November 10-11, 2005, Moravske Toplice, Slovenia 183804, Slovenian Association of Agricultural Economists (DAES).
    23. Levy, Philip I, 1997. "A Political-Economic Analysis of Free-Trade Agreements," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(4), pages 506-519, September.
    24. Limãƒo, Nuno, 2006. "Preferential vs. multilateral trade liberalization: evidence and open questions," World Trade Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 5(2), pages 155-176, July.
    25. De Melo,Jaime & Panagariya,Arvind (ed.), 1996. "New Dimensions in Regional Integration," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521556682.
    26. Bhagwati, Jagdish & Greenaway, David & Panagariya, Arvind, 1998. "Trading Preferentially: Theory and Policy," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 108(449), pages 1128-1148, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Osman, Rehab Osman Mohamed, 2012. "The EU Economic Partnership Agreements with Southern Africa: a computable general equilibrium analysis," Economics PhD Theses 0412, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School.
    2. Rehab O. M. Osman, 2015. "SADC Trade with the European Union from a Preferential to a Reciprocal Modality," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 83(1), pages 23-40, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Berger, Helge & Nitsch, Volker, 2008. "Gotcha! A Profile of Smuggling in International Trade," Conference papers 331735, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    2. Kyle Bagwell & Chad P. Bown & Robert W. Staiger, 2016. "Is the WTO Passé?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 54(4), pages 1125-1231, December.
    3. Staiger, Robert & Bagwell, Kyle & Bown, Chad, 2015. "Is the WTO Passé?," CEPR Discussion Papers 10672, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. Marco Fugazza & Frédéric Robert-Nicoud, 2014. "The “Emulator Effect” of the Uruguay Round on US Regionalism," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(5), pages 1049-1078, November.
    5. Arvind Panagariya & Rupa Dutta Gupta, 2003. "Did the Multi-fiber Agreement Make the NAFTA Politically More Acceptable? A Theoretical Analysis," International Trade 0308010, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Richard Baldwin, 2008. "Big-Think Regionalism: A Critical Survey," NBER Working Papers 14056, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Panagariya, Arvind & Duttagupta, Rupa, 2002. "Politics of free trade areas: tariffs versus quotas," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 413-427, December.
    8. Osman, Rehab Osman Mohamed, 2012. "The EU Economic Partnership Agreements with Southern Africa: a computable general equilibrium analysis," Economics PhD Theses 0412, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School.
    9. Caroline Freund, 2010. "Third‐country Effects of Regional Trade Agreements," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(11), pages 1589-1605, November.
    10. Rupa Duttagupta & Arvind Panagariya, 2007. "Free Trade Areas And Rules Of Origin: Economics And Politics," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(2), pages 169-190, July.
    11. Baybars Karacaovali, 2010. "Free Trade Agreements and External Tariffs," Fordham Economics Discussion Paper Series dp2010-03, Fordham University, Department of Economics.
    12. Ornelas, Emanuel, 2012. "Preferential trade agreements and the labor market," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 121752, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    13. Wilhelm Kohler, 2000. "Die Osterweiterung der EU aus der Sicht bestehender Mitgliedsländer: Was lehrt uns die Theorie der ökonomischen Integration?," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 1(2), pages 115-141, May.
    14. Richard E. Baldwin, 2011. "Multilateralising Regionalism: Spaghetti Bowls as Building Blocks on the Path to Global Free Trade," Chapters, in: Miroslav N. Jovanović (ed.), International Handbook on the Economics of Integration, Volume I, chapter 2, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    15. Pokrivcak, Jan, 2007. "Economics and Political Economy of Regional Trade Agreements," Working Papers 7286, TRADEAG - Agricultural Trade Agreements.
    16. Horn, Henrik & Mavroidis, Petros C., 2001. "Economic and legal aspects of the Most-Favored-Nation clause," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 233-279, June.
    17. Baybars Karacaovali & Nuno Limão, 2018. "The clash of liberalizations: Preferential vs. multilateral trade liberalization in the European Union," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Policy Externalities and International Trade Agreements, chapter 14, pages 373-401, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    18. Antoni Estevadeordal & Caroline Freund & Emanuel Ornelas, 2008. "Does Regionalism Affect Trade Liberalization Toward Nonmembers?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 123(4), pages 1531-1575.
    19. Burfisher, Mary E. & Robinson, Sherman & Thierfelder, Karen, 2004. "Regionalism," MTID discussion papers 65, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    20. Wilhelm Kohler, 2000. "Die Osterweiterung der EU aus der Sicht bestehender Mitgliedsländer: Was lehrt uns die Theorie der ökonomischen Integration?," Economics working papers 2000-01, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.

    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:wly:jintdv:v:27:y:2015:i:2:p:251-272. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/5102/home .

    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.