IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/gii/giihei/heiwp23-2007.html

The ASEAN Free Trade Agreement - Building Bloc or Stumbling Bloc for Multilateral Trade Liberalization?

Author

Abstract

This paper investigates empirically whether the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement had a building bloc or stumbling bloc effect on subsequent changes in MFN tariffs of four major ASEAN members. The method resembles the one recently used by Nuno Limão. We use tariff data to test whether MFN tariffs were changed differently for preferential products compared to otherwise similar products without a preference. We find a significant building bloc effect for Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand. MFN tariffs of preferential products were reduced by more than for non-preferential products. We obtain ambiguous effects for Malaysia. This suggests that overall the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement has rather helped than hindered non-discriminatory trade liberalization.

Suggested Citation

  • Andreas Lendle, 2007. "The ASEAN Free Trade Agreement - Building Bloc or Stumbling Bloc for Multilateral Trade Liberalization?," IHEID Working Papers 23-2007, Economics Section, The Graduate Institute of International Studies.
    • Handle: RePEc:gii:giihei:heiwp23-2007
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://repec.graduateinstitute.ch/pdfs/Working_papers/HEIWP23-2007.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Limão, Nuno, 2005. "Preferential Trade Agreements as Stumbling Blocks for Multilateral Trade Liberalization: Evidence for the US," CEPR Discussion Papers 4884, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. 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.
    3. Anne O. Krueger, 1999. "Are Preferential Trading Arrangements Trade-Liberalizing or Protectionist?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 13(4), pages 105-124, Fall.
    4. Manchin, Miriam & Pelkmans-Balaoing, Annette O., 2008. "Clothes without an Emperor: Analysis of the preferential tariffs in ASEAN," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 213-223, June.
    5. Robert J. R. Elliott & Kengo Ikemoto, 2004. "AFTA and the Asian Crisis: Help or Hindrance to ASEAN Intra‐Regional Trade?," Asian Economic Journal, East Asian Economic Association, vol. 18(1), pages 1-23, March.
    6. 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..
    7. Arvind Panagariya, 1999. "The Regionalism Debate: An Overview," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(4), pages 455-476, June.
    8. Jagdish Bhagwati, 1992. "Regionalism versus Multilateralism," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(5), pages 535-556, September.
    9. 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..
    10. Kyle Bagwell & Robert W. Staiger, 1999. "Regionalism and Multilateral Tariff Co-operation," International Economic Association Series, in: John Piggott & Alan Woodland (ed.), International Trade Policy and the Pacific Rim, chapter 7, pages 157-190, Palgrave Macmillan.
    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. Calvo-Pardo, Hector & Freund, Caroline & Ornelas, Emanuel, 2009. "The ASEAN free trade agreement : impact on trade flows and external trade barriers," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4960, The World Bank.
    2. Yose Rizal Damuri, . "East Asian Regionalism and the Multilateral Trading System ERIA," Chapters, in: Yoshifumi Fukunaga & John Riady, Pierre Sauve (ed.), The Road To Bali: ERIA Perspectives on the WTO Ministerial and Asian Integration, chapter 10, pages 111-123, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA).

    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. Takumi Naito, 2021. "Trade diversion is reversed in the long run," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 39, pages 202-219, January.
    2. Calvo-Pardo, Hector & Freund, Caroline & Ornelas, Emanuel, 2009. "The ASEAN free trade agreement : impact on trade flows and external trade barriers," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4960, The World Bank.
    3. Nuno Limão & Marcelo Olarreaga, 2018. "Trade Preferences to Small Developing Countries and the Welfare Costs of Lost Multilateral Liberalization," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Policy Externalities and International Trade Agreements, chapter 15, pages 403-426, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    4. Mikic, Mia, 2007. "Preferential trade agreements and agricultural trade liberalization in Asia and the Pacific," MPRA Paper 2947, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Karacaovali, Baybars & Limao, Nuno, 2005. "The clash of liberalizations : preferential versus multilateral trade liberalization in the European Union," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3493, The World Bank.
    6. Baybars Karacaovali, 2016. "Trade-diverting free trade agreements, external tariffs, and feasibility," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(1), pages 1-22, February.
    7. Kuenzel, David J. & Sharma, Rishi R., 2021. "Preferential trade agreements and MFN tariffs: Global evidence," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    8. Richard Baldwin, 2008. "Big-Think Regionalism: A Critical Survey," NBER Working Papers 14056, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Yanase, Akihiko & Tsubuku, Masafumi, 2022. "Trade costs and free trade agreements: Implications for tariff complementarity and welfare," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 23-37.
    10. Helge Berger & Volker Nitsch, 2008. "Gotcha! A Profile of Smuggling in International Trade," DEGIT Conference Papers c013_026, DEGIT, Dynamics, Economic Growth, and International Trade.
    11. Herz Bernhard & Wagner Marco, 2011. "Regionalism as a Building Block for Multilateralism," Global Economy Journal, De Gruyter, vol. 11(1), pages 1-25, March.
    12. Bernhard Herz & Marco Wagner, 2010. "Multilateralism versus Regionalism!?," Working Papers 089, Bavarian Graduate Program in Economics (BGPE).
    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. Alberto Behar & Laia Cirera-i-Crivillé, 2013. "Does it Matter Who You Sign With? Comparing the Impacts of North–South and South–South Trade Agreements on Bilateral Trade," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(4), pages 765-782, September.
    15. Ornelas, Emanuel & Tovar, Patricia, 2022. "Intra-bloc tariffs and preferential margins in trade agreements," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    16. 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.
    17. Austria, Myrna S., 2003. "East Asian Regional Cooperation: Approaches and Processes," Discussion Papers DP 2003-02, Philippine Institute for Development Studies.
    18. Richard Pomfret & Uwe Kaufmann & Christopher Findlay, 2010. "Are Preferential Tariffs Utilized? Evidence from Australian Imports, 2000-9," School of Economics and Public Policy Working Papers 2010-13, University of Adelaide, School of Economics and Public Policy.
    19. Julián Tole Martínez, 2019. "Colombia entre los TLC y la OMC: ¿liberación o administración del comercio internacional?," Books, Universidad Externado de Colombia, Facultad de Derecho, number 1139.
    20. Chuc Dinh Nguyen & Kazunobu Hayakawa, 2024. "The Substitution Effect of Preferential Tariffs on Nontariff Measures: Evidence from Vietnam," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 62(1), pages 87-103, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • D78 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Positive Analysis of Policy Formulation and Implementation
    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration

    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:gii:giihei:heiwp23-2007. 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: Dorina Dobre (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ieheich.html .

    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.