scholarly journals Optimal Design of Trade Agreements in the Presence of Renegotiation

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanni Maggi ◽  
Robert W. Staiger
Keyword(s):  
Optimal Design ◽  
Trade Liberalization ◽  
Bargaining Power ◽  
Law And Economics ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Optimal Contract ◽  
Liability Rule ◽  
Optimal Property ◽  
High Uncertainty ◽  
Property Rule

We study the optimal design of trade agreements when governments can renegotiate after the resolution of uncertainty but compensation between them is inefficient. In equilibrium, renegotiation always results in trade liberalization, not protection. The optimal contract may be a “property rule” or a “liability rule.” High uncertainty favors liability over property rules, while asymmetries in bargaining power favor property over liability rules. Moreover, optimal property rules are never renegotiated. With a cost of renegotiation, property rules are favored when this cost is higher, reversing a central conclusion of the law-and-economics literature. (JEL C78, D86, F13, F15, K12)

Bilateral Treaties and The Most-Favored-Nation Clause: The Myth of Trade Liberalization in the Nineteenth Century

2008 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivier Accominotti ◽  
Marc Flandreau
Keyword(s):  
International Trade ◽  
Trade Liberalization ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Most Favored Nation ◽  
The World ◽  
Most Favored Nation Clause ◽  
Bilateral Treaties

Textbook accounts of the Anglo-French trade agreement of 1860 argue that it heralded the beginning of a liberal trading order. This alleged success holds much interest from a modern policy point of view, for it rested on bilateral negotiations and most-favored-nation clauses. With the help of new data on international trade (the RICardo database), the authors provide empirical evidence and find that the treaty and subsequent network of MFN trade agreements coincided with the end of a period of unilateral liberalization across the world. They also find that it did not contribute to expanding trade at all. This is contrary to a deeply rooted belief among economists, economic historians, and political scientists. The authors draw a number of policy lessons that run counter to the conventional wisdom and raise skepticism toward the ability of bilateralism and MFN arrangements to promote trade liberalization.

Preferential Trade Agreements as Stumbling Blocks for Multilateral Trade Liberalization: Evidence for the United States

2006 ◽  
Vol 96 (3) ◽  
pp. 896-914 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nuno Limão
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Trade Liberalization ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
The United States ◽  
Preferential Trade Agreements ◽  
Detailed Data ◽  
Preferential Trade ◽  
Multilateral Trade ◽  
Multilateral Trade Liberalization ◽  
Tariff Reductions

Most countries are members of preferential trade agreements (PTAs). The effect of these agreements has attracted much interest and raised the question of whether PTAs promote or slow multilateral trade liberalization, i.e., whether they are a “building block” or “stumbling block” to multilateral liberalization. Despite this long-standing concern with PTAs and the lack of theoretical consensus, there is no systematic evidence on whether they are actually a stumbling block to multilateral liberalization. We use detailed data on U.S. multilateral tariffs to provide the first systematic evidence that the direct effect of PTAs was to generate a stumbling block to its MTL. We also provide evidence of reciprocity in multilateral tariff reductions.

scholarly journals Reciprocal Trade Agreements in Asia: Credible Commitment to Trade Liberalization or Paper Tigers?

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raymond Hicks ◽  
Soo Yeon Kim
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Trade Liberalization ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Primary Objective ◽  
Trade Flows ◽  
Institution Building ◽  
Credible Commitment ◽  
Coding Scheme ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Impact

Reciprocal trade agreements (RTAs) have proliferated rapidly in Asia in recent years, an unprecedented phenomenon in a region in which state-led institution-building efforts were largely unsuccessful during the Cold War years. In this article, we investigate the qualitative provisions of RTAs in Asia, focusing on agreements that are professedly geared toward trade liberalization through reciprocal exchanges of trade concessions. We build on the concept of credible commitment—that states “tie their hands” through international agreements and thus signal strong commitment to trade liberalization. We argue that a broad range of agreement provisions will affect an RTA's ability to achieve its primary objective: trade liberalization. We present a coding scheme that measures the strength of a wide variety of provisions in the legal texts of RTAs. Using quantitative analysis, we analyze the impact of various components of Asia's RTAs on participants' trade flows.

SINGAPORE AND ASEAN IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY: The Case of Free Trade Agreements

Asian Survey ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 43 (6) ◽  
pp. 908-928 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teofilo C. Daquila ◽  
Le Huu Huy
Keyword(s):  
Trade Liberalization ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Free Trade Agreements ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Economic Community ◽  
Regional Trade ◽  
Slow Pace ◽  
Asean Countries ◽  
Asian Economic Community

Abstract Given the slow pace of global and regional trade liberalization initiatives, Singapore has forged free trade agreements for economic and strategic reasons. Other ASEAN countries and ASEAN itself have also become interested in establishing FTAs with countries outside the grouping. In the future, ASEAN could form an ASEAN or an East Asian Economic Community.

FDI and Privatization

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi-min Lin
Keyword(s):  
Trade Liberalization ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Bargaining Power ◽  
Economic Hardship ◽  
Local State ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Foreign Investors ◽  
Important Resource ◽  
Local Officials ◽  
Focal Issue

Chapter 6 extends the analysis of local state actions to the privatization function of FDI. The focal issue is how and why foreign investors were able to overcome centrally imposed regulatory and policy constraints on their entry, expansion, and organization before trade liberalization associated with China’s WTO accession in 2001. Again, rule bending by local governments was the centerpiece of the story. As in the case of locales experiencing early privatization, local officials took calculated political risk by using economic hardship and the benefits of FDI for addressing revenue and employment imperatives as justifications. The extent of their deviations from centrally set boundaries nevertheless varied, depending greatly on the bargaining power of local political leaders vis-à-vis their supervising authorities. In particular, whether a locale was perceived as a major fiscal burden or an important resource contributor to higher-level authorities was an important differentiating factor.

Entrenchment of regionalism: WTO legality of MFN clauses in preferential trade agreements for goods and services

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 443-470 ◽  
Author(s):  
JONG BUM KIM
Keyword(s):  
Trade Liberalization ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Preferential Trade Agreements ◽  
Third Parties ◽  
Preferential Trade ◽  
Trade Relations ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Internal Trade

AbstractThe most favoured nation (MFN) clauses in preferential trade agreements (PTAs) under GATT Article XXIV or under GATS Article V entrench the preferential trade relations between the PTA parties because the trade liberalization in future PTAs with third parties will be constrained by the existing PTA MFN clauses. Trade liberalization based on PTA MFN clauses cannot be considered part of the internal trade liberalization required by GATT Article XXIV:8 or GATS Article V:1. The exclusionary effects caused by trade liberalization through PTA MFN clauses increase the burden on trade with third parties. As a result, PTA MFN clauses do not meet the necessity test under the Appellate Body's decision in Turkey–Textiles, as reasonable alternatives to the PTA MFN clauses are available. For these reasons, PTA MFN clauses fail the requirements for legal defences under GATT Article XXIV or GATS Article V for their violations of the general MFN clauses under GATT Article I and GATS Article II. For those products or services subject to existing PTA MFN clauses, any preferential liberalization based on PTA MFN clauses should be accorded non-discriminatorily to all WTO members in accordance with GATT Article I or GATS Article II.

Trade and environment: policy linkages

2000 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 405-432 ◽  
Author(s):  
BRIAN R. COPELAND
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Policy ◽  
Simple Model ◽  
Trade Liberalization ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
Pareto Frontier ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Environmental Agreements ◽  
Global Pollution ◽  
Environment Policy ◽  
Local Pollution

This paper develops a simple model to investigate linkages between trade and environmental policy. In the case of purely local pollution, trade liberalization without constraints on environmental policy induces a non-cooperative game between countries in pollution policy. Without any agreement on environmental policy, trade negotiations are unlikely to lead to a point on the Pareto frontier. When pollution is global, countries may be expected to disagree on linkages between trade agreements and environmental agreements. Countries importing pollution-intensive goods have an incentive to try to link trade agreements with environmental agreements, while countries exporting pollution-intensive goods have an incentive to try to obtain a binding commitment to free trade prior to negotiations over global pollution.

scholarly journals Trade Liberalization and Pollution Havens

2004 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Josh Ederington ◽  
Arik Levinson ◽  
Jenny Minier
Keyword(s):  
Trade Liberalization ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
The United States ◽  
Executive Order ◽  
Direct Mechanism ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Industry Level Data ◽  
Careful Assessment ◽  
The U.S

Abstract U.S. Presidential Executive Order 13141 commits the United States to a careful assessment and consideration of the environmental impacts of trade agreements. The most direct mechanism through which trade liberalization would affect environmental quality in the U.S. is through the composition of industries. Freer trade means greater specialization, increasing the concentration of polluting industries in some countries and decreasing it in others. We begin by documenting the substantial shift in U.S. manufacturing toward cleaner industries from 1972 to 1994. We then use annual industry-level data on imports to the U.S. to examine whether this compositional shift can be traced to the significant trade liberalization that occurred over the same time period, and we conclude that no such connection exists. A shift toward cleaner industries has also occurred among U.S. imports, and we find no evidence that pollution-intensive industries have been disproportionately affected by the tariff changes.

scholarly journals Eliminating ‘Thick’ Borders: Analysing the Legal Framework on Non-Tariff Barriers in the Africa Continental Free Trade Area Agreement

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 167-194
Author(s):  
Catherine Penda
Keyword(s):  
Free Trade ◽  
Regional Integration ◽  
Bargaining Power ◽  
Free Trade Area ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Growth Potential ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Global Marketplace ◽  
Trade Area

African countries have long recognised that regional integration is vital if Africa is to optimise its growth potential and boost its bargaining power in the global marketplace. This explains the proliferation of several Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) across the continent culminating in the conclusion of the landmark African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). However, despite the concerted efforts to boost intra-trade among African countries, African borders remain ‘thick’ because of the continued existence of Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) that reverse gains made from initiatives of trade liberalisation. Accordingly, if the landmark Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is to be successful, it must strive to address and eliminate Africa’s NTBs. It is argued in this paper that while the AfCFTA makes some important strides in reducing NTBs in intra-African trade, there are still some significant gaps in the AfCFTA’s provisions on NTBs that need to be addressed. Some of these gaps include: the lack of a comprehensive legal framework that adequately addresses all the categories of NTBs and the lack of clear guidelines on how to promote harmonisation among conflicting measures among RTAs. This article singles out and analyses provisions on NTBs under the AfCFTA with the aim of determining whether the AfCFTA addresses the challenges currently facing other RTAs in tackling NTBs. The author will identify shortcomings in the legal framework of the AfCFTA with the aim of making proposals to address them.

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