Impact of Free Trade Agreement Use on Import Prices

We examine the impact of free trade agreement (FTA) use on import prices. For this analysis, we employ establishment-level import data with information on tariff schemes, that is, the FTA and most-favored-nation schemes used for importing. Unlike previous studies, we estimate the effects of FTA use...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Hayakawa, Kazunobu, Laksanapanyakul, Nuttawut, Mukunoki, Hiroshi, Urata, Shujiro
Format: Journal Article
Published: Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35418
Description
Summary:We examine the impact of free trade agreement (FTA) use on import prices. For this analysis, we employ establishment-level import data with information on tariff schemes, that is, the FTA and most-favored-nation schemes used for importing. Unlike previous studies, we estimate the effects of FTA use on prices by controlling for differences in importing-firm characteristics. There are three main findings. First, the effect of FTA use is overestimated when not controlling for importing firm-related fixed effects. Second, on average, firms’ FTA use reduces tariffs by 12 percentage points and raises import prices by 3.6–6.7 percent. Third, in general, we do not find a price rise resulting from the costs of complying with rules of origin.