Regional Trade Agreements
This article reviews the theoretical and the empirical literature on regionalism. The formation of regional trade agreements has been, by far, the most popular form of reciprocal trade liberalization in the past 15 years. The discriminatory character of these agreements has raised three main concern...
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| Format: | Journal Article |
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2012
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5752 |
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okr-10986-57522021-04-23T14:02:23Z Regional Trade Agreements Freund, Caroline Ornelas, Emanuel Trade Policy International Trade Organizations F130 Economic Integration F150 This article reviews the theoretical and the empirical literature on regionalism. The formation of regional trade agreements has been, by far, the most popular form of reciprocal trade liberalization in the past 15 years. The discriminatory character of these agreements has raised three main concerns: that trade diversion would be rampant, because special interest groups would induce governments to form the most distortionary agreements; that broader external trade liberalization would stall or reverse; and that multilateralism could be undermined. Theoretically, all these concerns are legitimate, although there are also several theoretical arguments that oppose them. Empirically, neither widespread trade diversion nor stalled external liberalization has materialized, whereas the undermining of multilateralism has not been properly tested. There are also several aspects of regionalism that have received too little attention from researchers, but which are central to understanding its causes and consequences. 2012-03-30T07:34:22Z 2012-03-30T07:34:22Z 2010 Journal Article Annual Review of Economics 19411383 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5752 EN http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo World Bank Journal Article |
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Digital Repository |
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Foreign Institution |
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Digital Repositories |
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World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
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World Bank |
| language |
EN |
| topic |
Trade Policy International Trade Organizations F130 Economic Integration F150 |
| spellingShingle |
Trade Policy International Trade Organizations F130 Economic Integration F150 Freund, Caroline Ornelas, Emanuel Regional Trade Agreements |
| relation |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo |
| description |
This article reviews the theoretical and the empirical literature on regionalism. The formation of regional trade agreements has been, by far, the most popular form of reciprocal trade liberalization in the past 15 years. The discriminatory character of these agreements has raised three main concerns: that trade diversion would be rampant, because special interest groups would induce governments to form the most distortionary agreements; that broader external trade liberalization would stall or reverse; and that multilateralism could be undermined. Theoretically, all these concerns are legitimate, although there are also several theoretical arguments that oppose them. Empirically, neither widespread trade diversion nor stalled external liberalization has materialized, whereas the undermining of multilateralism has not been properly tested. There are also several aspects of regionalism that have received too little attention from researchers, but which are central to understanding its causes and consequences. |
| format |
Journal Article |
| author |
Freund, Caroline Ornelas, Emanuel |
| author_facet |
Freund, Caroline Ornelas, Emanuel |
| author_sort |
Freund, Caroline |
| title |
Regional Trade Agreements |
| title_short |
Regional Trade Agreements |
| title_full |
Regional Trade Agreements |
| title_fullStr |
Regional Trade Agreements |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Regional Trade Agreements |
| title_sort |
regional trade agreements |
| publishDate |
2012 |
| url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5752 |
| _version_ |
1764396181684748288 |