This paper provides an in-depth examination of the trade effects of three regional trade agreements (RTAs) – the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (AFTA), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the Southern Cone Common Market (MERCOSUR) -- in the agricultural sector. Results...

Theory tells us that weak rule of law and institutions deter cross-border integration, deter investment relative to trade, and inhibit trade finance. Drawing on a survey of more than 300 Chinese enterprises that are doing or have done business in North Korea, we consider how informal...

Regulations and enforcement decisions that at first appear to have only a domestic impact can have substantial spillover effects on other nations' economies. Experience has shown time and again that there is no reason to expect that these effects are confined to jurisdictions at the same level...

Many observers have noted a recent proliferation of regional trade agreements primarily centred in or on Europe. The paper analyses the causes and consequences of EC regionalism. It begins by examining the development and importance of the phenomenon. It finds that although the EC maintains...

While services account for almost 80% of GDP in the United States and a growing share of global trade, regulatory barriers to services trade around the world are still high. Using a hypothetical liberalisation scenario, this paper assesses the potential reduction of trade costs that could be...

This paper presents new estimates of policy-induced trade costs in five services sectors for 46 countries. Results demonstrate the significant untapped economic potential of multilateral, plurilateral, and unilateral services trade liberalisation. Even though services trade has more than tripled...

The purpose of this article is to examine the role of Indo-Lanka Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in integration of Sri Lanka into the Indian manufacturing processes in line with emerging trade patterns based on ‘global product sharing’. While Sri Lanka has established close economic ties...

The withdrawal of GSP+ concessions granted by the European Union in August 2010 could bring about important implications for Sri Lanka’s apparel industry, which is heavily dependent on the European market for its exports. A particular concern is the lack of an international level-playing...

We study the relationship between participation in free trade agreements (FTAs) and the sustainability of democracy. Our model shows that FTAs can critically reduce the incentive of authoritarian groups to seek power by destroying protectionist rents, thus making democracies last longer. This...

What do trade negotiators negotiate about? There are two distinct theoretical approaches in the economics literature that offer an answer to this question: the terms-of-trade theory and the commitment theory. The terms-of-trade theory holds that trade agreements are useful to governments as a...