The paper analyses tax and tariff policy for trade between economies which each contain a monopolistically competitive industry producing differentiated products. The consequences of tax changes by a single country are examined, and the general desirability of taxing imports more heavily than...

We study a model in which a customs union trades with countries that behaved strategically. If the members of the customs union are similar but not identical, one country will want to delegate authority for making union policy to its partner. Even if side-payments within the union are permitted,...

How are the benefits - and costs - of a customs union divided between member countries? Outcomes depend on the comparative advantage of member countries, relative to each other and to the rest of the world. Countries with a comparative advantage between that of their partners and the rest of the...

This paper analyses the customs union problem in a model containing a continuum of products. The continuum is in three dimensions, so that three countries each have a distinct comparative advantage. Trade patterns are endogenously determined, and changed by policy. This is in the tradition of...

In general, a reduction in trade barriers will affect the environment by expanding the scale of economic activity, by altering the composition of economic activity and by initiating a change in the techniques of production. We present empirical evidence to assess the relative magnitudes of these...

Partial cooperation in setting trade policy may be worse than no cooperation for countries who form a customs union. The paper investigates three situations where this is likely to occur. First, if the countries forming the union comprise too small a percentage of the non-competitive sector of...

A customs union is enlarged by the addition of one or more new countries. What should be the consequential change in its common external tariff (CET)? The paper attempts to make this question precise and to apply it to the enlargement of the EC. In many simple trade models the optimal CET is...

This paper studies the effect of switching from the destination to the origin principle of taxation on non-cooperative commodity tax equilibrium. When taxes are constrained to uniformity across commodities, the switch has no effect. When differentiated taxes are allowed, the effects of the...

This paper shows that the WTO's Article XXIV increases the likelihood of free trade, but may worsen world welfare when free trade is not reached and customs unions (CUs) form. We consider a model of many countries. Article XXIV prevents a CU from raising its common external tariff, which makes...

Regional integration is on the rise again, despite its apparent failure among developing countries in the past. The paper first surveys the ambiguous economics of customs unions. We emphasize that the traditional dichotomy between `trade creation' and `trade diversion' is not particularly...