While "mega FTAs" and WTO-driven efforts at multilateral liberalisation dominate the agenda, customs unions (CU) are the silent success story of regional integration. Throughout the world, CUs have been superseding earlier FTAs, as new unions were formed or old ones expanded. Due to problems of...

Membership in customs unions (CU) has proliferated in past decades; globally, 81 countries are now part of a CU. Much of this growth has been driven by countries upgrading their links from a free trade agreement (FTA) to CU. At the same time, the rapid formation of new FTAs among countries that...

While “mega FTAs” and WTO-driven efforts at multilateral liberalisation dominate the agenda, customs unions (CU) are the silent success story of regional integration. Throughout the world, CUs have been superseding earlier FTAs, as new unions were formed or old ones expanded. Due to problems...

How strongly can trade facilitation benefit trade? We study the most comprehensive trade facilitation measure possible – complete elimination of customs points – within the Eurasian Customs Union EACU). The EACU abolished internal customs controls between its members in two stages, which...

How do member states agree on the common tariff policy in a Customs Union? While a large theoretical literature studies the incentives faced by governments when negotiating the common external tariff (CET), empirical evidence is so far scant. This paper studies a large panel of applied tariffs...