Many economists tend to be skeptical of the merits of Free-Trade Areas (FTAs) due to their second-best nature, while others support them under certain conditions, particularly as they allow for a more comprehensive treatment of trade- and investment-related issues than is currently possible...

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) presents strong potential to mold regional trade and investment patterns well into the future and to influence the direction of global economic cooperation at a challenging time. This paper evaluates the RCEP and estimates its potential...

This paper analyzes the impact of the Canada-Korea Free Trade Agreement on the basis of the published text and agreed schedule of commitments. We find that the Agreement reinforces existing patterns of comparative advantage between Canada (agriculture and resource-based sectors) and Korea (autos...

This paper creates a new index ("index of bilateral trade relation") to quantitatively evaluate the degree of regional economic integration based on countries' de facto bilateral trade relations. It concludes that a fundamental arrangement of East Asian regionalism should involve at least one of...

The paper argues that United States (US) participation in the East Asia Summit (EAS) - regional integration architecture led by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) - was motivated by four changes in the regional economic landscape: (i) the Asian financial crisis of 1997 and...

The establishment of the currently negotiated Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the EU and Ukraine is the next significant step towards Ukraine's deeper integration into the world economy, widely expected to result in additional welfare gains. As developing countries face some costs associated...

The idea of a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement goes beyond the traditional concept of trade liberalization and, apart from the elimination of tariffs in trade of goods, it also includes the reduction/ removal of non-tariff barriers, the liberalization of the investment regime, the...

In this paper, we examine possible medium-term changes in EU trade policy, including the negotiation and implementation of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with regional entities like ASEAN and the NAFTA countries. We also examine the possible conclusion of the Doha Round of multilateral trade...

This study examines the economic impact on Austria of three possible new EU free trade agreements: (1) an EU-US agreement; (2) an EU-Canada agreement; and (3) an EUArmenia/Georgia/Moldova agreement. This is done with a computational model of the global economy. The trade agreements are modeled...

While the trade effect of free trade agreements (FTAs) is a global issue, little research has examined the economic effects of trade liberalization on agricultural products with robust empirical methods. In this study, propensity score matching for controlling selection bias is used to examine...