This paper argues that the definition of"manufactures"used in compiling production data for industrial and developing countries is far broader than the definition used for trade statistics. This limits the analytical utility of output and trade data for studies using, say, apparent consumption...

Colombia's experience in the use of safeguards and antidumping duties differs from international trends. On the one hand, the number of investigations conducted is substantially lower than that recorded in most of the hemisphere's large and medium-size countries. On the other hand, while there...

In the debate about the relationship between trade policy and growth, various measures for trade intervention have been used. The author presents a new measure based on a country's relative price structure and the structure of relative world prices. This measure, he argues, conforms more closely...

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has had a profound impact on Mexico's economy and institutions. Clearly, no consideration of tax reform can ignore its role. The thinking about tax reform in Mexico requires evaluating NAFTA's effect on Mexico's economy, including its tax...

In the past decade a sea change has taken place in trade policies in Latin America: within a few years, most of the region's economies have changed from restrictive to open policies. But unlike trade liberalization in Europe, most trade barriers in Latin America have been reduced unilaterally....

This paper considers the challenges and opportunities facing the Central American countries and explores the choices open to them for fuller integration into the world economy. The paper presents a brief historical account of the origins and evolution of the Central American Common Market...

This paper provides new survey evidence showing that loss aversion and reference dependence are important in shaping people's perception of trade policy. Under the assumption that agents'welfare functions exhibit these behavioral elements, we analyze a model with a welfare-maximizing government...

Perhaps the major accomplishment of the Uruguay Round is agreements reached on nontariff barriers (NTBs). All NTBs imposed under the Multifiber Arrangement (MFA) will be phased out over 10 years, and all"voluntary"export restraints will be abolished. OECD countries'NTBs on agricultural goods...

Exports respond unpredictably to a change in real exchange rates, suggests evidence from the 1980s. Recent theoretical work explains this as a consequence of the sunk costs associated with breaking into foreign markets. Sunk costs include the cost of packaging, upgrading product quality,...

The unconditional extension of the fruits of trade negotiations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is giving way to bilateral and other discriminatory trade agreements. Led by the United States, GATT has taken a strong position against discrimination: the benefits of...