Many countries use duty drawbacks on exports, yet they have been given little attention in the literature and there is no consensus whether countries should embrace or abandon them. The author asserts that the answer depends on a country’s development priorities and economic conditions. An...

The authors analyze the welfare effects of regional integration in a model of endogenous protection. They show that introducing preferential trading leads to an increase in protection against countries outside the preferential trading area. Moreover, the important Meade result of preferential...

Turkey and the European Union (EU) have agreed to implement a customs union. This means Turkey will eliminate its tariffs and levies on imports on manufactured products from the EU. Turkey will also apply EU's"common external tariff"on imports from third countries. Turkey will be obligated by...

After independence, every sub - Saharan African country, without exception, joined one or more regional integration schemes. Regional integration would have enabled the subcontinent to attain economic growth and prosperity by allowing individual countries to overcome the barriers of desperately...

There has been a resurgence of preferential trade agreements (PTAs). This has led to renewed debate about how PTAs affect both welfare and the multilateral system. The author examines two ideas: the welfare impact of PTAs and the effect of structural and policy changes on PTAs. He asks how the...

Chile is currently evaluating a wide range of possible trade policies. Using a global computable general equilibrium model, the authors examine a range of trade policy and complementary tax policy options for Chile. They focus on Chile's principal preferential trade policy options: a free-trade...

One issue dominating recent discussions on free trade areas and other minilateral associations (preferential trade arrangements) is whether such arrangements will detract from further multilateral trade liberalization on a most-favored-nation basis. But for much of this debate empirical...

The countries of the Middle Eastand North Africa (MENA) have lost the geographic advantage they used to have because of their proximity to the European Union at a time when Eastern Europe was effectively closed to open exchange with the West. The Central and Eastern European countries are...

The United States imports around 25 percent of its merchandise under some form of preferential trade regime. The authors examine both the origins and consequences of U.S. trade preferences in the context of the gravity model of international trade. First, they provide estimates of the impact of...

The author studies the case for three different approaches to regionalism in East Asia. First, he examines closely the only serious attempt at preferential trading in the region - the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which has recently announced plans to form the ASEAN Free Trade...