In the aftermath of the breakup of the Soviet Union, trade among the new independent states collapsed. To help reestablish interstate trade, the 12 members of the Commonwealth of independent States (CIS) established a Free Trade Area. More recently, four members of the CIS -Belarus, Kazakstan,...

This paper develops a framework for analyzing the economic costs and benefits of unilateral and multilateral trade liberalization strategies. The interest in this topic is sparked by the apparent dilemma faced by some developing countries in the ongoing Uruguay Round of multilateral trade...

Developing countries sometimes still resist free trade because of the alleged protectionism of industrial countries -- a myth belied by facts, says the author. Import growth in the industrial countries accelerated during the 1980s, while income growth slowed. Outside of agriculture (only about 2...

The author reviews the static theory of regional integration arrangements, identifying and analyzing the impact of such arrangements on the trade and welfare of member countries, nonmember countries, and the world at large. He develops eight policy guidelines that apply mainly to small trading...

Subregional trade arrangements (RTAs) in Eastern and Southern Africa have proliferated in the past 10 to 15 years. The small size of most of the countries in the region, some of which are landlocked, and the security needs in the post independence period largely explain the rapid expansion....

The author reviews trends and developments in world trade, investigating the elements involved in the accelerated integration of world trade rights in the past decade. He explores what conditions and policy initiatives make it easier for countries to benefit from global trade and capital flows,...

The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was built on a mercantilist sense of economic welfare and a mercantilist sense that domestic producers had a higher claim than foreign producers to the domestic market. The trade negotiations process did not attack this claim. It gave producers...

Virtually all of the studies that quantify the adjustment costs of trade liberalization relative to the benefits point to the conclusion that adjustment costs are small in relation to the benefits of trade liberalization. The explanation for low adjustment costs is that: These costs are...

In the policy environment prevailing before implementation of the Uruguay Round results, exports from developing countries face significant nontariff measures in industrial countries. Based on 1992 trade flows, the import coverage ratio of nontariff measures on this trade was more than 18...

What kind of privatization program is best suited to stimulate enterprise restructuring in former centrally planned economies? One view, expressed by most Western business and political leaders, is that privatization is best pursued case by case, with emphasis on sales to new owners, including...