Publication
Trade Liberalization and Preferential Trade Agreements: Some Unexplored or Unresolved Issues

The merits and de-merits of preferential trade agreements (PTA’s), and the issue of trade liberalization in general, have been analyzed extensively. However, the existing literature have left many issues concerning PTA’s and trade liberalization, particularly in their relation to each other, unexplored. This paper raises and discusses four of such issues: the conclusion of of a PTA with the introduction of an overall free trade system; proximity as part of the criteria for selecting members into a PTA; the impact of past geographical trade patterns; and possible responses of trade with neighbors to a non-discriminating trade liberalization (or the imposition of restrictions).
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Publication Date
March, 2001