Master of Arts / Department of Economics / Peri da Silva / Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs) are known to facilitate liberalization with respect to only a few trading partners and thus they have been a topic of debate for the past two decades especially because their effect on most favored nation (MFN) tariffs is known to be ambiguous. We provide insights for analyzing whether the PTAs indeed hamper or support multilateral liberalization. Using product level official and actual tariffs we provide evidence from the United States (US) import data that the stumbling block effect on the US MFN bound tariffs is present only for goods that receive full preference in books or in actual. However, my dataset does not statistically support the stumbling block hypothesis in the case of Applied tariffs.

Thesis advisor: Robert Murphy / Given the increasing proliferation of preferential trade agreements, this work seeks to investigate the economic, political, and cultural relationships that may be built from the common foundation of a trade agreement. It evaluates the experiences of the European Union and the North American Free Trade Agreement and makes predictions and suggestions for future preferential trading partners, as well as analyzing the potential impact that PTAs will have on globalization and international relations. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2004. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: International Studies. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

Since the inception of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1947, traditional trade barriers like tariffs and quotas were no longer at the heart of trade disputes under the multilateral trade framework. The economic interdependence trend has brought a number of social issues to the forefront of the international scene, and the conflict between trade values and social values have soon become the new theme of trade conflicts at the current stage. Hence, international trade rules were urged to address issues other than economic concerns, such as environmental protection, cultural value preservation and human rights. Clashes between trade liberalization and social values are harshly criticized for their alleged negative impacts on issues like equality, freedom, social justice, environment and culture. The World Trade Organization (WTO), as the only multilateral trade regime, is arguably extending its competence in dealing with conflicts other than trade issues. However, the conflicts are made more incomprehensible due to the absence of a clear and reconciled order in both substantive and procedure senses. This research is based on the aforementioned concerns, and focuses on the relationship between trade liberalization and a specific spot among the enormous range of social values: Trade in Culture. Departing from domestic regime, the research is going to critically evaluate domestic state of law and policies under the realm of WTO rules, in order to carry out their interactions with WTO regime. By analyzing to what extent they collide with each other, and the possible alternatives to develop cultural trade, the research considers the development of cultural trade in the way that is more responsive to the real problems of current restraints presented at the domestic level, so that implications to the WTO legal framework can be drawn.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Economics / Yang M. Chang / There have been considerable discussions about why countries have interests in forming preferential trade agreements (PTAs), which typically take the forms of a “free trade area” (FTA) with Rules of Origin (ROO) and a “customs union” (CU) (World Bank, 2005). This dissertation contains three essays with three different models of trade under oligopoly to analyze various issues on preferential trade agreements. The first essay examines welfare implications of forming preferential trade arrangement (PTAs) between two asymmetric countries that differ in their market sizes. Key findings are as follows. First, when market size asymmetry between two countries is not too large and ROO requirements are not too restrictive, the formation of an FTA with effective ROO can be welfare-improving to both members. Second, the formation of a PTA is more likely to emerge between countries of similar in their market sizes, ceteris paribus. Third, compared to the pre-PTA equilibrium, there are greater reductions in external tariffs under an FTA than under a CU such that a non-member country is relatively better off under the FTA. The second essay presents a three country model of trade under Bertrand price competition to analyze differences in welfare implications between an FTA with ROO and a customs union (CU). It is shown that the maximum limit of ROO requirements over which there are welfare gains from trade for FTA members depends crucially on the degree of substitutability of final goods (or the intensity of product market competition). It is also found that member countries and their final-good exporters are better off in a CU than in an FTA. There are greater reductions in external tariffs under an FTA than under a CU such that a non-member country is relatively better off under the FTA. The third essay presents a three country model of FTA with Cournot quantity competition and derives the maximum enforceable level of ROO over which there are welfare gains from trade to each member country. It is shown that ROO and external tariffs are strategic complements such that the higher is the regional input restrictions, the higher is the external tariff necessary to induce firms to fully comply with ROO requirements. It is also shown that an FTA with effective ROO has a positive effect on the final-good trade. But the trade-diverting effect does not occur in the final-good sector.

<p>Trade in agricultural products between Mexico and the EU only counts for a small percentage of total trade between them. With the entry into force of the EU-Mexico FTA in 2000, the tariffs on a number of agriculture commodities between the two parties was eliminated or reduced. This will lead to an opening in the trade of agricultural products between the two markets, something that could affect the welfare of the Mexican people positively, if new trade is created. The elimination and reduction of tariffs on agricultural goods could also lead to positive consumption effects as prices on these goods could be lowered. Lower prices on agricultural goods could help a large number of people, especially the poor people of Mexico. </p><p>In this thesis, using theories on preferential trade, I aim to examine the effects on the Mexican people due to the elimination of traiffs on agricultural goods between Mexico and the EU consequential to the EU-Mexico Free Trade Agreement. The investigation was carried out for the first two years after integration between the two parties, focusing on agricultural goods in particular. I also aim to determine if there is any group in the Mexican society that has benefited more in terms of welfare as a consequence of the new FTA.</p>

Trade in agricultural products between Mexico and the EU only counts for a small percentage of total trade between them. With the entry into force of the EU-Mexico FTA in 2000, the tariffs on a number of agriculture commodities between the two parties was eliminated or reduced. This will lead to an opening in the trade of agricultural products between the two markets, something that could affect the welfare of the Mexican people positively, if new trade is created. The elimination and reduction of tariffs on agricultural goods could also lead to positive consumption effects as prices on these goods could be lowered. Lower prices on agricultural goods could help a large number of people, especially the poor people of Mexico. In this thesis, using theories on preferential trade, I aim to examine the effects on the Mexican people due to the elimination of traiffs on agricultural goods between Mexico and the EU consequential to the EU-Mexico Free Trade Agreement. The investigation was carried out for the first two years after integration between the two parties, focusing on agricultural goods in particular. I also aim to determine if there is any group in the Mexican society that has benefited more in terms of welfare as a consequence of the new FTA.

With signing of Agreement on Textile and Clothing which entered into force in 1995, it was decided to abolish quantity limitations applied by the developed countries since the second half of 20th century. By this way, restrictions in the developed country markets against the developing countries would be lifted gradually in a ten year period and the liberalization in textile and clothing markets would be realized from 2005 onwards. This would provide smooth access to major markets for all the developing and least developed countries. However, China&rsquo / s accession to WTO in 2001 created a breakthrough in this assumption. Hereafter, China increased its shares in the developed countries&rsquo / markets at the expense of other developing countries. One of the matters wondered most during this period was how would the developing and least developed countries, that had quota-free entrance to the developed countries&rsquo / markets, perform against China. This study focuses on the export performances of developing and least developed countries, that have had preferential trade agreements with European Union and the United States of America, against China in those markets.

Univ., Diss.--Konstanz, 1994.

Emissions keep rising, states keep trading, and Earth will be 1.5°C warmer within five years. These are results of inadequate global governance. As globalisation has brought complexity to the international settings, creating overlapping webs of interactions: no International Organisation has properly responded. In this context, we are now situated in a trade regime complex with overlapping rules and norms, but what agency can be claimed? The thesis investigates the trade-environment nexus by addressing how legitimate climate leadership in a trade regime complex is pursued.   By challenging the conventionality of international leadership theory with a separation from hegemony and applying it outside multilateral negotiations, the thesis found it applicable for this new setting. Through mixed methods, statistics and textual analysis, the United States (US) Preferential Trade Agreements (PTA) were a surprisingly fitted case for this. To understand climate leadership performance and underlying objectives for such, the TREND database was adopted. Within, all US PTAs are shown and to what extent it has adapted 294 environmentally-related norms. Coded into means for leadership, the US legalistic approach of structurally directing others to mitigating measures seems to be a double-edged sword. Done right, it creates non-derogative measures. Done wrong, it creates a hegemon.

Many studies consider the potential for preferential trade agreements (PTAs) to have differing effects on trade. Kohl (2014) and Baier et al. (2019) show that some PTA’s promote trade while the majority of PTAs have no significant effect. Some even lower trade. Why do these differing cases arise? One possibility is that the effects of trade agreements depend on specific provisions – provisions that differ across agreements. Another possibility is the potential for PTAs to impact trade differently depending on the presence of certain bilateral characteristics between trading nations such as physical distance or metaphorical types of distance such as culture or language. In my dissertation, “Heterogeneous Effects of Trade Agreements on Trade,” we explore these two avenues separately.In the first chapter we consider if differences in the prevalence of corruption between members of a PTA make trade agreements more or less effective at boosting trade. Such differences could create more uncertainty that limits the potential for trade even if a trade agreement lowers barriers, implying that such agreements will not boost trade. On the other hand, trade agreements could be most effective in such disparate countries. Not only might trade agreements remove barriers used by corrupt officials to extort firms, but a trade agreement could reduce the uncertainty of operating in a different business environment by establishing rules and regulations. Results in this paper are allowed to differ across several dimensions, including extensive versus intensive margin, whether the exporter or importer is more corrupt, and between South-South and South-North trade. Using a gravity model of trade spanning a panel of countries from 1996 to 2017, we find that PTAs increase trade more along the intensive margin when importing countries are more corrupt but boost trade more along the extensive margin when exporting countries are more corrupt. Results are stronger for trade between South-South (S-S) countries than between North-South (N-S) countries. Chapter two examines how specific provisions within trade agreements – particularly, provisions regarding environmental standards – affect trade between members and non-members. While there is a rising trend to incorporate different types of environmental provisions in preferential trade agreements (PTAs), few studies took explicit steps to assess the trade consequences of environmental provisions in PTAs. This paper employs a gravity model over the period from 1984 to 2016 and uses a new detailed dataset on a broad range of environmental provisions in PTAs to fill the gap in the literature by looking at possible trade diversion effects from trade agreements with deep environmental clauses. We follow Mattoo et al. (2017) and construct an index that captures importers’ average depth of trade agreements with the rest of the world where depth is taken as the extent that environmental provisions are covered. The inclusion of this depth variable allows us to see if any trade diversion effect arises from trade agreements with deep environmental provisions. We specifically focus on exporters with low environmental standards, as those are the countries that are likely to “host” trade in environmentally unsustainable goods. We also differentiate between different types of environmental policies and concentrate on trade in “dirty” products. Our results suggest that environmental provisions in PTAs are an effective tool of promoting environmentally sustainable trade in the world, as these types of policies tend to reduce “dirty” trade even with non-member nations. Finally, the third chapter considers the heterogeneous design of PTA’s more broadly, looking at the trade effects of different policy areas within trade agreements, while differentiating their impact on trade in new product varieties of goods versus trade in existing products. We specifically focus on 18 “core” provisions that Hofmann et al. (2019) mark as most economically relevant policies. We further distinguish three types of policies within the “core” group of provisions, namely: i) provisions that directly liberalize trade through either reduction in tariffs or simplification of standards, ii) policies that enable signatory nations to compete on equal grounds, and iii) provisions that specify the rules of investment. Previous studies that consider the effects of trade agreements on the margins of trade have either focused on the effects of different types of PTAs, rather than specific policies, or used limited data and outdated methodologies. We are contributing to the literature by assessing the impact of different groups of policies on the margins of international trade using a highly disaggregated dataset covering a large number of countries and years. We also employ Factor Analysis to check robustness of our findings using regular count indices. Our results indicate that provisions that tend to reduce barriers to trade through either simplification of standards or reduction in monetary charges tend to increase trade in existing varieties of goods, while the effect of investment provisions is either insignificant or might actually lower trade.