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Begin New Search Topic Trade Liberalization Political Geography Global Focus

1. Free Trade Agreements Have Limited Impact (Because Manufactured Goods are a Perfect Market)

Author:
David Henig and Anna Guildea
Publication Date:
05-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE)
Abstract:
Free Trade Agreements between two or more countries or parties have been the centrepiece of international trade policy since the formation of the World Trade Organisation 25 years ago. Since 1995, no major round of multilateral trade liberalisation has been concluded, but there has been a sharp rise in the number of bilateral trade agreements. While some of these agreements have real consequences for trade in services and some administrative rules for trade, most of them do not because they focus mainly on tariffs on industrial and agricultural goods. Yet the economic gains from these reductions are now extremely limited. In fact, it is now difficult to improve the global market in goods by cutting tariffs.
Topic:
Globalization, World Trade Organization, Global Markets, Trade Liberalization, and Free Trade
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2. Product-Level Trade Elasticities

Author:
Lionel Fontagné, Houssein Guimbard, and Gianluca Orefice
Publication Date:
12-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre d'Etudes Prospectives et d'Informations Internationales (CEPII)
Abstract:
Trade elasticity is a crucial parameter in evaluating the welfare impacts of trade liberalization. We estimate trade elasticities at the product level (6-digit of the Harmonized System comprising more than 5,000 product categories) by exploiting the variation in bilateral applied tariffs for each product category for the universe of available country pairs. This is done by constructing a panel of bilateral applied tariffs and bilateral trade covering the period 2001 to 2016. We address potential endogeneity issues as well as heteroskedasticity and selection bias due to zero flows. The obtained trade elasticities are centered around -5. We finally highlight the differences in the gains from trade arising from considering heterogeneous rather than average trade elasticities. All product level elasticities are made publicly available for sake of scrutiny and use by other researchers.
Topic:
Economics, International Political Economy, Bilateral Relations, Tariffs, Trade Liberalization, and Trade
Political Geography:
Global Focus

3. The Hudson's Bay Company: Royal Charters, Rivalries and Luxury Hats in the North American Fur Trade

Author:
Jason Saldanha, James Haworth, and Christopher McKenna
Publication Date:
03-2019
Content Type:
Case Study
Institution:
Oxford Centre for Global History
Abstract:
French fur traders Médard Chouart des Groseilliers and Pierre-Esprit Radisson sensed an opportunity in the mid-1650s. During their travels within a North American trade network stretching from Montreal to the Great Lakes, the pair had heard rumours from indigenous Cree communities of a “frozen sea”: a region rich in beaver furs further to the north. The resourceful traders, aware of the European demand for luxury felt hats made from these furs, set out to explore. The two traders were not disappointed upon their arrival at the vast inland sea of Hudson Bay, discovering an abundance of high-quality furs. They quickly identified numerous rivers running from the basin that offered valuable access to the continent’s interior: if a shipping route could be forged from these locations, across the Atlantic and finally to European markets, the Hudson Bay region could re-centre the entire North American fur trade. After failing to obtain French support to establish a trading post in the area – and getting arrested upon their return to Montreal for trading without a licence – Des Groseilliers and Radisson found themselves courting English favour for their venture.
Topic:
International Trade and Finance, History, Capitalism, Commodities, and Trade Liberalization
Political Geography:
United States, New York, Canada, Quebec City, and Global Focus

4. Towards a More Inclusive Globalization: An Anti-Social Dumping Scheme

Author:
Dani Rodrik
Publication Date:
12-2018
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Economics for Inclusive Prosperity (EfIP)
Abstract:
Theory and empirics both suggest that international trade has sharp distributional implications. Furthermore, redistribution caused by trade is often viewed by the general public as more harmful or disruptive than other domestic market shocks. I discuss conditions under which there may be a legitimate case for restricting trade to promote domestic social inclusion, and propose a specific policy – a social safeguards clause – targeting those circumstances.
Topic:
Economics, Globalization, International Trade and Finance, Economic Policy, Economic Theory, and Trade Liberalization
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5. Adjustment Options and Strategies in the Context of Agricultural Policy Reform and Trade Liberalisation

Author:
Osamu Kubota
Publication Date:
08-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Abstract:
Reforming agricultural policies by reducing distorting support improves economic efficiency as a whole through a better allocation of resources. This implies that adjustment may have adverse effects on some agricultural households and other people engaged in the sector, in particular in the short term. There may also be negative impacts on upstream and downstream sectors and on regional economies that rely on commodities whose prices and production levels fall with reductions in support and protection. Despite pressures to reform to meet multilateral and bilateral trade commitments and to respond to budgetary constraints, these adverse impacts are a major reason why governments find it difficult to make progress in policy reform.
Topic:
Agriculture, Reform, Trade Liberalization, and Trade
Political Geography:
Global Focus