The Economics Of Preferential Trade Agreements
(Jagdish Bhagwati ;Arvind Panagariya)
The essays collected in this volume critically assess the claims advanced by proponents of free trade areas and analyze the two principal initiatives of recent U.S. trade policy: the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. Mr. Bhagwati is the Arthur Lehman Professor of Economics and professor of political science at Columbia University. Mr. Panagariya is professor of economics and codirector of the Center for International Economics at the University of Maryland.
Contrary to popular opinion, which equates free trade agreements (FTAs) with genuine free trade, FTAs are in fact preferential trading arrangements (PTAs). They are therefore two-faced: they offer free trade to members but (implicitly) protection against nonmembers. The economics of PTAs is therefore far more complex than that of genuinely nondiscriminatory free trade. Indeed, the economics of PTAs leaves them open to serious reservations, bringing into doubt the wisdom of recent U.S. trade policy.
Since the early 1980s, FTAs have rapidly proliferated, and U.S. trade policy now embraces them energetically. This is evident from the current administration's (and indeed the Bush administration's) desire to extend the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to Chile and beyond, and from the occasional high-level expressions of interest in turning the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) into yet another FTA.
Resumos Relacionados
- Against The Tide: An Intellectual History Of Free Trade
- Against The Tide: An Intellectual History Of Free Trade
- American Trade Policy: A Tragedy In The Making
- A Culture Of Its Own: Taking Latin America Seriously
- A Culture Of Its Own: Taking Latin America Seriously
|
|
