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PREFERENTIAL TRADE AGREEMENTS AND MULTILATERAL TARIFF COOPERATION*
Author(s) -
Saggi Kamal
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
international economic review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.658
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1468-2354
pISSN - 0020-6598
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-2354.2006.00371.x
Subject(s) - tariff , international economics , oligopoly , economics , free trade , international trade , incentive , liberalization , customs union , international free trade agreement , rules of origin , microeconomics , cournot competition , market economy
Are preferential trade agreements (PTAs) building or stumbling blocks for multilateral trade liberalization? I address this question in an infinitely repeated tariff game between three countries engaged in intraindustry trade under oligopoly. The central result is that when countries are symmetric, a free trade agreement (FTA) undermines multilateral tariff cooperation by adversely affecting the cooperation incentive of the nonmember whereas a customs union (CU) does so via its effect on the cooperation incentives of members. However, when countries are asymmetric with respect to either market size or cost, there exist circumstances where PTAs facilitate multilateral tariff cooperation.