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Est‐ce que les accords commerciaux Sud‐Sud accroissent le commerce ?
Author(s) -
Mayda Anna Maria,
Steinberg Chad
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
canadian journal of economics/revue canadienne d'économique
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.773
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1540-5982
pISSN - 0008-4085
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-5982.2009.01548.x
Subject(s) - international economics , trade diversion , tariff , commodity , economics , trade creation , free trade , international trade , estimation , liberalization , trade barrier , trade agreement , difference in differences , regional trade , international free trade agreement , econometrics , market economy , management
South‐South trade agreements are proliferating. Yet the impact of these agreements is largely unknown, as existing North‐North and North‐South micro‐level studies are likely to yield misleading predictions for South‐South trade agreements. This paper estimates the impact of COMESA on Uganda's imports between 1994 and 2003. Detailed import and tariff data at the 6‐digit Harmonized System level are used for more than 1,000 commodities. Based on a difference‐in‐difference estimation strategy, the paper finds that – in contrast to evidence from aggregate statistics – COMESA's preferential tariff liberalization has not considerably increased Uganda's trade with member countries, on average, across sectors. The effect, however, is heterogeneous across sectors. Finally, the paper finds no evidence of trade‐diversion effects.