· 1999
The increase in investment abroad during the past two decades may help explain the simultaneous worldwide rush toward free trade. The entry of foreign capital may change the political game, increasing openness to international trade no matter what form the foreign capital takes (whether entering by acquiring equity in existing domestic firms or by bringing foreign firms into the host economy) or what its trade orientation (whether it enters the export or import-competing sector).
"Most researchers focus on the political economy (interest group pressures) approach to analyzing why customs unions are formed, but terms-of-trade effects were also important in formation of the common market of the Southern Cone (Mercosur). Terms-of-trade externalities among Mercosur's members have been internalized in the common external tariff--Cover.
The objective of this paper is to provide indicators of trade restrictiveness that include both measures of tariff and nontariff barriers for 91 developing and industrial countries. For each country, the authors estimate three trade restrictiveness indices. The first one summarizes the degree of trade distortions that each country imposes on itself through its own trade policies. The second one focuses on the trade distortions imposed by each country on its import bundle. The last index focuses on market access and summarizes the trade distortions imposed by the rest of the world on each country's export bundle. All indices are estimated for the broad aggregates of manufacturing and agriculture products. Results suggest that poor countries (and those with the highest poverty headcount) tend to be more restrictive, but they also face the highest trade barriers on their export bundle. This is partly explained by the fact that agriculture protection is generally larger than manufacturing protection. Nontariff barriers contribute more than 70 percent on average to world protection, underlying their importance for any study on trade protection.
Evidence from Mercosur suggests that eliminating duty drawbacks for intra-regional exports would lead to increased counterlobbying against protection of intermediate products. Without the duty drawback, the common external tariff would have been an estimated 3.5 percentage points (25 percent) higher on average.
During a period of trade liberalization (1985-89), when Mexican manufacturing experienced an important inflow of foreign direct investment, manufacturing sectors with heavy foreign direct investment received greater protection in import-competing sectors. With the move toward greater openness, the influence of industrial and foreign-investor lobbying on policy formation was reduced.
No author available
· 2004
Average most-favored-nation tariffs in the "Quad" (Canada, the European Union, Japan, and the United States) have fallen to about 5 percent. But tariffs more than three times the average most-favored-nation duty are not uncommon in the Quad and have a disproportionate effect on exports of least developed countries. Giving the poorest countries duty-free access for peak-tariff products would increase their total annual exports by roughly $2.5 billion.