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Using detailed data on trade and tariffs from 1992-2007, the authors examine how the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement has affected trade with nonmembers and external tariffs facing nonmembers. First, the paper examines the effect of preferential and external tariff reduction on import growth from ASEAN insiders and outsiders across HS 6-digit industries. The analysis finds no evidence that preferential liberalization has led to lower import growth from nonmembers. Second, it examines the relationship between preferential tariff reduction and MFN tariff reduction. The analysis finds that preferential liberalization tends to precede external tariff liberalization. To examine whether this tariff complementarity is a result of simultaneous decision making, the authors use the scheduled future preferential tariff reductions (agreed to in 1992) as instruments for actual preferential tariff changes after the Asia crisis. The results remain unchanged, suggesting that there is a causal relationship between preferential and MFN tariff reduction. The findings also indicate that external liberalization was relatively sharper in the products where preferences are likely to be most damaging, proving further support for a causal effect. Overall, the results imply that the ASEAN agreement has been a force for broader liberalization.

Economic integration --- External tariff --- External tariffs --- External trade --- External trade barriers --- Free Trade --- Free trade --- International Economics and Trade --- International Trade and Trade Rules --- Law and Justice --- Multilateral liberalization --- Preferential tariff --- Preferential tariff reduction --- Regional integration --- Regional trade --- Regional trade agreements --- Regionalism --- Tariff reduction --- Tariff reductions --- Trade agreement --- Trade and Regional Integration --- Trade flows --- Trade Law --- Trade liberalization --- Trade Policy --- World trade --- World trade organization

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This paper examines the export behavior of Dominican Republic exporters following the implementation of the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement in 2007. Using a firm-level dataset for 2002-2009, the authors investigate the effects of a tariff reduction on the extensive margin. The analysis distinguishes the impact on the entry of new firms, exports of new products, and entry into the Agreement's markets. The paper analyzes whether the agreement prevents incumbent exporters from exiting the market. The results suggest that tariff cuts have a positive although small effect on the extensive margin. A decline in tariffs also seems to reduce the probability of exit, but the effect is small. The evidence calls for complementary policies aiming at helping exporters maximize the benefits of the agreement.

Debt Markets --- Economic policy --- Export Competitiveness --- Export diversification --- Export growth --- Export market --- Exporters --- Exports --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Foreign markets --- Free Trade --- Free trade --- International Economics and Trade --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Market access --- Markets and Market Access --- Regional trade --- Regional trade agreements --- Tariff reduction --- Tariff reductions --- Trade agreement --- Trade costs --- Trade creation --- Trade liberalization --- Trade partners --- Trade Policy --- Trade preferences

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Despite the long relationship between the European Union and the African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) countries aimed at encouraging their exports while stimulating growth and investment, the ACP states still face difficulties in integrating into the world economy. The author examines the non-least developed ACP countries ' preferential trade with the EU. Her objective is to explain the determinants of preferential exports of ACP countries toward the EU and to assess the impact of preferences on trade volumes. The author also investigates the existence of a threshold in the offered duty reduction under which traders have no incentives to ask for preferences.

Country Tariff --- Duty Reduction --- Economic Theory and Research --- Exports --- Free Access --- Free Trade --- International Economics & Trade --- Law and Development --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Market Access --- Preferential Access --- Preferential Status --- Preferential Trade --- Preferential Trade Agreements --- Public Sector Development --- Rules of Origin --- Share Of World Exports --- Tariff --- Tariff Rates --- Tariff Reduction --- Tariffs --- Trade Expansion --- Trade Law --- Trade Patterns --- Trade Policy --- Trade Preferences --- Trade Volumes

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This paper estimates a model of a government making trade policy adjustments under a self-enforcing trade agreement in the presence of economic shocks. The empirical model is motivated by the formal theories of cooperative trade agreements. The authors find evidence that United States' use of its antidumping policy during 1997-2006 is consistent with increases in time-varying "cooperative" tariffs, where the likelihood of antidumping is increasing in the size of unexpected import surges, decreasing in the volatility of imports, and decreasing in the elasticities of import demand and export supply. The analysis finds additional support for the theory that some US antidumping use is consistent with cooperative behavior through a second empirical examination of how trading partners responded to these new US tariffs. Even after controlling for factors such as the expected cost and benefit to filing a WTO dispute or engaging in antidumping retaliation, the analysis find that trading partners are less likely to challenge such "cooperative" US antidumping tariffs that were imposed under terms-of-trade pressure suggested by the theory.

Antidumping --- Antidumping duties --- Antidumping policies --- Antidumping policy --- Bilateral trade --- Currencies and Exchange Rates --- Domestic industries --- Economic Theory & Research --- Export supply --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Free Trade --- International Economics and Trade --- International Trade and Trade Rules --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Market access --- Tariff reduction --- Terms of trade --- Trade agreement --- Trade agreements --- Trade barriers --- Trade effect --- Trade flows --- Trade motives --- Trade policies --- Trade Policy --- World trade --- World trade organization

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Many trade negotiations involve large cuts in high tariffs, with flexibilities allowing much smaller cuts for an agreed number of politically-sensitive products. The effects of these flexibilities on market access opportunities are difficult to predict, creating particular problems for developing countries in assessing whether to support a proposed agreement. Some widely-used ad hoc approaches to identifying likely sensitive products - such as the highest-bound-tariff rule - suggest that the impacts of a limited number of such exceptions on average tariffs and on market access are likely to be minor. This paper uses a rigorous specification based on the apparent objectives of policy makers in setting the pre-negotiation tariff. Applying this approach with detailed data allows the authors to assess the implications of sensitive-product provisions for average agricultural tariffs, economic welfare, and market access under the Doha negotiations. The authors conclude that highest-tariff rules are likely to seriously underestimate the impacts on average tariffs, and that treating even 2 percent of tariff lines as sensitive is likely to have a sharply adverse impact on economic welfare. The impacts on market access are also adverse, but much smaller, perhaps reflecting the mercantilist focus of the negotiating process.

Agricultural negotiations --- Agricultural products --- Average tariffs --- Debt Markets --- Economic welfare --- Ex ante assessment --- Export subsidies --- Factor endowments --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Free Trade --- High tariffs --- International Economics and Trade --- International prices --- International Trade and Trade Rules --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Market access --- Market access opportunities --- Markets and Market Access --- Tariff --- Tariff rates --- Tariff reduction --- Tariff revenues --- Trade --- Trade agreements --- Trade negotiations --- Trade Policy --- Value of imports --- World prices