University of Sussex
Browse

File(s) not publicly available

Trade Blocs

report
posted on 2023-06-07, 19:52 authored by Paul Collier, Maurice Schiff, Anthony Venables, L. Alan Winters
More than one third of world trade occurs within actual or prospective trading blocs. This report attempts to understand the political economy of regional integration, the economic benefits and costs for developing countries, the policy choices confronting governments, and the implications of regionalism for nonmembers and the multilateral trading system. It evaluates the experience of existing regional integration agreements and to draw inferences from this for the tradeoffs faced by decisionmakers. The three main political arguments for membership are security, bargaining power and "lock in", or the effects of regional trade on domestic politics. Economic effects are divided between scale and competition and trade and location. Policy choices include: membership composition, stances toward external relations, depth of integration, and the range of activities or products covered by an agreement. The overall effect of regionalism on global free trade is also discussed.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Publisher

The World Bank

Pages

164.0

ISBN

0-19-521128-6

Department affiliated with

  • Economics Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • No

Contributors

Bernard Hoekman

Legacy Posted Date

2012-02-06

Usage metrics

    University of Sussex (Publications)

    Categories

    No categories selected

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC