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Preferential trade agreements have boomed in recent years and extended their reach well beyond tariff reduction, to cover policy areas such as investment, competition, and intellectual property rights. This paper uses new information on the content of preferential trade agreements to examine the trade effects of deep agreements and revisit the classic Vinerian question of trade creation and trade diversion. The results indicate that deep agreements lead to more trade creation and less trade diversion than shallow agreements. Furthermore, some provisions of deep agreements have a public good aspect and increase trade also with non-members.

Deep Integration --- Regionalism --- Trade Agreements

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There is not yet consensus in the trade agreements literature as to whether preferential liberalization leads to more or less multilateral liberalization. However, research thus far has focused mostly on tariff measures of import protection. This paper develops more comprehensive measures of trade policy that include the temporary trade barrier policies of antidumping and safeguards. Studies in other contexts have also shown how these policies can erode some of the trade liberalization gains that arise when examining tariffs alone. This paper examines the experiences of Argentina and Brazil during the formation of the MERCOSUR over 1990-2001. The study finds that an exclusive focus on applied tariffs may lead to a mischaracterization of the relationship between preferential liberalization and liberalization toward non-member countries. First, any "building block" evidence that arises by focusing on tariffs during the period in which MERCOSUR was only a free trade area can disappear, once the analysis includes changes in import protection arise through temporary trade barriers. Furthermore, there is also evidence of a "stumbling block" effect of preferential tariff liberalization for the period in which MERCOSUR became a customs union, and this result tends to strengthen with the inclusion of temporary trade barriers. Finally, the paper provides a first empirical examination of whether market power motives can help explain the patterns of changes in import protection that are observed in these settings.

Antidumping --- Mfn --- Preferential Trade Agreements --- Safeguards --- Tariffs --- Temporary Trade Barriers

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Este informe brinda una evaluacion preliminar del acuerdo de libre comercio celebrado con America Central y Republica Dominicana (DR-CAFTA, por sus siglas en ingles), con especial atencion a tres temas principales: 1) los beneficios comerciales y no comerciales esperados, 2) las acciones que los paises de America Central necesitan adoptar para aprovechar las nuevas oportunidades y 3) la identificacion de los grupos de la poblacion que pueden requerir asistencia para adaptarse a un entorno mas competitivo. El documento coloca al DR-CAFTA en el contexto historico de las reformas economicas que se han implementado en los paises centroamericanos desde finales de la decada de 1980 y luego lo situa en el contexto actual. Asimismo, examina varios analisis que evaluan los impactos potenciales del DR-CAFTA en los paises de America Central e identifica las poblaciones que se veran posiblemente afectadas por la eliminacion de barreras al comercio en los productos agricolas sensibles, analizando las mejores opciones de politicas para ayudar a los grupos vulnerables. El informe tambien examina las pruebas asociadas con las implicaciones macroeconomicas principales del DR-CAFTA estudiando el potencial de perdida de ingreso y el efecto que podria tener sobre los patrones de sincronizacion del ciclo comercial y las pruebas de cada uno de los paises centroamericanos en las areas de facilitacion del comercio, reformas institucionales y normativas, ademas de en innovacion y educacion, con el proposito de identificar las principales prioridades de la agenda complementaria del DR-CAFTA.

Capital --- Free Trade --- Markets --- Spanish Translation --- Trade Agreements

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Preferential trade agreements are an important feature of the global trade system. Several questions, ranging from the rationale for preferential arrangements to their impact on members, non-members and the broader multilateral trade system, are at the forefront of academic and policy debates in trade policy. This paper contributes to the literature in two ways. First, it presents a new database that offers a detailed assessment of the content of preferential arrangements, examining the coverage and legal enforceability of provisions. The database covers 279 agreements signed by 189 countries between 1958 and 2015, which reflects the entire set of preferential trade agreements in force and notified to the World Trade Organization as of 2015. Second, the paper presents some novel stylized facts on preferential arrangements based on the analysis of the data. The key insight is that preferential trade agreements became deeper over time. A growing number of these treaties cover an extended set of policy areas, frequently with legally enforceable provisions, in areas under the current World Trade Organization mandate and in four leading areas outside the current World Trade Organization mandate: competition policy, investment, movements of capital, and intellectual property rights protection. Accounting for the changing coverage of preferential trade agreements, that is, their "horizontal depth," is essential to gain a more complete and accurate understanding of where the global trading system is going and how its governance can be improved.

Deep Integration --- Legally Enforceable Provisions --- Preferential Trade Agreements

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Trade rebounded in 2017, with trade volume growing at 4.3 percent in 2017 - the fastest rate in 6 years. The recovery of trade is not limited to a few regions but is widespread, suggesting that we may be at a turning point. The largest contributions to global trade growth have come from East Asian countries in the developing world and the Euro area in the developed world. Merchandise trade, which in recent years has been less resilient than services trade, picked up, growing by 4.5 percent in 2017. Cyclical factors drove better trade performance in 2017. Trade grew faster because real gross domestic product grew faster. Investment growth played a critical role because investment is the most import intensive component of aggregate demand, and capital goods production has longer global value chains (GVCs). Preliminary monthly data indicate that the import values of capital goods such as machinery and electrical equipment grew in 2017 at the fastest rates since 2012 and that they have been the most significant contributors to 2017 nonfuel import growth in the European Union and United States. The improved performance of trade may be widespread, but it is fragile. Some of the factors underlying the global trade slowdown of recent years - weak growth in GVCs and high trade policy uncertainty - are still present. In particular, there are serious risks in the trade policy domain. The share of merchandise trade that trade-restrictive measures cover remained stable at approximately 1 percent in 2017. But the portion due to trade remedy initiations - a harbinger of future protection - has increased significantly since 2015, and there are risks of policy reversals in major markets. At the same time, new deep trade agreements have recently entered into force and others are being negotiated.

Inequality --- International Trade and Trade Rules --- Preferential Trade Agreements --- Trade Policy --- World Trade Organization