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In this context, Bhutan can become wealthier through accelerating both domestic and foreign investment, as well as signing investment treaties. These investments could provide not just capital but also bring necessary skills, knowledge and ideas, and help the country move beyond hydropower. Today FDI inflows are small and constrained, on the one hand, by regulatory barriers and insufficient investment promotion, and, on the other, by inadequacies in skills and infrastructure. Bhutan can benefit from the experience of East Asia and other countries on how to break out of this low investment trap. FDI can help the macroeconomic balance by increasing exports and reducing the current account deficit, although it is not clear the future impact on growth, since it will depend on the quality and type of FDI inflows. FDI can also help create trade. Theoretically, firms invest abroad to expand their sales markets when trade costs are too high, therefore FDI is a substitute for trade. FDI in non-tradable sectors (services, etc) has this feature. However, in practice, FDI goes to export-oriented sectors including extractives but also manufacturing. Given the landlocked nature of geographic setting of Bhutan (with higher trade cost than countries such as India or Bangladesh), FDI could go primarily to non-tradable (at least as shown in the recent trend in the greenfield FDI). In this context, it will be important to use FDI to tap into regional value chains.

Trade Agreements

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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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feeds --- feeds --- Feed industry --- Feed industry --- Common markets --- Common markets --- Trade agreements --- Trade agreements

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CMEA --- CMEA --- European Union --- European Union --- trade barriers --- trade barriers --- Trade agreements --- 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