Non-Preferential Trading Clubs
42 Pages Posted: 7 Apr 2004
There are 2 versions of this paper
Non-Preferential Trading Clubs
Date Written: March 2004
Abstract
This paper examines the welfare implications of non-discriminatory tariff reforms by a subset of countries, which we term a nonpreferential trading club. We show that there exist coordinated tariff reforms, accompanied by appropriate income transfers between these countries, that unambiguously increase the welfare of these member countries while leaving the welfare of non-members unaltered. These tariff reforms are chosen to maintain world prices at their pre-club levels and, in this respect, the trading clubs act in a Kemp-Wan-like manner. In terms of economic policy implications, our results show that there exist regional, MFN-consistent arrangements that lead to Pareto improvements in world welfare. Open regionalism is an example of such trading arrangements.
Keywords: trading clubs, non-preferential tariff reform, open regionalism, Kemp-Wan proposition, customs unions
JEL Classification: F15
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation