Essays on trade and trade policy

• Main Author: Ketterer, Tobias
• Published: University of Nottingham 2014
• Subjects: 382
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.659298

This thesis investigates the relationship between multilateral and preferential trade liberalisation, and also provides new empirical insights into the relationship between different trade policy instruments by analysing detailed HS 8-digit tariff and antidumping data. The first chapter provides a general introduction and motivation, as well as a brief outline of the thesis. Chapter two includes a short literature review of the current 'stumbling block' versus 'building block' debate, and introduces the reader to the theoretical and empirical work on external tariff setting in the presence of trade preferences. Chapter two is followed by four self-contained studies, which represent the core of this research project. Using micro-level trade and tariff data, we revisit in Chapter three existing empirical evidence in favour of the 'stumbling block' hypothesis, namely the hypothesis that regionalism discourages multilateral liberalisation. Analysing bound MFN tariff changes agreed upon during the Uruguay Round, Limao and Karacaovali (2008) find that the European Union's trade preferences have prevented larger external tariff cuts and thus represent a 'stumbling block' to global free trade. When considering different definitions of preferentially traded products, sector-level agreements, as well as initial tariff rates, our sensitivity analysis points to less robust support for the hypothesis in a European context.