IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ibn/ijefaa/v12y2020i1p22.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

FTA: A Stumbling Bloc towards Global Free Trade

Author

Listed:
  • Qiong Wang

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of free trade areas (FTAs) on the world trading system. It uses a partial equilibrium framework among three countries where Cobb-Douglas utility function is applied. It is found that FTAs are primarily detrimental to multilateral trading system and are stumbling blocs to global free trade (GFT), whether in a symmetric or an asymmetric case. This conclusion is based, firstly, upon the findings that the utility of member countries in a FTA are higher than status quo, so they are interested in forming a FTA, and secondly, after forming a FTA, they don't have incentive to let the third country join in since their utility would be lowered. In addition, this paper shows that when there are two large countries and a small one, it is more profitable for one large country to form a FTA with the small one instead of the other large one.

Suggested Citation

  • Qiong Wang, 2020. "FTA: A Stumbling Bloc towards Global Free Trade," International Journal of Economics and Finance, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 12(1), pages 1-22, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:ibn:ijefaa:v:12:y:2020:i:1:p:22
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ijef/article/download/0/0/41612/43169
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ijef/article/view/0/41612
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kamal Saggi & Halis Murat Yildiz, 2018. "Bilateral Trade Agreements and the Feasibility of Multilateral Free Trade," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Kamal Saggi (ed.), Economic Analysis of the Rules and Regulations of the World Trade Organization, chapter 8, pages 168-185, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    2. Richard E. Baldwin, 2011. "Multilateralising Regionalism: Spaghetti Bowls as Building Blocks on the Path to Global Free Trade," Chapters, in: Miroslav N. Jovanović (ed.), International Handbook on the Economics of Integration, Volume I, chapter 2, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Raymond Riezman, 1999. "Can Bilateral Trade Agreements Help Induce Free Trade," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 32(3), pages 751-766, May.
    4. John Piggott & Alan Woodland (ed.), 1999. "International Trade Policy and the Pacific Rim," International Economic Association Series, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-349-14543-0, April.
    5. Cadot, Olivier & de Melo, Jaime & Olarraga, Marcelo, 1999. "Regional Integration and Lobbying for Tariffs against Nonmembers," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 40(3), pages 635-657, August.
    6. Oecd & Nea, 2011. "Bilateral and Multilateral Agreements," Nuclear Law Bulletin, OECD Publishing, vol. 2010(2), pages 93-106.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stoyanov, Andrey & Yildiz, Halis Murat, 2015. "Preferential versus multilateral trade liberalization and the role of political economy," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 140-164.
    2. David Tsirekidze, 2021. "Global supply chains, trade agreements and rules of origin," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(11), pages 3111-3140, November.
    3. James Lake, 2019. "Dynamic formation of preferential trade agreements: The role of flexibility," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 52(1), pages 132-177, February.
    4. Saggi, Kamal & Wong, Woan Foong & Yildiz, Halis Murat, 2019. "Should the WTO require free trade agreements to eliminate internal tariffs?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 316-330.
    5. Saggi, Kamal & Wong, Woan Foong & Yildiz, Halis Murat, 2017. "Preferential Trade Agreements and Rules of the Multilateral Trading System," MPRA Paper 76330, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Nathalie Jorzik & Frank Mueller‐Langer, 2020. "Multilateral stability and efficiency of trade agreements: A network formation approach," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(2), pages 355-370, February.
    7. Kamal Saggi & Halis Murat Yildiz, 2018. "Bilateralism, multilateralism, and the quest for global free trade," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Kamal Saggi (ed.), Economic Analysis of the Rules and Regulations of the World Trade Organization, chapter 7, pages 156-167, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    8. Nken, Moïse & Yildiz, Halis Murat, 2017. "Implications of multilateral tariff bindings on the formation of preferential trade agreements and quest for global free trade," MPRA Paper 83209, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Emanuel Ornelas, 2000. "Free Trade Areas with Politically Active Oligopolies," Econometric Society World Congress 2000 Contributed Papers 1457, Econometric Society.
    10. James Lake, 2017. "Free Trade Agreements As Dynamic Farsighted Networks," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 55(1), pages 31-50, January.
    11. Paul Missios & Halis Murat Yildiz, 2017. "Do SouthSouth preferential trade agreements undermine the prospects for multilateral free trade?," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 50(1), pages 111-161, February.
    12. Kawabata, Yasushi, 2015. "Endogenous formation of free trade agreements in vertically related markets," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 214-223.
    13. Moïse Nken & Halis Murat Yildiz, 2022. "Implications of multilateral tariff bindings on the extent of preferential trade agreement formation," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 73(1), pages 301-347, February.
    14. Marco Fugazza & Frédéric Robert-Nicoud, 2014. "The “Emulator Effect” of the Uruguay Round on US Regionalism," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(5), pages 1049-1078, November.
    15. Alejandro Caparrós & Jean-Christophe Péreau, 2017. "Multilateral versus sequential negotiations over climate change," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 69(2), pages 365-387.
    16. Lake, James & Nken, Moïse & Yildiz, Halis Murat, 2020. "Tariff bindings and the dynamic formation of Preferential Trade Agreements," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    17. Mrázová, Monika & Vines, David & Zissimos, Ben, 2013. "Is the GATT/WTO's Article XXIV bad?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 216-232.
    18. Ornelas, Emanuel, 2005. "Endogenous free trade agreements and the multilateral trading system," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 471-497, December.
    19. Valdivieso, Andres & McSweeney, Peter & Esparon, Nanette M., 2011. "The Australia-Chile free trade agreement and prospects for trade in fresh fruit: the cherry industry," Australasian Agribusiness Review, University of Melbourne, Department of Agriculture and Food Systems, vol. 19, pages 1-20.
    20. Abbassi, Abdessalem & Tamini, Lota D. & Dakhlaoui, Ahlem, 2013. "Production Cost Asymmetry, Minimum Access and Reciprocal Dumping," Working Papers 161214, University of Laval, Center for Research on the Economics of the Environment, Agri-food, Transports and Energy (CREATE).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ibn:ijefaa:v:12:y:2020:i:1:p:22. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Canadian Center of Science and Education (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cepflch.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.