IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/ifwkwp/334.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The dynamics of trade diversion: Observations on West Germany's integration into the Little European Common Market 1958-1972

Author

Listed:
  • Schmieding, Holger

Abstract

In the postwar history of Western Europe, the period from 1958 to 1972 stands out as the time of the economic division of this part of the world into two trading blocs: the European Economic Community (EEC), established in 1958, and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), formed two years later. Before 1958, institutions dealing with the entire region had helped to shape trade policy in Europe; after 1972, the two trading blocs fused into one as all EFTA countries either joined the EEC or concluded free-trade agreements with the Community. This paper investigates some of the causes and consequences of the EEC-EFTA rift in the 1960s, focusing on the role played by Germany, i.e., the country which, of all EEC members, had the closest trade links to countries across the divide. Therefore, we will sketch out some arguments of the theory of regional liberalisation (Chapter II), discuss the major determinants of the actual German trade policy in the 1950s and 1960s (Chapter III), assess the impact of the economic division of Western Europe on Germany's foreign trade (Chapter IV). The concluding remarks (Chapter V) will take up the question whether Germany's integration into a little Europe and the parallel economic division of Western Europe were a necessary stage on the way towards freer trade in this part of the world or a costly detour.

Suggested Citation

  • Schmieding, Holger, 1988. "The dynamics of trade diversion: Observations on West Germany's integration into the Little European Common Market 1958-1972," Kiel Working Papers 334, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
  • Handle: RePEc:zbw:ifwkwp:334
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/47239/1/042029333.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pieter Dankert, 1982. "The European Community — Past, Present and Future," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(1), pages 1-18, September.
    2. Kreinin, Mordechai E, 1972. "Effects of the EEC on Imports of Manufactures," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 82(327), pages 897-920, September.
    3. Krugman, Paul R, 1981. "Intraindustry Specialization and the Gains from Trade," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 89(5), pages 959-973, October.
    4. Klepper, Gernot, 1986. "The next GATT round: Bilateralism versus multilateralism?," Open Access Publications from Kiel Institute for the World Economy 1335, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    5. Klepper, Gernot, 1986. "The next GATT round: Bilateralism versus multilateralism?," Intereconomics – Review of European Economic Policy (1966 - 1988), ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 21(5), pages 232-238.
    6. Balassa, Bela, 1974. "Trade Creation and Trade Diversion in the European Common Market: An Appraisal of the Evidence," The Manchester School of Economic & Social Studies, University of Manchester, vol. 42(2), pages 93-135, June.
    7. Herbert Giersch, 1985. "Perspectives on the World Economy *1," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 53(4), pages 215-225, December.
    8. Schmieding, Holger, 1987. "How to fill a dollar gap? Observations on the liberalisation of West Germany's external trade and payments 1947-1958," Kiel Working Papers 291, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Schmieding, Holger, 1989. "Between Perestroika and Internal Market 1992: A new role for EFTA," Kiel Working Papers 370, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    2. Schmieding, Holger, 1992. "Maastricht: A dead end of European integration?," Kiel Discussion Papers 192, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).

    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. Siebert, Horst, 1987. "Importe aus der Dritten Welt - Anpassungsnotwendigkeiten in der Bundesrepublik," Open Access Publications from Kiel Institute for the World Economy 1984, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    2. Helena Marques, 2008. "Trade And Factor Flows In A Diverse Eu: What Lessons For The Eastern Enlargement(S)?," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(2), pages 364-408, April.
    3. Alexander Granberg & Victor Suslov & Larisa Melnikova, 1998. "Equilibrium, kernel, integration in the multiregional system under liberalization of external trade," ERSA conference papers ersa98p127, European Regional Science Association.
    4. Susana HERRERO OLARTE & Alejandra VILLA & Santiago SANDOVAL, 2018. "Are Trade Agreement Groups Working In South America?," Applied Econometrics and International Development, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 18(2), pages 87-100.
    5. Henning Knorr & Andreas Tegge, 1990. "Liberalization strategies for free trade in services," Intereconomics: Review of European Economic Policy, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics;Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), vol. 25(5), pages 220-228, September.
    6. David Hummels & Peter J. Klenow, 2002. "The Variety and Quality of a Nation's Trade," NBER Working Papers 8712, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Andre Nassif & Carmem Aparecida Feijo & Eliane Araújo, 2016. "Structural change, catching up and falling behind in the BRICS: A comparative analysis based on trade pattern and Thirlwall’s Law," PSL Quarterly Review, Economia civile, vol. 69(279), pages 373-421.
    8. repec:lan:wpaper:3348 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. J. Hanna & L. L鶩 & S. Petit, 2015. "Intra-tourism trade, income distribution and tourism endowment: an econometric investigation," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(21), pages 2184-2200, May.
    10. Sourish Dutta, 2023. "Horizontal and Vertical Differentiation: Approaching Endogenous Measurement in Intra-industry Trade," Papers 2307.10660, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2023.
    11. Stefano Chiarlone, 2000. "Trade of quality differentiated goods and import elasticities," LIUC Papers in Economics 72, Cattaneo University (LIUC).
    12. Joseph Francois & Douglas R. Nelson, 2000. "Victims of Progress: Economic Integration, Specialization, and Wages for Unskilled Labor," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 00-065/2, Tinbergen Institute.
    13. Pierre M. Picard & Dao‐Zhi Zeng, 2010. "A Harmonization Of First And Second Natures," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(5), pages 973-994, December.
    14. Kakali Mukhopadhyay & Debesh Chakraborty, 2005. "Is liberalization of trade good for the environment? Evidence from India," Asia-Pacific Development Journal, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), vol. 12(1), pages 109-136, June.
    15. Jan G. Jorgensen & Philipp J. H. Schröder, 2002. "Effects of Tariffication: Tariffs, Quotas and VERs under Monopolistic Competition," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 269, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    16. Schmieding, Holger, 1991. "External protection for the emerging market economies? The case for financial liberalisation instead of import barriers in Eastern Europe," Kiel Working Papers 498, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    17. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Leitão, Nuno Carlos, 2011. "Intra-industry trade: The Pakistan experience," MPRA Paper 28665, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Antonio Pesce, 2013. "Is Decoupling in action?," ERSA conference papers ersa13p1252, European Regional Science Association.
    19. Leitão, Nuno Carlos, 2012. "Globalization and United States’ Intra-Industry Trade," MPRA Paper 39756, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Briance Mascarenhas, 2012. "The International Specialist Strategy: Financial Funding and Deployment," Multinational Finance Journal, Multinational Finance Journal, vol. 16(1-2), pages 87-103, March - J.
    21. Peter K. Schott, 2001. "Do Rich and Poor Countries Specialize in a Different Mix of Goods? Evidence from Product-Level US Trade Data," NBER Working Papers 8492, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    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:zbw:ifwkwp:334. 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iwkiede.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.