摘要: |
This paper presents one channel through which the creation of a Preferential Trading Arrangement (PTA) can undermine multilateral trade liberalization. Using a modified Meade model, it is shown how a PTA shrinks the export sectors in the excluded countries. This in turn leads to an expansion of those countries’ import-competing and lobbying sectors. Thus, non-member countries may respond to the creation of a PTA by becoming more protectionist—and thereby undermining efforts to liberalize the multilateral trading system. |