Multilateralising Regionalism : Spaghetti Bowls as Building Blocs on the Path to Global Free Trade / Richard Baldwin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Baldwin, Richard E., author.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) ; no. w12545.

NBER working paper series ; no. w12545

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Regionalism.

Free trade.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (45 pages) : illustrations (black and white).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Massachusetts : National Bureau of Economic Research, 2006.

Summary:

This paper addresses the final steps to global free trade -- the political economy forces that might drive them, and the role the WTO might play in guiding them. Two facts form the departure point: 1 Regionalism is here to stay; 2 the motley assortment of regional trade agreements is not the best way to organise world trade. Moving to global duty-free trade will require a multilateralisation of regionalism. The paper presents the political economy logic of trade liberalisation and uses it to structure a narrative of world trade liberalisation since 1947. The logic is then used to project the world tariff map in 2010, arguing that the pattern will be marked by fractals - fuzzy, leaky trade blocs made up of fuzzy, leaky sub-blocs (fuzzy since the proliferation of FTAs makes it impossible to draw sharp lines around the 3 big blocs, and leaky since some FTAs create free trade 'canals' linking the blocs). The paper then presents a novel political economy mechanism - spaghetti bowls as building blocs - whereby offshoring creates a force that encourages the multilateralisation of regionalism. Finally, the paper suggests three things the WTO could do to help multilateralise regionalism.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.