The Economics of Regional Trading Arrangements

Abstract

Abstract Regional trading arrangements have been a recurring, and often challenging, feature of the global trading system established after 1945. This book analyses the economic, historical, and political reasons behind these challenges, which arose even though the multilateral trading system was serving the world well over the second half of the twentieth century. The book's three main parts deal with the history, theory, and empirical evidence on the effects of discriminatory trade policies in general, and of regionalism in particular.