Preference Erosion and Multilateral Trade Liberalization

Francois, Joseph ; Hoekman, Bernard ; Manchin, Miriam

Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank

关键词: trade liberalization;    trade preferences;    preference erosion;    tariff reductions;    OECD;   

DOI  :  10.1093/wber/lhj010
RP-ID  :  77519

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Because of concern that tariffreductions in Organization for Economic Co-operation andDevelopment (OECD) countries will translate into worseningexport performance for the least developed countries, theerosion of trade preferences may become a stumbling blockfor multilateral trade liberalization. An econometricanalysis of actual preference use shows that preferences areunderused because of administrative burdens-estimated to beequivalent to an average of four percent of the value ofgoods traded. To quantify the maximum scope for preferenceerosion, the compliance cost estimates are used in amodel-based assessment of the impact of full elimination ofOECD tariffs. Taking into account administrative costseliminates erosion costs in the aggregate and greatlyreduces the losses for countries most affected by preference erosion.