Are Customs Unions Economically Sensible in the Commonwealth of Independent States

Michalopoulos, Constantine ; Tarr, David

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: customs union;    Commonwealth of Independent States;    free trade areas;    trade liberalization;    trade policy;   

RP-ID  :  111778

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

The twelve members of the Commonwealthof Independent States established a Free Trade Area to helpmaintain trade among each other. More recently, Belarus,Kazakstan, the Kyrgyz Republic and Russia agreed, inprinciple, to establish a Customs Union (CU). The paperconcludes that the dynamic effects of the CU (and Free TradeArea) are likely to be negative because it would tend tolock the countries into the old technology of the SovietUnion. The static effects are mixed but are adverse forcountries that have liberal trade regimes compared to thecommon external tariff contemplated for the CU.