Trade Liberalization and Heterogeneous Rates of Time Preference across Countries: A Possibility of Trade Deficits with China

Strategies for trade liberalization when the rates of time preference are heterogeneous across countries are examined in the framework of endogenous growth. The paper argues that the best strategy for a country with the relatively higher rate of time preference is the strategy of free trade with wielding market power if the country is large enough to wield market power because all the optimality conditions are satisfied in this case. By this strategy, the current account of the country shows persisting surpluses, which implies a possibility that China has taken this strategy.