Trade Liberalization Evaluation (TLE) Methodology Response to a Reader's Comments

would like to thank Dr. Philippe Lombaerde for his comments about my paper entitled quot;Trade Liberalization Evaluation (TLE) Methodologyquot; (Ruiz Estrada, 2004 M.A. Ruiz Estrada, The Trade liberalization evaluation (TLE) methodology, Journal of Policy Modeling 26 (2004) (8-9), pp. 1015-1029. Article | PDF (276 K) | View Record in Scopus | Cited By in Scopus (1)Ruiz Estrada, 2004). I am aware that for any new theory, theorem, model and methodology, the initial stage is bound to be presented with weaknesses; these weaknesses can usually be addressed. The TLE-Methodology is thus open to any constructive comments that could lead to rectification of its weaknesses and general improvement.The purpose of quot;Trade Liberalization Evaluation (TLE) Methodologyquot; is to propose a new analytical tool to policy makers, academics and students, to study and analyze trade liberalization from a different perspective. I should mention that the research pertaining to TLE-Methodology, I did not involve conventional analytical methods and approaches to the study from the perspectives of intra-regional trade intensities, intra-regional trade potential and the natural market characteristics of a region and other regression approaches. TLE-Methodology focuses on revaluate the past and present trade barriers structures trends of any country or region based on a new series of indicators. This analytical tool has six basic indicators to study trade liberalization trends in four production sectors (Xi) respectively: agriculture trade liberalization index (X1), heavy industry trade liberalization index (X2), light industry trade liberalization index (X3), and services trade liberalization index (X4).The fifth indicator is the area of coverage of trade liberalization (ACTL)-and the last indicator the trade liberalization stage (TLS).The formulation of a new analytical tool for the study of trade liberalization is presented with many challenges. While all the conventional analytical tools persist in measuring changes in welfare based on cost/benefit consideration, the TLE-Methodology does not. The initiation of TLE-Methodology is based on the belief that the study of trade liberalization should not focus merely on the cost/benefit analysis, but take into consideration a series of favorable conditions that result from trade liberalization in the country or region (Ruiz Estrada, 2004, p. 1018)