Using detailed data on trade and tariffs from 1992-2007, the authors examine how the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement has affected trade with nonmembers and external tariffs facing nonmembers. First, the paper examines the effect of preferential and external tariff reduction on import growth from...

Building on the work by Anderson and Neary on theoretically grounded trade policy indexes, we define an aggregate measure (Mercantilistic trade preference index - MTPI) of the trade referential margins. The MTPI provides a method of aggregation that is consistent with a common objective of the...