The concept of like services and service suppliers used in the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) is still very much uncharted territory. The few dispute cases involving national treatment and most-favoured-nation treatment claims under the GATS are vague concerning the criteria which...

One of the remarkable features of international trade has been the explosion of regional trading arrangements (RTAs) especially after 1990. In particular, developing countries have been in the forefront in contracting RTAs, especially among themselves. The period after 1995 is also characterized...

This paper estimates a gravity model to address the issue of whether intra-Arab trade is too little. Although gravity models have been extensively used to measure bilateral trade among countries, they have—to the best of our knowledge—never been used to measure intra-Arab trade. Our results...

n this paper, we investigate the impact of regional trading arrangements (RTAs) on the environment. We propose an empirical model where RTAs, trade, growth and environmental quality are interrelated. As a result, an RTA in our model can impact the environment either directly or indirectly via...

Trade-related investment measures (TRIMs) have been a key issue in regional and multilateral trade negotiations, but they have received little attention in theoretical work to date. This article analyzes the political economy of TRIMs to illuminate why regional arrangements have been a popular...

Accompanying the wave of liberalization in motion since the mid 1980s, trade complementarity and its underlying structure of comparative advantage have started to dictate the directions of international trade flows. The vibrant FDIexport- led Asian growth has revealed the role of FDI as a...

We examine how the factors conventionally found important for trade in other regions of the world influence trade in South Asia. Our gravity model starts by estimating the effects of economic variables such as per capita income and the size of economies on bilateral trade. We then use a novel...

The effects of regional integration on the world foreign direct investment flows The so-called “globalization” process was an important feature of the global economy in the 90’s. This process was characterized by several economic and political phenomena that deepened the integration of...

What are the barriers that separate nations? While recent work provides intriguing clues, we have remarkably little concrete evidence as to the nature, size, and shape of barriers. This paper offers direct and indirect evidence on trade barriers, moving us toward a comprehensive geography of...

International trade occurs in physical space and moving goods requires time. This paper examines the importance of time as a trade barrier, estimates the magnitude of time costs, and relates these to patterns of trade and the international organization of production. Estimates indicate that each...