Up to 1993, EC member states could ask permission from the Commission of the EC to apply quantitative restrictions at their national borders, on the basis of art. 115 of the Treaty establishing the EC. The completion of the internal market in the EC abolished the internal borders, as a result of...

There are both empirical and theoretical arguments for the thesis that foreign factors have an impact on domestic institutional quality. Yet the literature is divided over whether exposure (openness to the world economy) or the kind of institutions in surrounding countries (relative location)...

This article examines the impact of the EU's 'Everything But Arms' initiative. Starting from the observations that the effects in terms of trade flows have been modest and that EBA nevertheless sparked fierce debate within the EU, we argue that it has had broader ramifications beyond exports of...

The liberalization of world trade is an ongoing process. There is a tradition of many decades dedicated to bringing trade barriers down through multilateral negotiations in the framework of the GATT, which has been continued in the WTO since 1995. Tariffs and quantitative restrictions (QRs) were...