Hoekman and Messerlin compare the European Community's "trade fundamentals" prevailing in the 1960s with those applying in Arab countries today. The fundamentals differ significantly—Arab countries trade much less with each other than EC members did, and the importance of such trade in GDP...

May 1999 - Preferential trade agreements that are limited to the elimination of tariffs for merchandise trade flows are of limited value at best and may be as easily welfare-reducing as welfare-enhancing. It is important that preferential trade agreements go beyond eliminating tariffs and quotas...

Hoekman and Messerlin compare the European Community's quot;trade fundamentalsquot; prevailing in the 1960s with those applying in Arab countries today. The fundamentals differ significantly - Arab countries trade much less with each other than EC members did, and the importance of such trade in...

This paper surveys the recent literature on Arab economic integration and discusses the goals and progress that has been made to date and some of the key policy, regulatory, and political factors that underpin the segmentation of Arab markets. It argues that there has been an excessive focus by...