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N° 2008-03 |
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| April 2008 |
| The Brave New World of Cross-Regionalism |
| Alfred Tovias |
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| Cross-regionalism is a new fashion in preferential trading whereby countries, large or
small, participate simultaneously in various Free Trade Areas. They seem mostly to be a
reflection of the increasing rivalry of the United States and the European Union for
drawing the attention by emerging middle-sized and small economies. This trend is profited
then by the latter to diversify their previous (almost) exclusive economic relations with a
given "hub". A strategy consisting in multiplying the number of Free Trade Areas is
perfectly suited both to "hubs" and "spokes". According to the old North-South pattern,
economic powers concluding preferential deals sought mainly to reap the political benefit
of extending their sphere of influence and small countries the economic benefit of market
access to a large market. Now new pattern is emerging whereby the two partners are
motivated both by economic and political reasons. One clear result is that spheres of
influence are on the wane. But this is of no help to least developed countries. |
Non-technical summary |
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Résumé
non-technique
en français |
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| Full text |
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| Trade negociation; regionalism |
Keywords |
| F13; F15 |
JEL classification |
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