From Preferential Trade Arrangements to Free Trade Agreements: One of the Downturns of Cooperation in International Relations?

Since the signing of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO), preferential trade agreements (PTAs) have been an interesting tool to promote international cooperation through the granting of non-reciprocal and/or unilateral tariff preferences by developed countries to developing countries. These international agreements have tended to generate critical trade dependencies for the receiving countries. Due to the circumstances of world trade and due to the lack of interest of the grantors to maintain this type of tariff preference, these developing countries are forced to renegotiate their PTAs into to free trade agreements (FTAs). To demonstrate this, we conducted a qualitative analysis to characterize the behavior of PTAs and their impact on the configuration of FTAs and to obtain indicators and trends. The results suggested a predominance of FTAs and a decline in PTAs. This was done to maintain access to the markets within those granting countries, which also became the main trading partners of these PTA recipient countries.

Decisions of the atpdea and its impact on the floriculture. Comparative case Colombia-Ecuador. 2011-2015

The floriculture in Ecuador generates important sources of work and national development, so it was proposed as a general objective, to compare the flower exports of Ecuador versus Colombia in the period 2011 - 2015, considering the influence of the decision of the Ecuadorian government to eliminate the tariff preference of the ATPDEA in 2013, applying the deductive, quantitative, descriptive, documentary and field methodology, after applied the direct observation of the records of the state institutions (Central Bank of Ecuador and PROECUADOR), Observing the following results: Ecuadorian flower exports in 2011-2015 showed an irregular trend, increasing in 2012 and 2013, decreasing in 2014, increasing in 2015, showing a drop in 2014, a period after the ATPDEA rupture on the part of the Central government, recovering in 2015, while Colombian flower exports grew in 2012, 2013 and 2014 but declined in 2015, showing an increase in 2014 (the period after the ATPDEA rupture by the Ecuadorian government) and a drop in 2015, where Ecuadorian exports were recovered, is spite of it, a negative behavior in 2014 when compared to Colombia, corroborating the hypothesis, nevertheless, the country's evident recovery in flower exports, which was better than the decline in Colombia , said that the national government measure, only caused slight affectation to the floriculturist sector.

Tariff choice of online contents based on usage goal and self-control: can I control myself?

Purpose – People can easily track and understand their usage pattern for any content (e.g. movies, games) or service (e.g. card payment, cell phone usage) by using technologies such as the internet and smart phones. When consumers evaluate their past consumption patterns, they may experience two different kinds of regret: content-based or monetary-based. The purpose of this paper is to propose that perceived self-control, defined as the extent to which people believe they can control their usage, plays a moderating role in the tariff-choice process (flatrate vs pay-per-use) for two types of content: vice-based and virtue-based. Design/methodology/approach – Two laboratory experiments were designed to test the hypotheses. There were a total of 200 participants (86 for Experiment 1 and 114 for Experiment 2) who completed the entire experimental process (i.e. stimulus exposure, questionnaire reporting, dependent variable measurement, manipulation of the independent variables, and control checks). Findings – The results of this research provide evidence supporting the role of perceived self-control in tariff preference by showing that preference varies between flat-rate and pay-per-use tariff options. Specifically, virtue-based content users were more likely to prefer the pay-per-use tariff when their perceived self-control was low vs when it was high. In contrast, vice-based content users were more likely to prefer the flat-rate tariff when their perceived self-control was low vs when it was high. Originality/value – There are three contributions of the present research. First, the authors investigated the effect of content type on tariff preference. Second, the authors suggest that there is a moderating effect of perceived self-control on tariff preference. Third, this study revealed the factors affecting consumers’ perceived self-control.

On the Use of FTAs by Japanese Firms: Further Evidence

The paper examines the use of free trade agreements (FTAs) by Japanese firms. The FTAs analyzed include Japan's FTAs with Mexico, Malaysia and Chile. Based on 1,688 responses to a questionnaire survey conducted in 2008, the study finds that the utilization rate of FTAs ranges between 32.9% (Japan-Mexico FTA) and 12.2% (Japan-Malaysia FTA). The survey results and the statistical analysis of the determinants of the use of FTAs reveal obstacles to using FTAs that include difficulty in obtaining the certificate of origin that is required to use the FTA, lack of knowledge of FTAs, and the small FTA tariff preference that is the difference between the most-favored-nation (MFN) and FTA tariff rates.

Product-specific rules of origin in EU and US preferential trading arrangements: an assessment

Building on earlier work by Estevadeordal (2000), we construct a synthetic index (R-index) intending to capture the restrictiveness of rules of origin in preferential trading agreements. The R-index is applied to NAFTA and the Single List of the EU's PANEURO system covering all of the EU's preferential trade agreements. The R-index highlights how a common set of rules of origin can affect countries differently depending on their export structures, and how their complexity varies across sectors. Having controlled for the extent of tariff preference at the tariff-line level, the R-index contributes to explain differences in the rate at which preferences are used. Finally, we compute estimates of the compliance costs associated with rules of origin under NAFTA and under PANEURO and find them to be between 6.8% of good value (NAFTA) and 8% (PANEURO).