Reevaluating the role of trade agreements: Does investment globalization make the WTO obsolete?

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Blanchard, Emily J.
• 署名单位: University of Virginia
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-1996
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jinteco.2010.04.006
• 发表日期: 2010
• 页码: 63-72
• 关键词: TRADE AGREEMENTS; MULTILATERALISM; WTO; International investment; FDI

摘要

International ownership alters the role of multilateral trade institutions by redefining pecuniary externalities among countries. Regardless of the underlying cause - whether foreign direct investment, international portfolio diversification, cross-country mergers, or multinational firms - international ownership can mitigate incentives that lead large countries to set inefficiently high tariffs. At the same time, however, foreign ownership introduces the potential for expropriation by investment-host countries, which can extract rent from foreign owners by manipulating local prices. The basic principle of reciprocity continues to serve as an important guide to efficiency, though its application must account for the pattern of international ownership in addition to traditional measures of market access. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.