TY  - JOUR
AU  - Whalley, John
TI  - Why Do Countries Seek Regional Trade Agreements?
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 5552
PY  - 1996
Y2  - April 1996
DO  - 10.3386/w5552
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w5552
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w5552.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
John Whalley
Department of Economics
Social Science Centre
Western University
London, ON N6A 5C2
CANADA
Tel: 519/661-3509
Fax: 519/661-3666
E-Mail: jwhalley@uwo.ca
M1  - published as John Whalley. "Why Do Countries Seek Regional Trade Agreements?," in Jeffrey A. Frankel, editor, "The Regionalization of the World Economy" University of Chicago Press (1998)

AB  - This paper emphasizes the range of factors which enter country calculations to seek regional trading arrangements.  These include conventional access benefits, but extend to safe haven concerns, the use of trade arrangements to underpin security arrangements, and tactical interplay between multilateral and regional trade negotiating positions.  In a final section, results from an earlier modelling effort by Perroni and Whalley are used to emphasize that non- traditional objectives may be quantitatively more important than traditionally analyzed objectives.
ER  -