This paper analyses the choice between a customs union (CU) and a free trade agreement (FTA) based on the dynamics of political influence induced by the two agreements. An FTA preserves the maximum future discretion a government might have over its trade policy in a trade agreement, but a CU commits the government to a particular external trade policy. For this reason, if government receives an...

Abstract We develop a political economy model to study the decision of representative democracies join preferential trading agreement, distinguishing between free trade areas and customs unions. Our theoretical analysis shows that bilateral imbalances income inequality are important factors determining formation agreements, whereas patterns geographic specialisation explain whether union or are...

Recently, and due to Arab spring and terrorism around the globe, pushing and driving most governments potentially to harmonize their border measures particularly the regional and an international transit trade within and among Customs Unions. The main purpose of this study is to investigate and provide an insight for monitoring and controlling the trade supply chain within and among different c...

We investigate a mechanism whereby a group of nations forming a free trade area simultaneously can efficiently satisfy industrialization targets. The mechanism does not rely on cross-country transfers, and it is efficient for each member country individually even if other members of the free trade area do not implement the efficient policy. It allows each member country to gain from participati...

Port community systems (PCSs) can be defined as holistic, geographically bounded information hubs in global supply chains that primarily serve the interest of a heterogeneous collective of port related companies. These heterogeneous companies often include terminal operators, carriers (ocean, road, and rail), freight forwarders, enforcement agencies (i.e. customs), port authorities, and various...

Economic unions are international agreements oriented to increase economic efficiency and establishing political cultural ties between the member countries. Becoming a of an existing union usually requires approval both candidate members, while leaving it may require only unilateral will exiting country. There many examples accession states previously consolidated unions, recent example is with...