An Analysis of the Potential Economic Effects of Bilateral, Regional, and Multilateral Free Trade

This paper presents a computational analysis of the potential economic effects of trade liberalization in various regional and bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) that have been negotiated in recent years and the negotiations currently in process, as well as the effects of global (multilateral) free trade. The analysis is based on the Michigan Model of World Production and Trade. The major findings are summarized as follows. First, the effects of regional FTA are larger than those of bilateral FTA. Second, among FTA member countries, small countries have larger benefits (in terms of the percentage of GDP) than large countries. Finally, the effects of multilateral free trade are significantly larger than those of bilateral and regional FTAs.