China and Taiwan have built one of the most intertwined and important economic relationships in the world, and yet that relationship is not mutually open, compliant with World Trade Organization norms, or even fully institutionalized. What's more, despite massive trade and investment flows, the boundary between the two is a serious flashpoint for potential conflict. But leaders in Beijing and Taipei have committed to normalize and deepen their economic intercourse and open a new post-Cold War era in their relationship. While the political significance of this gambit has captured attention worldwide, the scope of opening intended and the bilateral, regional, and global effects likely to ensue are as yet poorly understood. This volume attempts to remedy that uncertainty with careful modeling combined with a qualitative assessment of the implications of the cross-strait economic opening now agreed in an Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA). The study explores the implications for Taiwan and China, for their neighbors, and for the United States if this undertaking is fully implemented by 2020.

This clear, concise summary of the in-depth analyses presented in The Political Economy of American Trade Policy examines the level, form, and evolution of American trade protection. In case studies of trade barriers imposed during the 1980s to help the steel, semiconductor, automobile, lumber, wheat, and textile and apparel industries, the contributors trace the evolution of efforts to obtain protection, protectionist measures, and their results. A chapter assessing the common themes that emerge from the studies concludes that the focus of current trade law is exclusively on the individual protection-seeking industries, with little regard for indirect effects on using industries or for consumers. Reform could usefully take these effects into account. This volume will interest policymakers, business executives, and anyone interested in trade policy formulation and practice.

The main purpose of this dissertation was to evaluate how liberalization of agricultural markets, as emerged from the Uruguay round of negotiations, alter existing trade patterns. The study provides welfare estimations of full and partial trade liberalization in selected agricultural processed products of importance in U.S.-Taiwanese trade. The Static World Policy Simulation Model (SWOPSIM) is used to measure the welfare implications and the economic impacts of trade liberalization under two different scenarios. One in which both U.S. and Taiwan remove all the support to their agricultural sector and fully abolish trade restrictions on agricultural imports. The second estimates the impact of trade liberalization if both countries eliminate only part of the support, and partially abolish trade restrictions on agricultural commodities. The SWOPSIM model is a static, partial equilibrium model which examines the economic relationships within a sector. It is characterized by an economic structure that includes constant elasticity domestic demand and supply equations and summary policy measures. The results suggest that under multilateral trade liberalization world market prices of the studied agricultural commodities would generally move upwards, domestic price variability would increase, and world trade volume would expand. U.S. import demand for all Taiwanese commodities increase substantially, and producers of the selected commodities in Taiwan would gain. Rising world prices, however, would hurt consumers. In general, Taiwan's net welfare would improve due to the reduction in production support, and lower consumer prices. Net welfare gains are also higher in the U.S. with lower consumer prices due to the elimination of import taxes, and increased imports under free trade conditions.

In recent years the tremendous growth of the service sector—including international trade in services—has outstripped that of manufacturing in many industrialized nations. As the importance of services has grown, economists have begun to focus on policy issues raised by them and have tried to understand what, if any, differences there are between production and delivery of goods and services. This volume is the first book-length attempt to analyze trade in services in the Asia-Pacific region. Contributors provide overviews of basic issues involved in studying the service sector; investigate the impact of increasing trade in services on the economies of Taiwan, Korea, and Hong Kong; present detailed analyses of specific service sectors (telecommunications, financial services, international tourism, and accounting); and extend our understanding of trade in services beyond the usual concept (measured in balance of payment statistics) to include indirect services and services undertaken abroad by subsidiaries and affiliates.

This compelling two-volume collection presents the major literary contributions to the economic analysis of the consequences of trade liberalization on growth, productivity, labor market outcomes and economic inequality. Examining the classical theories that stress gains from trade stemming from comparative advantage, the selection also comprises more recent theories of imperfect competition, where any potential gains from trade can stem from competitive effects or the international transmission of knowledge. Empirical contributions provide evidence regarding the explanatory power of these various theories, including work on the effects of trade openness on economic growth, wages, and income inequality, as well as evidence on the effects of trade on firm productivity, entry and exit. Prefaced by an original introduction from the editor, the collection will to be an invaluable research resource for academics, practitioners and those drawn to this fascinating topic.