By reducing the marginal revenue of the factors of production , a voluntary export restraint (VER) causes an exporting country's industry to contract. Efficiency losses depend on whether sales can be diverted from restricted to unrestricted markets. A VER is likely to produce a welfare loss if demand is relatively elastic and supply is not.

The creation of a North American free trade area and other trading blocs is likely to result in trade diversion in sectors where protection is exercised through voluntary export restraints (VERs). Such trade diversion will benefit the improving country but will hurt exporting countries outside the trading bloc.

The MFA results in inefficient resource allocation across countries, across consumers, and among firms within constrained countries. Evidence indicates that quotas tend to be binding, and many consumers pay more for products as a result.

The last two decades have seen significant changes in the pattern of protectionism, both in terms of the instruments used, and the countries affected. The papers in this volume address all aspects of global protectionism. As well as evaluating aspects of regional protectionism, the papers also address new issues such as trade in services and trade related investment measures. The contributors are drawn from Western Europe, North America, Japan and Latin America, reflecting the breadth of coverage of the volume.