| Abstract
| - This paper studies the political viabihty of free trade agreements (FTAs). The key element of the analysis is the “rent destruction” that these arrangements induce: by eliminating intrabloc trade barriers, an FT A lowers the incentives of import-competing industries to lobby for higher external tariffs, thereby inducing a reduction of the rents created in the lobbying process. Using a conventional competitive model, I show that the prospect of rent destruction can critically undermine (and in some cases rule out entirely) the political viability of welfare-reducing FTAs. This result contrasts sharply with findings from the earlier regionalism literature.
|
