Can Regional Integration Arrangements Enforce Trade Discipline?

DAVID BEGG Birkbeck College, University of London, UKLUCIAN CERNAT UNCTAD, Geneva, SwitzerlandMICHAELA ERBENOVA Czech National Bank, Prague, Czech RepublicTOMAS HOLUB Czech National Bank, Prague, Czech RepublicMIROSLAV HRNCÍR State Bank of the Czech Republic, Czech RepublicSAM LAIRD UNCTAD, Geneva, SwitzerlandSÁNDOR MEISEL Institute for World Economics or the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, HungaryJAN MICHALEK Warsaw University, Poland

• List of Tables and Figures Notes on the Contributors Acknowledgements Introduction; Z.Drabek PART I: AN ALTERNATIVE OVERVIEW OF REGIONALISM Regionalism and Trade Discipline; Z.Drabek North, South, East, West: What's the Best? Modern RTAs and Their Implications; L.Cernat and S.Laird PART II: TRADE AND MACROECONOMIC POLICY IN TRANSITION COUNTRIES Trade Policy and Macroeconomics in European TransitionEconomies; D.Begg Czech Trade, Exchange Rate and Monetary Policies in the 1990s; M.Erbenova & T.Holub PART III: TRADE DISCIPLINE IN THE ACCESSION COUNTRIES OF CENTRAL EUROPE Poland: Stability of Trade Policy and its Determinants; J.Michalek Hungary: Stability of Trade Policy and its Determinants; S.Meisel Trade Policy in the Czech Republic in the Decade of Transition; M.Hrncír

'The novel contention argued in this book on the basis of Central European experience is that a 'deep' regional integration arrangement is more efficient than the WTO, let alone a shallow regional arrangement, in preventing a costly backsliding into protectionism. The deep arrangement in question is of course the European Union, which all the countries in the region have now joined. One critical issue for countries elsewhere is whether the world contains other regional arrangements that are, or could become, sufficiently deep to play a similar role.' - John Williamson, Senior Fellow, Institute for International Economics, USA'This book, edited by a leading international economist who almost uniquely combines a command of analytics and experience at the World Trade Organization, is the latest, and an important and original, contributionto the growing literature on why preferential trade agreements have downsides that the poiliticians purusing them relentlessly worldwide today have failed to appreciate.' - Jagdish Bhagwati, University Professor, Columbia University, USA and formerly Economic Policy Adviser to the Director General, GATT