Essays on U.S. Trade Preference Programs.

摘要

This dissertation examines the efficacy of the US Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), a trade preference program that provides tariff exemptions to developing countries on their exports to the US. Since its inception in the 1970s, the GSP has been an integral part of the US development assistance efforts. Its objective is to induce economic growth and alleviate poverty in developing countries by stimulating their exports to the US. Yet the evidence suggests that developing countries underutilize the benefits accorded to them; GSP benefits are claimed for just 60 percent of eligible imports entering the US. Additionally, tariff exemptions are suspended for a subset of developing countries once their exports to the US exceed certain thresholds, known as Competitive Needs Limits (CNLs); these are arguably the most competitive exporters who are perceived to no longer need preferential treatment to access the US market. Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the US GSP and expands on these two issues of interest.;Why developing countries do not take full advantage of tariff exemptions? Chapter 2 proposes a novel explanation for the puzzle of underutilization that has been overlooked by the previous literature. In particular, the empirical findings confirm that differences in the industrial structure of developing countries may partly explain the differences in utilization rates across countries and products, after controlling for other well-known determinants of utilization. This chapter also provides indirect evidence on the negative impact of intertemporal uncertainty of the program and CNLs on its utilization.;Do CNLs correctly identify the most competitive beneficiaries? Does removing such countries from the program increase the import shares of other GSP beneficiaries? Chapter 3 explores these questions. Contrary to the policy intent, the excluded beneficiaries tend to lose their market share and are unable to maintain the same level of exports after the exclusion. Moreover, the primary beneficiaries of CNL exclusions are non-GSP countries, rather than other GSP eligible countries.