Describe the potential benefits and the potential costs to global trade of the tremendous growth in regional trade agreements
What will be an ideal response?
A regional trade agreement creates preferential treatment for nations that are participants, which violates the idea of MFN status in multilateral agreements, where nations agree to treat all participants the same. The WTO recognizes that regional agreements destroy some opportunities for trade by making non-members face higher barriers than members of the regional agreement. But it believes that they create more trade than they divert, and the regional agreements allow nations to try out arrangements that may later be adopted more broadly.
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Suppose there are 5 million unemployed workers seeking jobs. After a period of time, 1 million of them become discouraged over their job prospects and cease to look for work. As a result of this, all else equal, the official unemployment rate would
A. be unchanged. B. increase in the short run but eventually decline. C. increase. D. decline.
A firm that is first to the market with a new product frequently discovers that there are design flaws or problems with the product that were not anticipated. How do these problems affect the innovating firm?
A) The firm is protected by a first-mover advantage: initial design flaws tend not to harm a firm significantly because consumers resist changing products for fear of incurring high switching costs. B) They reduce profits for the new innovations and open the door to competitors who can enter the new market with a better product. C) The firm's cost increases as it improves the product but it will not be able to raise its price for fear of alienating customers. Consequently, its profits will erode although its market share remains secure. D) Because these design flaws were not anticipated, consumers tend to be more forgiving and are likely to remain loyal to the company and its products.
Suppose the demand function for a good is expressed as Q = 100 - 4p. If the good currently sells for $10, then the point price elasticity of demand equals
A) -1.5. B) -0.67. C) -4. D) -2.5.
In recent years, established U.S. stock markets have faced significant competition from:
a. new start ups b. small, regional stock markets c. foreign stock markets d. people buying & selling stocks online