The Origin of Goods Rules of Origin in Regional Trade Agreements

Rules of Origin (RoO) are among the most important instruments in the negotiation and functioning of Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs). Although they never make newspapers headlines, they are designed to determine the eligibility of goods for preferential treatment among RTA members. Ostensibly meant to prevent transshipment of imported products across RTA borders after only superficial assembly, they may act in practice as complex and opaque trade barriers. This book provides evidence strongly suggesting that they do so by intent rather than accidentally-in other words, that RoO are truly trade policy instruments.

Olivier Cadot is Professor of Economics at the University of Lausanne and Director of the Institut d'Economie Appliquee (Crea). He was previously Associate Professor at INSEAD and has held visiting positions at UCLA and McGill. He holds a Ph.D in Economics from Princeton University and a Master's in Economic History from McGill University. He is a fellow of the CEPR and an associate scholar of the CERDI and CEPREMAP. He also serves on the editorial board of the Revue d'Economie du Developpement. Antoni Estevadeordal is a Principal Trade Economist and Research Coordinator at the Integration, Trade and Hemispheric Issues Division of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Before joining the IDB he taught at the University of Barcelona and Harvard University. He has published widely in major journals, most recently in American Economic Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Review of International Economics, Journal of Economic Integration, Economia and the Journal of World Trade. He holds a PhD and MA in Economics from Harvard University and a BA in Economics from the University of Barcelona. Akiko Suwa Eisenmann is an Economist at INRA, National Institute for Agricultural Research, France. He teaches Development Economics at EHESS PhD programmes and ENSAE, Paris. Has also worked as a consultant for the World Bank and the OECD Development Centre. Thierry Verdier is Director of DELTA, Senior Civil Engineer and Research Director at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, EHESS) in Paris. He is also the Co-director of the International Trade Programme at the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), London. His master and doctoral degrees were received from Ecole Polytechnique, Ecole des Ponts et Chaussees and EHESS.