TY - JOUR
T1 - Do regional trade agreements really help global value chains develop? evidence from Thailand
AU - Hayakawa, Kazunobu
AU - Laksanapanyakul, Nuttawut
AU - Matsuura, Toshiyuki
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was conducted as part of the FTA FY2019 project of the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia. We would like to thank two anonymous referees and project members for their invaluable comments. This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number # 17H02530 and # 18H03637. All remaining errors are ours.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2020/12
Y1 - 2020/12
N2 - This paper examines the firm-level nexus between exporting and importing by using firm-level data from Thai customs. We differentiate firms’ imports according to the tariff regime used (e.g. regional trade agreements (RTAs)). Our finding is that imports under RTA regimes are not considerably associated with exports. Rather, greater exports are found in firms with larger imports under the most favoured nation or other preference regimes (e.g. duty drawback for raw materials imported to produce export products). One reason for the result in RTA imports is that active RTA importers mainly target the domestic market rather than the export market. If the main market is abroad, firms tend to use other preference regimes. Thus, the other preference regimes may contribute more greatly to the development of firm-level back-and-forth international transactions than RTAs do.
AB - This paper examines the firm-level nexus between exporting and importing by using firm-level data from Thai customs. We differentiate firms’ imports according to the tariff regime used (e.g. regional trade agreements (RTAs)). Our finding is that imports under RTA regimes are not considerably associated with exports. Rather, greater exports are found in firms with larger imports under the most favoured nation or other preference regimes (e.g. duty drawback for raw materials imported to produce export products). One reason for the result in RTA imports is that active RTA importers mainly target the domestic market rather than the export market. If the main market is abroad, firms tend to use other preference regimes. Thus, the other preference regimes may contribute more greatly to the development of firm-level back-and-forth international transactions than RTAs do.
KW - Export–import nexus
KW - Regional trade agreement
KW - Thailand
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jjie.2020.101092
DO - 10.1016/j.jjie.2020.101092
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85089230887
SN - 0889-1583
VL - 58
JO - Journal of The Japanese and International Economies
JF - Journal of The Japanese and International Economies
M1 - 101092
ER -