Intra-Industry Trade, Global Value Chains, and Preferential Tariff Liberalization

This research note presents a new dataset on the speed of tariff liberalization in sixty-one preferential trade agreements (PTAs) signed by fifty states and regional economic organizations over the period 1995 to 2013. We use this dataset to test prominent arguments concerning the impact of intra-industry trade and global value chains on the political economy of trade. Our results indicate that the speed of tariff liberalization through PTAs is considerably faster for intermediate goods than for finished products. This is in line with the most prominent argument about how global value chains affect the political economy of trade liberalization. At the same time, we find mixed evidence for the impact of intra-industry trade on the ease of trade liberalization, which reflects strong cross-country variation. We conclude with a discussion on how the dataset can help tackle important questions in international political economy and inform ongoing debates on trade agreements.