University of Warwick. Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation
Abstract
This paper shows that free trade can never be achieved when punishment for deviation from a trade agreement is limited to ‘a withdrawal of equivalent concessions’. This is where retaliation is not allowed to entail higher tariffs than those set by the initial deviant, and is the most severe form of punishment allowed under WTO rules. If, in addition, deviations from agreements are also limited in some way, then efficient self-enforcing tariff reductions must be gradual
