Search

One of the most interesting debates in economics is about free trade and protectionism. The arguments in favor of both directions are described by the analysis of free trade case and protectionism case. These are based on the economists' thoughts that, on a side, the state should not intervene in international flow of goods and services and, on another side, it should be created a system of tariffs, quotas and export subsidies in order to protect the national economy of each state in report with the foreign competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a simple way for countries to reap the benefits of trade liberalization without exacerbating problems of overexploitation of natural resources. In the context of a Ricardo–Viner dynamic trade model, it is shown that when a binding quantitative restriction regulates extraction of a natural resource, free trade is optimal. This is true even if the quantitative restriction is not optimal. In contrast, in the presence of a suboptimal tax (including a zero tax in the special case of open access) on the use of natural resources, trade liberalization is not necessarily welfare improving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]