TY  - JOUR
AU  - Grossman,Gene M.
AU  - Helpman,Elhanan
TI  - The Politics of Free Trade Agreements
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 4597
PY  - 1993
Y2  - December 1993
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w4597
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w4597.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Gene M. Grossman
International Economics Section
Department of Economics
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ 08544
Tel: 609/258-4823
Fax: 609/258-1374
E-Mail: grossman@princeton.edu

Elhanan Helpman
Department of Economics
Harvard University
1875 Cambridge Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617-495-4690
Fax: 617-495-7730
E-Mail: ehelpman@harvard.edu
AB  - Suppose that an opportunity arises for two countries to negotiate a free trade agreement (FTA).  Will an FTA between these countries be politically viable?  And if so, what form will it take?  We address these questions using a political-economy framework that emphasizes the interaction between industry special interest groups and an incumbent government.  We describe the economic conditions necessary for an FTA to be an equilibrium outcome, both for the case when the agreement must cover all bilateral trade and when a few, politically sensitive sectors can be excluded from the agreement.
ER  -