地域的自由貿易協定（RFTA）が世界中で締結されるようになり, グローバルな貿易自由化を推進するGATT/WTO との整合性, ひいては世界の資源配分に及ぼす影響が論議されている。有名なKemp-Wan定理（1976）は, 関税同盟が域外諸国の経済的厚生を損なうことなく域内諸国の経済厚生を改善するための十分条件を明らかにし, この論議に一つの出発点を与えた。しかし, 現在行われているRFTA の多くは参加諸国が対外関税や数量制限を独自に設定する自由貿易地域, それも事実上一部の域内関税を残存させる部分的で不完全な自由貿易地域ないし特恵関税協定であり, Kemp-Wan定理をそれらに適用する際にいかなる修正が必要かについては明確にされていない。本稿では, そのような取り決めが域外国に悪影響を及ぼすことなく域内各国の経済厚生を高めるために満たすべき新しい有意味な十分条件を示し, この論議に一石を投じる。
As Regional Free Trade Agreements have been entered into by nations around the globe, their compatibility with GATT/WTO, which promotes global trade liberalization and eventually their influence on global allocation of resources, has been discussed.
The famous Kemp–Wan theorem elucidated a sufficient condition required for improving the economic welfare of the nations within a region, without the customs union damaging the economic welfare of nations outside of the region.
Since, however, many of existing RFTAs are free trade zones where participating nations independently set external customs and quantitative restrictions, or even imperfect free trade zones or preferential tariffs treaties where intra-regional customs effectively remain in place, it has not been made clear which corrections are needed when applying the Kemp–Wan theorem to these instances.
This study demonstrates a new meaningful sufficient condition for improving the economic welfare of intra-regional nations, without harming the nations outside the region, thus raising a question in the discussion of this topic.
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