^*This paper was written when both authors were at the IMF Research Department. Mary Amiti is a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and John Romalis is an associate professor at the University of Chicago. The authors thank Kalpana Khochar, Raghu Rajan, Arvind Subramanian, Shang-Jin Wei, and an anonymous referee for helpful comments. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York or the Federal Reserve System.

Abstract

This paper assesses the effects of reducing tariffs under the Doha Round on market access for developing countries. It shows that for many developing countries actual preferential access is less generous than it appears because of low product coverage or complex rules of origin. Thus, lowering tariffs under the multilateral system is likely to lead to a net increase in market access for many developing countries, with gains in market access offsetting losses from preference erosion. Furthermore, comparing various tariff-cutting proposals, the research shows that the largest gains in market access are generated by higher tariff cuts in agriculture.