MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING FOREIGN TRADE UNIVERSITY MASTER THESIS FROM TRADE PROTECTIONISM POLICY TO TRADE WARS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW AND ANALYSIS OF LITERATURE Specialization: Master of International Trade Policy and Law FULL NAME : TRAN KHANH DUC Ha Noi - 2020 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING FOREIGN TRADE UNIVERSITY MASTER THESIS FROM TRADE PROTECTIONISM POLICY TO TRADE WARS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW AND ANALYSIS OF LITERATURE Major: International Economics Specialization: Master of International Trade Policy and Law Code: 8310106 Full name: Tran Khanh Duc Supervisor: Dr. Vu Thi Hanh Ha Noi - 2020 STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP I hereby certify that the thesis with the title: “From trade protectionism policy to trade wars: a systematic review and analysis of literature” is my own research and does not reproduce any other materials. The data indicated in the thesis is clear, accurate and are collected from the confident sources of information. The author Tran Khanh Duc ACKNOWLEDGMENTS In order to complete this thesis, besides the efforts of myself, I have received the help, encouragement and guidance of my teachers, friends, colleagues and family throughout the course as well as in the period of the thesis research.
Special thanks to Ph. Vu Thi Hanh, who was dedicated to guide and help me in the process of help me in research process from conceptualizing the research topic to writing the draft. I am grateful to the teachers in the Faculty of Postgraduate Education of Foreign Trade University for interesting and useful lectures, for the enthusiastic transmission of the valuable knowledge and for the best conditions offering in the process of the course. I am grateful to my family for their encouragement and supports during the course and the period of thesis research.
This thesis studies on trade war is a rather new one required various knowledge, skills and experiences. Thus, the thesis has the inevitable shortcomings and limitation. I look forward to receiving valuable comments in order to improve the thesis. Sincerely, Hanoi, 2020 The author Tran Khanh Duc ii TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP.-- ¿555cc cscsceree 1 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.
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Benefits and drawbacks of trade protectionism/trade war. Legal framework to initiate or settle frad€ WaT.--¿- «55 5sc+xs<cee 37 11 CHAPTER 3: FROM TRADE PROTECTIONISM, WHAT LEADS TO TRADE „11. 39 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS. Form of protecCfIOn1S{ DOÌICY .- - ¿<< 11k n1 TT HT TH HT HH TH Thân 58 4.
Geographic TeQiON occ - - 6 + t1 TH HT TH HT TH HT HT TH Hân 59 On. Ăn HH TH TH HT TH HT TH TT HT TH HA 63 (Jun. 65 CHAPTER 5: CASE STUDY: CONVENTIONAL PRICE IMPACTS OF UNITED STATES - CHINA TRADE WAR IN A PARTIAL EQUILIBRIUM b6 Ni c. Conventional price Impacts on local producf1on.
US Import Tariffs Impacts on US Firms Located in China. Conventional Price Impacts on Welfare Effects. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS. 81 iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ABBREVIATIONS MEANINGS EC European Communities EU European Union LR.C Internal Revenue Code GMOs Genetically Modified Organisms MFN Most Favoured Nation UNCTAD United Nations Conference on Trade and Development USA United States of America WTO World Trade Organization LIST OF TABLES Table Page Table 1: Average tariff rates on manufactured products for 2 selected developed countries in their early stages of development Table 2: Welfare effects of an import tariff 17 Table 3: Welfare effects of an export subsidy 20 Table 4: Studies analyzed in this research 40 Table 5: Sample of review table 53 Table 6: Categories and sub-categories used in this research 53 Table 7: Data classification and categorization for each publication „ Table 8: Effects of China-US Tariff Trade War on China and the 1 United States vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page Figure 1: New trade measures announced since 2008 financial crisis 10 Figure 2: Forms of trade protectionism measures implemented from 15 2009 until 2020 Figure 3: Welfare effects of a tariff 16 Figure 4: Welfare effects of export subsidy 19 Figure 5: Supposed trade policy game between the USA and Brazil 29 Figure 6: Form of protectionism in analyzed researches with categories as follow: A - Raising tariff; B - Quota; C - Export 59 subsidies; D - Safety regulations; E - Other Figure 7: Publication period of analyzed researches 60 Figure 8: Geographic region of subjects of analyzed researches with categories as follow: A - The USA; B - EU/EC/EEC; C - China; D - 62 Japan; E - Other countries; F - Non-applicable Figure 9: Main subject of analyzed researches with categories as follow: A - Overview of trade war; B - Reasons of trade war; C - 64 Impacts of trade war; D - Legal framework of trade war; E - Trade conflicts with potential to start trade war; F - Other Figure 10: Sector of analyzed researches with categories as follow: A - Welfare; B - Specific industry/firms; C - International trade; D - 65 Global value chain; E - Political economy; F - Other 67 Figure 11: Method of analyzed researches with categories as Vii follow: A - Qualitative; B - Quantitative; C - Survey; D - Case study; E - Other Figure 12: Results of analyzed researches 68 Figure 13: Trade Restrictions in a Partial Equilibrium Setting: The Large Country Case (Using an Ad-Valorem Tariff) 70 Vili ABSTRACT The United States - China trade war started in 2018 between the two largest economies in the world.
US President Donald Trump initialized by setting tariffs and trade barriers against China to reduce what the USA calls “unfair trade practices”. Protectionism and trade war again received substantial attention worldwide after a long period of advocating free trade since the end of Cold War. Scholars around the world analyzed every aspect of this latest large-scale trade dispute including its reasons, impacts and legal framework. However, there are still not many studies that gather and systematize the available knowledge about trade war.
Trade war remains to be over-analyzed but not summarized. The objective of this research is to present the main gaps from a systematic review of the literature on trade war and trade protectionism that leads to trade war. The author has adopted the method proposed by Ferreira et al. (2016) and analyzed peer-reviewed scientific articles which were published between 1945 and 2019.
Based on thorough analysis on publication period, geographic region, main subject, sector analyzed, method and result of said articles, the author identifies existing gaps in the literature about trade war, such as a greater focus on analyzing the ripple effects of trade war compared to exploring the reasons to start trade wars or its legal framework. This presents a considerable unbalance in trade war’s knowledge. An important point to note is that, most of literature on trade war and trade protectionism mainly focuses on developed countries such as the USA, Western European countries, Japan, Canada and China. Developing countries are hardly heard in these academic studies although they are also greatly suffering or benefiting from United States - China trade war depending on their trade relations with either the USA or China and their integration to global value chain.
To fill these gaps, some research agenda can be further developed. Research rationale International politics are having a turbulent time. Since taking over the office, US President Donald Trump, who were a wealthy businessman and pledged to only serve the US interests, has imposed many controversial policies such as: withdrawing the USA from TPP trade deal or executing the biggest trade deal in history with China. The UK also shocked the world with the decision to leave the EU.
The referendum was taken in 2016 and after lengthy discussions at the Parliamental level, the UK officially left the EU on 31 January 2020. Globalization is experiencing a serious challenge from countries which once advocated it the most. Since the end of World War II until 2008 financial crisis, many countries adopted policies of economic liberalization in order to stimulate their economies. This is the period when trade openness went to the highest level it has ever been (Bown et al.
However, if we look back into the economic history, one cannot deny the fact that trade protectionism and its extreme form trade war are much more preferred policy through times. The history of trade protectionism and trade war can be divided into 3 phases: i) Phase 1: before 1945 (the end of World War IJ); ii) Phase 2: from 1945 (the end of World War ID) to 2007 (right before 2008 financial crisis); iii) Phase 3: from 2008 (start of 2008 financial crisis) onward. These 3 phases are characterized by the level of protectionism implemented worldwide: phase 1 - high level worldwide; phase 2 - low level, especially in Western world; phase 3 - medium level and going upward. For the whole economic history, trade protectionism is not preferred only for 62 years of phase 2, thus eminent economic historian Paul Bairoch has once said that free trade is the exception and protectionism is the rule when talking about economic history (Hart, 2002).
10 Trade protectionism and trade war were implemented in a large scale for the majority of world economic history. However, the literature of trade protectionism and especially trade war are rather scarce. It’s plausible when trade protectionism and trade war were not the most interested researching topic after World War II until 2008. But the lack of trade war studies after 2008 until 2017 (right before United States - China trade war broke out) is alarming.
President Donald Trump sparked United States - China trade war in 2018 but the USA has gradually given up their position as leader of free trade world since 2008 financial crisis. The trade war’s deep-rooted causes started long before 2018 and were not taken properly in literature of trade protectionism and trade wars. One of the causes for the USA to initiate this costly trade war was China’s significant technological development which hardly can be heard in trade war’s literature before 2018. Hence, the objective of this research named “From trade protectionism policy to trade wars: a systematic review and analysis of literature” is to have a systematic review of the literature on trade war and present its main gaps.
The author has adopted the method proposed by Ferreira et al. (2016) and analyzed peer-reviewed scientific articles which were published between 1945 and 2019. Based on thorough analysis on publication period, geographic region, main subject, sector analyzed, method and result of said articles, the author identifies existing gaps in the literature about trade war, such as a greater focus on analyzing the ripple effects of trade war compared to exploring the reasons to start trade wars or its legal framework. This presents a considerable unbalance in trade war’s knowledge.
An important point to note is that, most of literature on trade war and trade protectionism mainly focuses on developed countries such as the USA, Western European countries, Japan, Canada and China. Developing countries are hardly heard in these academic studies although they are also greatly suffering or benefiting from United States - China trade war depending on their trade relations with either the USA or China and their integration to global 11 value chain. To fill these gaps, some research agenda can be further developed. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first literature review on trade war.