Trade Liberalization,Transportation,and the Environment *

Abstract

This paper is an empirical study of the consequences of European trade liberalization for international transport demand and its environmental impact. The European market is broken into nine trading blocks, and trade flow equations for 29 industries are estimated for the period 1975-1985. A simulation of the change in volumes of trade by industry and the distances trade goods must move generates an estimate of the increased transport demand in each industry. Data on the modal composition of transportation in each industry then allow an aggregation of demand across industries by transport mode-truck, train, sea, and inland waterway. The study concludes that the greatest increases will be in the demand for international transportation by sea, but that in terms of land-based transportation, there will be a large relative shift from rail to road. This will have a major adverse environmental impact which is discussed in the paper.

Keywords

Trade liberalization Transportation Environmental policy Europe

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Anderson

(1991). “Agricultural Trade Liberalization and the Environment: A Global Perspective.” forthcoming in The World Economy.

Anderson

Tyers

(1992). “Effects of Gradual Food Policy Reforms in the 1990s.” forthcoming in European Review of Agricultural Economics.

Barde

J. P.

Button

, eds. (1990). Transport Policy and the Environment. Paris: OECD.

Bennett

“The Internal Market and Environmental Policy in the Federal Republic of Germany and the Netherlands.” Institute for European Environmental Policy mimeo.

Buigues

Ilzkovitz

(1988). “The Sectoral Impact of the Internal Market.” Commission of the European Communities mimeo.

Commission of the European Communities (1992). “Green Paper on the Impact of Transport on the Environment: A Community Strategy for ‘Sustainable Mobility'.” Staff report.

Commission of the European Communities (1989). 1992: The Environmental Dimension, Task Force Report in the Environment and the Intemal Market. Staff Report.

Commission of the European Communities (1988). Research on the Cost of Non-Europe. Staff Report (the “Cecchini Report”).

The Ecologist (1990). Special GATT Issue 20(6)

10.

Ekins

, 1989 “Trade and Self-Reliance.” The Ecologist. 19(5): 186-190.

11.

Ernst and Whitney (1988). “The Cost of Non-Europe: An Illustration in the Road Haulage Sector,” in Research on the GM of Non-Europe. Staff Repott.

12.

European Environmental Bureau (1989). “The Canada - U.S. Free Trade Agreement.” EEB mimeo.

13.

Gabel

(1991). “The Implications of International Trade Liberalization for the Environment: The Case of the Transport Sector.” OECD mimeo.

14.

GATT (1989). “Trade in Transport Services.” Staff Report.

15.

Jacquemin

Sapir

(1988a). “European Integration or World Integration?” Weltwirtschaffliches Archiv 124.

16.

Jacquemin

Sapir

(1988b). “International Trade and Integration of the European Community.” European Economic Review 320: 1439-1449.

17.

Morris

(1990). “Free Trade: The Great Destroyer.” The Ecologist 20(5): 190-195.

18.

Neven

Röller

L. H.

(1991a). “The Structure and Determinants of East-West Trade: An Analysis of the Manufacturing Sector,” in Winters and Venables, Ihe Impact of 1992 on European Industry and Trade. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

19.

Neven

Röller

L. H.

(1991b). “European Integration and Trade Flows.” European fionomic Review 35(6): 1295-1309.

20.

OECD (1991a). State of the Environment. Paris: OECD.

21.

OECD (1991b). “Joint Report on Trade and Environment.” Staff Report.

22.

Quinet

(1990). The Social Cost of Land Transport. Paris: OECD.

23.

Ritchie

(1989). “Impact of GATT Trade Negotiations on the Environment.” European Environmental Bureau mimeo.

24.

Sapir

(1990). “Does 1992 come before or after 1990? On Regional versus Multilateral Integration, “in Jones and Krueger , eds., The Political Economy of International Trade: Essays in Honor of R. E. Baldwin. London: Basil Blackwell.

25.

Scherer

F. M.

(1980). Industrial Market Structure and Economic Perjbrmance. Chicago: Rand McNally.

26.

Shrybman

(1990). “International Trade and the Environment.” The Ecologist. 20(1): 30-34.

27.

Venables

Smith

(1988). “Completing the Internal Market in the European Community: Some Industry Simulations.” European Economic Review. 320: 1501-1525.