Spaghetti bowl effect “意大利面条碗”效应

Spaghetti bowl effect “意大利面条碗”效应

Spaghetti bowl effect refers to a problem of free trade agreements (FTAs) in rules of origin that designate which country a product comes from. Jagdish Bhagwati first used the term in his 1995 paper U.S. Trade Policy: The Infatuation with Free Trade Agreements. A country might sign FTAs with other nations having different regulations on rules of origin, and a company can enjoy zero tariffs in exporting its products to one nation, but may not be eligible for preferential policies in other nations. In an effort to export finished products to importing countries at the lowest price, companies might produce half-finished products and parts in different countries to leverage tariff differentiation in FTA agreements. This leads to a crisscrossing of jurisdictions, much like spaghetti tangled in a bowl. In Asian countries, the effect is sometimes called "noodle bowl effect".

“意大利面条碗”效应是指由于自由贸易协定中的原产地规则所造成的问题。巴格沃蒂在1995年出版的《美国贸易政策》一书中最早提及这一效应。现今，很多产品的不成部件多是在不同国家生产，而这就产生了关于规定原产地问题的规则。一个国家在同不同国家签署自贸协定的时候，各个协定中所规定的原产地原则也许是不一样的。一个公司在出口产品时，可能在一个国家就可以享受到零关税，而在另一个国家相同的产品却不能享受同等优惠政策。为了能够在出口产品时得到目的地国家最低关税政策，公司可能把产品在不同国家间转移生产。而这些不同国家间转移的路线就如一个碗里的意大利面团一样绞在一起，剪不断，理还乱。原产地规则同时增加了政府和公司在确定原产地方面的成本。

In the news

Different from North America and Europe, Asia has not set up a universal free trade area. Instead, countries have signed many bilateral or multilateral free trade agreements. These agreements have contributed to convenient trades between the countries signing the agreements, but it also caused the spaghetti bowl effect. Companies are facing complicated rules and regulations and their costs are increasing.

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