The Economics of Country-Specific Tariffs
用三国模型证明，国别关税相当于统一关税加对受惠国生产补贴，并讨论了勒纳对称定理和最优关税问题，对理解美国贸易法案中的国别关税条款有参考价值。
A three country model of the world economy is used to show that when effective a country-specific tariff will have an impact on the world economy that is equivalent to the imposition of a uniform tariff plus a subsidy to the production of home importables in the favored country financed by a transfer from the home country. Lerner's symmetry theorem and the optimum tariff problem are discussed. Country-specific tariffs were a prominent feature of the Congressional debate surrounding the recent U.S. trade bill. A preliminary version of the bill which passed the House contained the well-known Gephardt Amendment that would have required increased tariffs or quotas on imports from countries running unacceptably large bilateral trade surpluses with the U.S. In addition, since 1976 the U.S. has allowed most goods produced in less-developed countries to enter duty-free under its version of the Generalized System of Preferences. The country-specific nature of these preferences runs contrary to all previous U.S. trade policy and sparked controversy in the U.S. Congress when the original legislation was passed in 1974 and again when it was extended in 1984. While country-specific tariffs are a relatively new feature of U.S. trade policy, they have an established history in other countries. Prior to joining the European Economic Community, Great Britain granted preferential tariff rates on imports from the Commonwealth countries. Moreover, these countries granted tariff preferences to less-developed countries nearly five years before the U.S. initiated its General System of Preferences program. A proper theoretical analysis of country-specific tariffs and preferential tariff reductions requires a multi-country model. However, most work on tariff policy uses the standard two country framework. Almost all of the multi-country models found in the literature consider only uniform tariffs or, as in the customs union literature, consider preferential tariffs as part of a multilateral effort to coordinate trade policies rather than as a unilateral policy instrument. An exception is the partial equilibrium analysis of McCulloch and Pinera (1977). They consider a three country world economy and examine the impact of a preferential tariff reduction