Currently, the international regime is permissive about the use of capital controls: countries can use them or not as they wish. We view this status quo as problematic and see compelling reasons to establish an international regime for capital flows. First, the lack of commonly agreed rules implies that capital controls are still marked by a certain stigma, so that the appropriate policies may be pursued with less than optimal vigour. But we also argue that an international regime for capital flows should go further, and take appropriate account of spill-over effects. This is particularly the case of policies that repress domestic demand and, through a combination of reserve accumulation and restrictions on inflows, maintain a current account surplus. Those policies have the same economic effects as trade protectionism and undermine the global public good of free trade. But the point may apply also to prudential capital controls. As recently shown by Forbes et al (2012) in the case of Brazil, capital account restrictions are liable to divert capital flows from one recipient to another, and thereby give third countries a strong interest in the controls imposed by others. The implications of this argument have not yet been absorbed by the profession, but it seems possible that they will turn out to be significant for the optimal international design of capital account policies.
As for trade in goods, if there are controls, we would be strongly in favour of having transparent, price-based measures, such as a countercyclical tax on certain types of capital flows. The international community could agree on a ceiling on the tax rate to ensure that the harmful effects of controls (if any) would be limited. The new rules could be embodied in an international code of good practices developed under the auspices of the IMF. In a world where capital and trade flows have become so linked, the asymmetry of the status quo comprising permissiveness toward the former and strict regulation of the latter is increasingly untenable.