Singapore, a small country with limited resources, has nevertheless played a significant role in regional and global trade negotiations. Its negotiators possess a wealth of knowledge and experiences and yet few have told their story. This book is a collection of sixteen essays by authors who have been closely involved in trade negotiations including GATT/WTO and bilateral free trade agreements. They share their experiences in such negotiations, how they promoted national interests and advanced the global trade agenda. It will appeal to readers who are interested in how international economic diplomacy is conducted, and Singapore's role and perspective as an open trading nation.
Most studies of international negotiations take successful talks as their subject. With a few notable exceptions, analysts have paid little attention to negotiations ending in failure. The essays in Unfinished Business show that as much, if not more, can be learned from failed negotiations as from successful negotiations with mediocre outcomes. Failure in this study pertains to a set of negotiating sessions that were convened for the purpose of achieving an agreement but instead broke up in continued disagreement. Seven case studies compose the first part of this volume: the United Nations negotiations on Iraq, the Middle East Peace Summit at Camp David in 2000, Iran-European Union negotiations, the Cyprus conflict, the Biological Weapons Convention, the London Conference of 1830–33 on the status of Belgium, and two hostage negotiations (Waco and the Munich Olympics). These case studies provide examples of different types of failed negotiations: bilateral, multilateral, and mediated (or trilateral). The second part of the book analyzes empirical findings from the case studies as causes of failure falling in four categories: actors, structure, strategy, and process. This is an analytical framework recommended by the Processes of International Negotiation, arguably the leading society dedicated to research in this area. The last section of Unfinished Business contains two summarizing chapters that provide broader conclusions—lessons for theory and lessons for practice.
The global financial crisis of 2008/9 is the Great Depression of the 21st century. For many though, the similarities stop at the Wall Street Crash as the current generation of policymakers have acted quickly to avoid the mistakes of the past. Yet the global crisis has made room for mistakes all of its own. While governments have apparently kept to their word on refraining from protectionist measures in the style of 1930s tariffs, there has been a disturbing rise in "murky protectionism." Seemingly benign, these crisis-linked policies are twisted to favour domestic firms, workers and investors. This book, first published as an eBook on VoxEU.org in March 2009, brings together leading trade policy practitioners and experts - including Australian Trade Minister Simon Crean and former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo. Initially its aim was to advise policymakers heading in to the G20 meeting in London, but since the threat of murky protectionism persists, so too do their warnings.
With protectionist sentiment and economic nationalism on the rise, international trade and how it is governed is at the heart of some of the most important contemporary economic and political debates. Comprehensive and clear, this book skilfully outlines and analyses the dynamics of trade in the 21st century. Ken Heydon examines three broad themes: the nature and distribution of the gains from trade, the institutional and governance framework of the international trade system, and the contentious practical issues confronting policy-makers across the world. He considers pressing contemporary debates surrounding issues ranging from agriculture and food security to the links between trade and environment protection, core labour standards and intellectual property rights. He demonstrates the importance of a change of mindset in terms of how we see trade policy: it should not, he argues, be simply a question of international negotiation, but also a key component of sound domestic economic management. In short, we need to put commerce in context. Drawing on the author’s experience as a policy practitioner, trade policy analyst and teacher, the volume is informed by an extensive analysis of the literature and by relevant case studies. It is designed for students and scholars of international political economy and trade policy, trade officials, and the general public.
The recent proliferation of free trade areas and customs unions in the world trading system has led to a revival of interest in the economic analysis of Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs). The principal theoretical question of the 1950s and 1960s (Viner) was whether PTAs encourage or discourage the worldwide nondiscriminatory freeing of trade. The essays in this volume present the central contributions to the analytical approaches developed to examine these questions. -- Provided by publisher.
This publication displays the menu for choice of available methods to evaluate the impact of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). It caters mainly to policy makers from developing countries and aims to equip them with some economic knowledge and techniques that will enable them to conduct their own economic evaluation studies on existing or future FTAs, or to critically re-examine the results of impact assessment studies conducted by others, at the very least.
Starting from the premise that a multilateral legal framework is the surest way to achieve predictability and transparency under conditions of increasing reliance on internationally traded energy, the essays gathered in this book treat the many complex interlocking issues raised by examining that desideratum in the light of current reality. Concentrating on the application of WTO agreements to energy trade – as well as energy-related issues addressed in the current WTO negotiations – the authors offer in-depth discussion and analysis of such issues as the following: the effectiveness of existing WTO agreements in addressing issues pertinent to energy trade how restrictive practices of energy endowed countries can be tackled under existing international trade rules; existing frameworks for investment in highly capital-intensive energy infrastructure projects;and conditions for access to pipelines and transmission grids; regulation of energy services; bioenergy development and trade; energy issues addressed in the WTO accession negotiations of energy endowed countries; international instruments of resolution of energy-related disputes.
This book contains ten writings on different aspects of international law, each of them cross-referenced, in instances in which information in one is relevant to points made in another. The first essay considers the character of the subject, and its relation to other entities of relevance to it, such as its compatibility with national law and its relation to maritime law. The second one considers different types of legal instruments in settings of international law, and explains how to read a multilateral convention, using the Convention for the International Sale of Goods as an example. The third part discusses the characteristics of a state and the concept of recognition, the fourth reviews the various roles that institutions take in international law, concentrating in particular on major regional organisations, and the fifth explores the extent to which the World Trade Organisation and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade provide for developing countries. Essay Six summarises the framework for international labour law and investigates its contents and workings, then the seventh considers which countries predominate in the running of international institutions. The eighth paper explores how regional entities might co-operate with international institutions in the harmonisation of the law, and the ninth one investigates the place of negotiation as a method of international dispute resolution. Finally, the tenth essay considers the past, present and future of international law, and reviews especially the role of language.
This title provides a comprehensive introduction to the key issues in trade and liberalization of services. Providing a useful overview of the players involved, the barriers to trade, and case studies in a number of service industries, this is ideal for policymakers and students interested in trade.
