Termites in the Trading System

Termites in the Trading System

Author: Jagdish Bhagwati

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2008-07-14

Total Pages: 160

ISBN-13: 0199715904

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Jagdish Bhagwati, the internationally renowned economist who uniquely combines a reputation as the leading scholar of international trade with a substantial presence in public policy on the important issues of the day, shines here a critical light on Preferential Trade Agreements, revealing how the rapid spread of PTAs endangers the world trading system. Numbering by now well over 300, and rapidly increasing, these preferential trade agreements, many taking the form of Free Trade Agreements, have re-created the unhappy situation of the 1930s, when world trade was undermined by discriminatory practices. Whereas this was the result of protectionism in those days, ironically it is a result of misdirected pursuit of free trade via PTAs today. The world trading system is at risk again, the author argues, and the danger is palpable. Writing with his customary wit, panache and elegance, Bhagwati documents the growth of these PTAs, the reasons for their proliferation, and their deplorable consequences which include the near-destruction of the non-discrimination which was at the heart of the postwar trade architecture and its replacement by what he has called the spaghetti bowl of a maze of preferences. Bhagwati also documents how PTAs have undermined the prospects for multilateral freeing of trade, serving as stumbling blocks, instead of building blocks, for the objective of reaching multilateral free trade. In short, Bhagwati cogently demonstrates why PTAs are Termites in the Trading System.


Handbook of Commercial Policy

Handbook of Commercial Policy

Author:

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 2016-11-02

Total Pages: 600

ISBN-13: 0444639268

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Handbook of Commercial Policy explores three main topics that permeate the study of commercial policy. The first section presents a broad set of basic empirical facts regarding the pattern and evolution of commercial policy, with the second section investigating the crosscutting legal issues relating to the purpose and design of agreements. Final sections cover key issues of commercial policy in the modern global economy. Every chapter in the book provides coverage from the perspectives of multilateral, and where appropriate, preferential trade agreements. While most other volumes are policy-oriented, this comprehensive guide explores the ways that intellectual thinking and rigor organize research, further making frontier-level synthesis and current theoretical, and empirical, research accessible to all. - Covers the research areas that are critical for understanding how the world of commercial policy has changed, especially over the last 20 years - Presents the way in which research on the topic has evolved - Scrutinizes the economic modeling of bargaining and legal issues - Useful for examining the theory and empirics of commercial policy


Trading Blocs

Trading Blocs

Author: Jagdish N. Bhagwati

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 626

ISBN-13: 9780262024501

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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.


Handbook of Deep Trade Agreements

Handbook of Deep Trade Agreements

Author: Aaditya Mattoo

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 2020-09-23

Total Pages: 768

ISBN-13: 1464815542

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Deep trade agreements (DTAs) cover not just trade but additional policy areas, such as international flows of investment and labor and the protection of intellectual property rights and the environment. Their goal is integration beyond trade or deep integration. These agreements matter for economic development. Their rules influence how countries (and hence, the people and firms that live and operate within them) transact, invest, work, and ultimately, develop. Trade and investment regimes determine the extent of economic integration, competition rules affect economic efficiency, intellectual property rights matter for innovation, and environmental and labor rules contribute to environmental and social outcomes. This Handbook provides the tools and data needed to analyze these new dimensions of integration and to assess the content and consequences of DTAs. The Handbook and the accompanying database are the result of collaboration between experts in different policy areas from academia and other international organizations, including the International Trade Centre (ITC), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and World Trade Organization (WTO).


The Economics of Preferential Trade Agreements

The Economics of Preferential Trade Agreements

Author: Jagdish N. Bhagwati

Publisher: American Enterprise Institute Press

Published: 1996

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13: 9780844739687

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"Essays in this volume were presented originally at a conference organized jointly by the American Enterprise Institute, Washington, D.C., and the Center for International Economics at the University of Maryland at College Park on June 12-13, 1996"--Pref. Includes bibliographical references and index.


The Pacific Alliance in a World of Preferential Trade Agreements

The Pacific Alliance in a World of Preferential Trade Agreements

Author: Pierre Sauvé

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2018-06-29

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 3319784641

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This volume focuses on one of the most innovative deep integration constructs, The Pacific Alliance, which aims at expanding the frontiers of trade and investment governance in Latin America. It draws on a conference held at Externado University in Bogota, Colombia, in November 2015, bringing together leading scholars, practitioners and officers of public, regional and international organisations interested in a critical analysis of the Alliance, its distinctiveness and likely future directions. The volume features contributions from the multi-disciplinary lens of law, political science and economics. The Pacific Alliance, comprising Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, aims through a participatory and consensual manner to promote the free circulation of goods, services, capital and persons among its members, and to secure deep economic integration through collaboration across a broader set of policy areas than typically obtains in more traditional preferential trade agreements. This volume is of interest to policy makers and staff of international organizations involved in trade and investment negotiations, international economic governance in general as well as faculty, researchers and graduate students of these topics and of international political economy and comparative regionalism.


Negotiating a Preferential Trading Agreement

Negotiating a Preferential Trading Agreement

Author: S. K. Jayasuriya

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Published: 2009-01-01

Total Pages: 283

ISBN-13: 1848449232

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Draws on both theory and evaluations of several major Preferential trading arrangements (PTAs) to discuss the constraints to achieving liberalisation in PTAs and key problems facing negotiators trying to achieve the best outcomes within given political economy constraints, such as choice of rules of origin and dispute settlement procedures.


Social Standards in EU and US Trade Agreements

Social Standards in EU and US Trade Agreements

Author: Evgeny Postnikov

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-04-02

Total Pages: 146

ISBN-13: 1351627368

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This book examines the causes and consequences of social standards in US and EU preferential trade agreements (PTAs). PTAs are the new reality of the global trading system. Pursued by both developed and developing countries, they increasingly incorporate labor and environmental issues to prevent a race to the bottom in social regulation and counter-protectionism. Using principal-agent theory to explore why US PTAs have stricter social standards than those signed by the EU, Postnikov argues that the level of institutional insulation of trade policy executives from interest groups and legislators determines the design of social standards. In the EU, where institutional insulation is high, social standards mirror the normative preferences of the European Commission leading to a softer approach. In the US, where such insulation is low, social standards are driven by interest groups and legislators they control, resulting in a stricter approach. This book shows that both approaches can be effective but work through different causal mechanisms. To test his argument, Postnikov draws on original data collected in Brussels, Washington, Santiago, Bogota, and Seoul. This book will be of interest to all scholars and students working in the fields of international political economy and EU and US trade policy.