This volume contains a collection of studies examining trade-related issues negotiated in regional trade agreements (RTAs) and how RTAs are related to the WTO's rules. While previous work has focused on subsets of RTAs, these studies are based on what is probably the largest dataset used to date, and highlight key issues that have been negotiated in all RTAs notified to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). New rules within RTAs are compared to rules agreed upon by WTO members. The extent of their divergences and the potential implications for parties to RTAs, as well as for WTO members that are not parties to RTAs, are examined. This volume makes an important contribution to the current debate on the role of the WTO in regulating international trade and how WTO rules relate to new rules being developed by RTAs.
This book provides an in-depth analysis of "Mega-Regionals", the new generation of trans-regional free-trade agreements (FTAs) currently under negotiation, and their effect on the future of international economic law. The main focus centres on the EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), but the findings are also applicable to similar agreements under negotiation, such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).The specific features of Mega-Regional Trade Agreements raise a number of issues with respect to their potential effect on the current system of international trade and investment law. These include the consequences of Mega-Regionals for the most-favoured-nation (MFN) principle, their relation to the multilateral system of the World Trade Organization (WTO), their democratic legitimacy and their interaction with existing bilateral investment treaties (BITs).The book is intended for academics and practitioners working in the field of international economic law.
An unacknowledged key feature of East Asian FTA diplomacy is the region's active cross-regional preferential trading relations. In sharp contrast to the Americas and Europe, where cross-regional initiatives gained strength after the consolidation of regional trade integration, East Asian governments negotiate trade deals with partners outside of their region at an early stage in their FTA policies. The book asks three main questions: Are there regional factors in East Asia encouraging countries to explore cross-regionalism early on? What are the most important criteria behind the cross-regional partner selection? How do cross-regional FTSs (CRTAs) influence their intra-regional trade initiatives? Through detailed country case studies from China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia, we show the ways in which these governments seek to leverage their CRTAs in the pursuit of intra-regional trade integration objectives, a process that yields a much more permeated regionalism.
The history of the world trading system and international trade agreements is characterised by shifts between bilateralism, regionalism and multilateralism. Bilateralism has recently returned, having gained momentum following the failed WTO negotiations at the 1999 Seattle Ministerial Conference. The result is that today's international trade rules are now a complex web of instruments and agreements. This volume contains case studies of selected bilateral and regional free trade agreements (FTAs), covering a wide range of countries, regions and key issues such as intellectual property and agriculture. Authored by leading scholars, practitioners and governmental officials, each case study provides a comprehensive review of the negotiating history and result of the selected agreement. Each study can serve as an in-depth examination of a particular FTA, and the group of case studies can be used to compare and contrast the coverage of different FTAs or to examine the FTAs signed by a particular country.
Regional trade agreements (RTAs) are not new, but their complexity and importance in global economics and politics has grown exponentially in the past two decades. Tackling this daunting proliferation head on, this book provides a much-needed guide to RTAs. Setting current regional agreements in their economic, political, and historical context, David A. Lynch describes and compares every significant RTA, region by region. He clearly explains their intricate inner workings, their webs of collaboration and conflict, and their primary goals and effectiveness. Lynch's deeply knowledgeable study bridges the ideological divides in scholarly and public debate, including economists' emphases on markets and efficiency versus antiglobalization activists' concerns over inequality and social ills. By building a middle ground between micro and macro analysis and clarifying technical terminology, this concise and accessible book will be an invaluable reference for all readers.
'Regional Trade Agreements and the WTO Legal System' introduces the economic & political underpinnings of regional trade agreements, their constitutional functions, & their role as a locus for integrating trade & human rights.
The Asia-Pacific region has emerged as a dominant player in trade and will continue to be an influential component of world trade and economics. This book presents an informative outlook on the various regional and trade agreements (RTAs) and their beneficial effects on bilateral trade. In particular, the authors concentrate on India and China, the two major rising powers, and the impact of exchange of information and sharing of resources between these two countries in wide-ranging areas. It provides an incisive analysis and a roundup of all major RTAs and also presents an overview of all major agreements between the countries involved, which might propel their trade numbers and influence future economic engagements. The book also discusses possible obstacles that are encountered during the implementation of RTAs and circumvention routes that can be taken to ensure the successful execution of the agreements. International trade agreements, such as General Agreements on Trade and Tariffs, which have revolutionized the trade dynamics by opening up new areas of trade and formulating specific guidelines for the member countries to adhere to during trade negotiations, are discussed. The book also provides new insights into some of the issues under negotiation, such as sensitive lists, trade, investment cooperation, and trade in services. The existing economic cooperation arrangements in the region as well as those that are at various stages of study and negotiations, empirical insights and policy suggestions are elucidated in detail.
African regional trade integration has grown exponentially in the last decade. This book is the first comprehensive analysis of the legal framework within which it is being pursued. It will fill a huge knowledge gap and serve as an invaluable teaching and research tool for policy makers in the public and private sectors, teachers, researchers and students of African trade and beyond. The author argues that African Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) are best understood as flexible legal regimes particularly given their commitment to variable geometry and multiple memberships. He analyzes the progress made toward trade liberalization in each region, how the RTAs are financed, their trade remedy and judicial regimes, and how well they measure up to Article XXIV of GATT. The book also covers monetary unions as well as intra-African regional integration, and examines free trade agreements with non-African regions including the Economic Partnership Agreements with the European Union.
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).
To avoid trade-bargain erosion, countries involved in large-scale, bilateral or regional trade arrangements must reconcile preserving close economic ties and supply chains with the need to dynamically adjust to new opportunities with other partners. Using the growing deterioration of the European Union-Turkey Customs Union as an illustration to a new model of trade-agreement restructuring, this well-researched and deeply insightful book outlines and demonstrates how this trade arrangement can be successfully renegotiated, thus providing expert practical guidance in a crucial area of trade law and policy that rarely receives the attention it deserves. The book's novel framework features a clearly articulated legal foundation, a transactional deployment strategy, and a sequential negotiating approach applicable to bilateral and regional trade arrangements whose original terms no longer reflect the changed capabilities and interests of at least one of its parties. The authors respond in detail to questions, such as: When should a country pursue bargain rebalancing? How should trade diplomats pursue renegotiation and/or new partnerships, legally and transactionally? Given that free trade agreements keep each country's trade sovereignty mostly intact, under which circumstances should a country ever consider entering a customs union? How may free-trade agreements help countries address trade imbalances while enhancing supply chain resilience? What are the limits to WTO litigation as an effective market-barrier-opening tool? How should trade-agreement restructuring be deployed as a path to further trade liberalization? In-depth attention is paid to identifying and investigating trade arrangements that are ripe for renegotiation and assessing sources of domestic and external support for or against renegotiating such bargains. This book's model of international trade-agreement restructuring fits well with emerging thinking on greater trade diversification and supply-chain resilience. The authors provide a clear, actionable approach for considering and conducting the renegotiation of trade deals. For these reasons, this book will be welcomed by trade lawyers, supply-chain executives, economists, government officials, and academics who are grappling with rising economic frictions in the fault lines of national sovereignty, economic interdependence, and the limits of current trade arrangements.
