Download or read book Regional Trade Agreements and the Multilateral Trading System written by Rohini Acharya and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2016-09-22 with total page 753 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Regional Trade Agreements and the WTO Legal System written by Lorand Bartels and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2006 with total page 648 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: '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.

Download or read book Regional Agreements and Trade in Services written by Aaditya Mattoo and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2002 with total page 38 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract: Every major regional trade agreement now has a services dimension. Is trade in services so different that there is need to modify the conclusions on preferential agreements pertaining to goods reached so far? Mattoo and Fink first examine the implications of unilateral policy choices in a particular services market. They then explore the economics of international cooperation and identify the circumstances in which a country is more likely to benefit from cooperation in a regional rather than multilateral forum. This paper--a product of Trade, Development Research Group--is part of a larger effort in the group to assess the implications of liberalizing trade in services. The authors may be contacted at amattoo@@worldbank.org or cfink@@worldbank.org.

Download or read book Opening Markets for Trade in Services written by Juan A. Marchetti and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 785 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume of essays explores the state of services liberalization and the regulation of international trade in services.

Download or read book Mega Regional Trade Agreements written by Thilo Rensmann and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-07-20 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Environment and Regional Trade Agreements written by OECD and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 2007-06-12 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study provides an overview of approaches to environmental issues in RTAs and summarises country experiences in their negotiation and practical application.

Download or read book Bilateral and Regional Trade Agreements written by Simon Nicholas Lester and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Regional Trade Agreements and Trade Costs in Services written by Sébastien Miroudot and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper analyses the relationship between regional trade integration and trade costs in services industries. The empirical analysis relies, on the one hand, on a dataset of theory-consistent bilateral trade costs calculated for 61 countries over the period 2000-2011 and, on the other hand, on an analysis of services commitments in 66 regional trade agreements to which these countries are parties. Despite the proliferation of services RTAs in the past decade, we do not find significantly lower bilateral trade costs among countries having signed such agreements. Several possible explanations are discussed. First, the gaps in services trade data and the difficulty to account for all modes of supply could influence our results. Second, the nature of services trade liberalisation makes it difficult to discriminate between domestic and foreign service providers (thus not impacting the relative costs they face). Third, there is no clear evidence that countries signing services RTAs do intend to create actual preferences for companies in partner countries. Services RTAs are about preferential "bindings". Regionalism in the case of services seems non-discriminatory and does not lead to trade preferences.

Download or read book Handbook of Deep Trade Agreements written by Aaditya Mattoo and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2020-09-23 with total page 768 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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).

Download or read book Regional Trade and Economic Integration written by Ram Upendra Das and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2012 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Regional Trade Agreements and Trade Costs in Services written by Ben Shepherd and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 23 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper analyses the relationship between regional trade integration and trade costs in services industries. The empirical analysis relies, on the one hand, on a dataset of theory-consistent bilateral trade costs calculated for 61 countries over the period 2000-2011 and, on the other hand, on an analysis of services commitments in 66 regional trade agreements to which these countries are parties. Despite the proliferation of services RTAs in the past decade, we do not find significantly lower bilateral trade costs among countries having signed such agreements. Several possible explanations are discussed. First, the gaps in services trade data and the difficulty to account for all modes of supply could influence our results. Second, the nature of services trade liberalisation makes it difficult to discriminate between domestic and foreign service providers (thus not impacting the relative costs they face). Third, there is no clear evidence that countries signing services RTAs do intend to create actual preferences for companies in partner countries. Services RTAs are about preferential "bindings". Regionalism in the case of services seems non-discriminatory and does not lead to trade preferences.

Download or read book Coherence and Divergence in Services Trade Law written by Rhea Tamara Hoffmann and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-07-23 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book addresses topical questions concerning the legal framework of trade in services, and assesses how these issues are dealt with in GATS and in selected preferential trade agreements. In addition, the chapters discuss whether the differences and similarities (if any) are evidence of greater coherence or greater divergence. The book combines the individual analyses to provide a more comprehensive picture of the current law on services trade liberalisation.A quarter of a century after the conclusion of the General Agreement on Trade and Services (GATS), international law on trade in services is still in a state of flux: on the one hand, countries increasingly conclude bilateral and regional trade agreements with sections on trade in services that aim at a further liberalisation of services trade. On the other, the GATS structure remains the dominant model and serves as the basis for many preferential trade agreements. In addition, new aspects such as electronic commerce, data protection and taxation are now emerging, while issues that had already manifested in the mid-1990s such as financial services regulation, labour mobility, and telecommunications continue to be problematic. Usually, the debates focus on the question of whether preferential trade agreements serve as a stepping-stone or stumbling block for trade liberalisation at the multilateral level. However, it can be assumed that rules on trade in services in preferential trade agreements will coexist with the global GATS regime for the foreseeable future. This raises the question of whether we’re currently witnessing a drive towards greater coherence or more divergence in agreements on trade in services.

Download or read book Trade in Services and Regional Trade Agreements written by Amélie Guillin and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Trade in services has been on a substantial positive trend since the last decades, and the number of regional trade agreements (RTAs) in force has increased regularly overtime. However, negotiations on services remain hesitant even at the bilateral level. Classifying an RTA according to its degree of liberalisation in services allows accounting for 'depth' and heterogeneity issues amongst RTAs. I estimate a gravity equation using panel data covering the period 1999-2007, including bilateral and country-and-time fixed effects. The main results are: (i) amongst RTAs, only the trade agreements covering services have a significant effect on trade in services; and (ii) the deeper, in terms of sectors and of content, the agreement is, the more intratrade the signatory countries have.

Download or read book The Preferential Liberalization of Trade in Services written by Pierre Savu_ and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2014-04-25 with total page 459 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book fills an important gap in the trade literature by offering¾ a comprehensive cross-regional comparison of approaches to preferential market opening and rule-making in the area of trade in services. Chronicling the spectacular recent rise o

Download or read book Bilateral and Regional Trade Agreements written by Simon Lester and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection provides case studies which illustrate the latest trends and innovations in bilateral and regional trade agreements.

Download or read book Trade and Globalization written by David A. Lynch and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 2010-08-16 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Regional Trade Agreements and Trade in Services written by Federico Ortino and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 29 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The services sector accounts today for two thirds of global output (65% of GDP in 2004; 45% of GDP in 1960) and represents the fastest growing sector of the global economy. In a world where competitiveness is key to economic development, services play a vital role in ensuring a competitive economy. Service industries provide the infrastructure allowing modern economies to function by linking geographically dispersed economic activities or supplying crucial inputs into products competing in the domestic and global markets.In recent years the number of international agreements purporting to liberalize and promote trade in services has increased dramatically. While the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), negotiated as part of the Uruguay Round in the late 80s/early 90s, has represented the pioneer-and often the model-in the field, much of the recent and current international treaty making addressing trade in services (as well as trade in goods and foreign investment) has occurred at the regional and bilateral levels. The outlook stemming out of this almost frenetic treaty-making activity is a complex and multilayered network of international rules regulating the transnational movement of services and service providers in essential sectors such as the financial, telecommunication, business and professional sectors.This chapter is divided in two main parts. Section II describes the basic features of the GATS focusing in particular on the following issues: (a) scope of application, (b) general obligations and disciplines, (c) specific commitments and (d) sectoral disciplines. Focusing broadly on these same issues, section III will analyze the services chapters of the Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) that have been notified to the WTO Council for Trade in Services on the basis of Article V GATS. This chapter does not address the issue of the level of liberalization that these RTAs have actually accomplished or the issue of the compatibility of these agreements with GATS. Click here to view a draft version of the paper.