Download or read book The European Union as an Actor in the General Agreement on Trade in Services Contents Chances and Risks of Negotiations written by Joanna Mastalerek and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2005-02-14 with total page 22 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject Politics - Topic: European Union, grade: A, Jagiellonian University in Krakow (Europaeistik), course: The Common Market and International Commerce, language: English, abstract: In 1994, the majority of countries which founded the WTO in 1995, concluded a first general agreement on the liberalization of services (GATS). Within the framework of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) liberalization in international trade of services is supposed to be negotiated progressively 1 . Among 12 service subsectors, education is explicitly featured in GATS. However, before the inclusion of education in the Service Round negotiations as part of the Doha Round in the year 2000, educational services did not draw much attention. One reason being the strong underestimation of their market shares. The EU, as one of the Contracting Parties of the GATS, has already agreed at the Uruguay Round in 1994, to guarantee free access and non-discrimination for foreign competitors in almost the entire education sector, that consists of primary, secondary, tertiary education as well as adult education. Until 2005 the ongoing Doha Round scheduled further liberalization of educational services and thus the EU is likely to be under the pressure to even further liberalize its education sector. Since large parts of the education sector in the EU belong to public service, liberalization of educational services is a subject of heated debate. Neoliberal economists and politicians view the privatization of public services as the best way to increase both efficiency and the benefit for all members of the society. Anti-globalization activists fear the loss of public control over essential public services and regard the society as exposed to the ruthless greed of gain by multinational companies. Moreover the anti-globalization activists complain about the redefinition of educational services as a profitable product. The international trade of educational services thus remains a highly controversial issue, causing the necessity for careful deliberation of the particular contents, chances and risks of the liberalization of educational services. This essay will take up this kind of deliberation, explaining the relevance of educational services in international trade and the significance of education as a public service.
Download or read book GATS the General Agreement on Trade in Services written by and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Negotiations in WTO on the Rules of the General Agreement on Trade in Services written by David Vivas Eugui and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book EU Trade Agreements and European Integration written by Markus Gastinger and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-11-23 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: EU Trade Agreements and European Integration studies 50 bilateral trade agreements negotiated by the European Commission from 1970–2008 and how they shaped European integration. The book argues that the Commission used these trade agreements, signed primarily with countries in Asia and Latin America, to advance European integration by ensuring that they became wider in scope and institutionally deeper by establishing ‘joint bodies’ – even in the face of resistance from member states in the Council of the European Union. Drawing upon principal–agent theory to explain Commission autonomy and Council control as well as extensive archival material and other sources across six in-depth case studies, it shows that the Commission primarily relied on asymmetric information to shape trade agreements in earlier negotiations. In later negotiations, the Commission harnessed its agenda-setting power to submit agreements that the Council could only accept or reject. Overall, the book argues that these 50 trade agreements significantly impacted European integration by increasing the Commission’s external action capability, transforming it into a truly global political actor – one trade agreement at a time. This book will be of interest to scholars and students of European Union Studies and EU policy making, practitioners involved in trade and external relations, and engaged citizens in Europe and abroad, particularly in India, which is prominently featured in the book.
Download or read book Business Guide to the General Agreement on Trade in Services written by Commonwealth Secretariat and published by Commonwealth Secretariat. This book was released on 2000 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) is a historical agreement covering a wide range of international service transactions. In support of further trade negotiations, the Guide also highlights issues in which the business community may wish to provide input as preparations for trade negotiations move forward.
Download or read book Europe Divided But United written by Sophie Meunier-Aitsahalia and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 616 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The European Community and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade written by Stephen D. Cohen and published by . This book was released on 1975 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Too Complex or Too Ambitious written by Leopoldo Biffi and published by Graduate Institute Publications. This book was released on 2021-02-09 with total page 71 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This ePaper looks at the recent politics of EU trade, and specifically at the political hurdles characterising the enforcement of free trade agreements (FTAs) negotiated by the European Commission. It argues that civil society advocacy groups have played a key, yet undertheorised, role in accounting for the recent politicisation of a number of EU FTAs, which has often translated into obstacles to ratification. The TTIP, the CETA, and the EU-Mercosur FTA constitute relevant examples. The analysis privileges a Commission standpoint, conceiving ratification hurdles as public-management issues tackled by Brussels in view of rescuing its trade-policy mandate from domestic vetoes. We argue that the Commission is particularly compelled to implement FTA reviews and safeguards when advocacy concerns are endorsed by official-level policy actors like the European Parliament, enjoying ultimate veto powers. In a final step, the research also enquires into the narrower reality of mixed FTAs, focusing on the case study of the CETA. In this regard, it suggests that prolonged national-level ratification poses no extraordinary obstacle to the Commission, as treaty enforcement is aided by lock-in dynamics involving both official-level and civil-society veto players – even in the absence of full de jure ratification. We conclude that, while the above ratification obstacles have been addressed by the Commission on an ad hoc basis, as contingent policy issues, their prolonged occurrence suggests that they will need to be tackled more systematically in the future. This will require operating at the level of treaty-design, by addressing pressing concerns like trade and sustainable development more thoroughly and bindingly ahead of concluding negotiations – in view of preventing otherwise inescapable enforcement hurdles.
Download or read book Negotiating Services Liberalization Within TTIP The EU External Trade Policy at Crossroads written by Panos Delimatsis and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 35 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The conclusion of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) constitutes a priority and key component of the new external trade policy of the European Union (EU) and an immediate follow-up to several years of regulatory cooperation between the two global trade powers. In an era of megaregionals, services in the only area where significant negotiating traction exists at the bilateral and multilateral level. From an EU viewpoint, services is a key sector in these negotiations. As expected, the EU Commission, backed by the EU executive, has advanced an ambitious agenda and conditional offer to the US, hoping for further liberalization on the two sides of the Atlantic. Importantly, these negotiations are expected not only to generate additional liberalization, but should also reshape the regulatory philosophy as far as the regulation of trade in services is concerned. Against this backdrop, this article offers a critical account of the current TTIP negotiations relating to trade in services from an EU perspective. When needed, the article draws parallels with other EU Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS).
Download or read book The International Legal Responsibility of the European Union in the Context of the World Trade Organization in Areas of Non Conferred Competences written by Plarent Ruka and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-05-09 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work focuses on the EU’s participation in the Dispute Settlement Proceedings (DSP) of the WTO for matters of non-conferred competences. The underlying thesis is that the joint membership of the EU and its Member States is fallacious, in that it could cause the EU to become responsible for violations of the WTO regulations on the part of the Member States. Such fallacies are rooted in the blurred nature of the distribution of powers in the EU polity.In order to tackle the issue of international responsibility, the analysis is based on the facts of a real-world case. Based on the tenets of public international law, the law of mixed agreements and the EU constitutional principles, the book puts forward a model for the EU’s participation in the DSP, and for the reallocation of burdens to the respective responsible entity. This proposition deconstructs the joint responsibility regime and endorses a solution that could address the issue of responsibility in mixed agreements without a declaration of powers.
Download or read book Outsiders Perceptions of the European Union in International Trade Negotiations written by OLE ELGSTRÖM and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The question approached in this article is whether the almost unanimous picture, drawn by both academic observers and EU representatives, of the EU as a major power and leading actor in global trade negotiations, is also shared by outsiders. I describe and analyse how representatives of non-EU Member States picture and evaluate the EU's role in the WTO and the strategies it uses to achieve its goals. Special attention is given to perceived constraints on EU leadership. In brief, my results demonstrate that the EU is indeed seen as a key actor in the WTO but that it is not necessarily seen as a leader. Its leadership potential is diminished by perceived incoherence across issue areas, by a lack of perceived legitimacy and, to a lesser extent, by an excessive focus on internal co-ordination.
Download or read book A New Actor in EU Trade Policy written by and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 59 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Trade Agreements with Side effects European Union and United States to Negotiate Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership written by Stormy-Annika Mildner and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 8 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract: "At the G8 summit in Northern Ireland on June 17, the European Union and the United States kicked off the negotiations for a comprehensive Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) to reduce tariffs and non-tariff trade barriers. While the expected economic benefits for both sides would be more than welcome in an era of gloomy growth forecasts, a TTIP is not entirely without risks for global trade and the multilateral trading system. The talks could tie up a considerable portion of EU and US negotiating capacity and divert attention from the WTO Doha Round. More broadly, potential trade-diverting effects could function to the detriment of other trading partners. Such side-effects should be avoided. The 'high road' of international trade policy must remain the WTO, with bilateral agreements making sense only as a stepping stone to multilateral liberalisation. Alongside the TTIP talks, the Transatlantic Partners should therefore continue to push for a conclusion of the Do
Download or read book Trading Voices written by Sophie Meunier and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-01-12 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The European Union, the world's foremost trader, is not an easy bargainer to deal with. Its twenty-five member states have relinquished most of their sovereignty in trade to the supranational level, and in international commercial negotiations, such as those conducted under the World Trade Organization, the EU speaks with a "single voice." This single voice has enabled the Brussels-based institution to impact the distributional outcomes of international trade negotiations and shape the global political economy. Trading Voices is the most comprehensive book about the politics of trade policy in the EU and the role of the EU as a central actor in international commercial negotiations. Sophie Meunier explores how this pooling of trade policy-making and external representation affects the EU's bargaining power in international trade talks. Using institutionalist analysis, she argues that its complex institutional procedures and multiple masters have, more than once, forced its trade partners to give in to an EU speaking with a single voice. Through analysis of four transatlantic commercial negotiations over agriculture, public procurement, and civil aviation, Trading Voices explores the politics of international trade bargaining. It also addresses the salient political question of whether efficiency at negotiating comes at the expense of democratic legitimacy. Finally, this book looks at how the EU, with its recent enlargement and proposed constitution, might become an even more formidable rival to the United States in shaping globalization.
Download or read book EU Trade Actors After Lisbon written by and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Negotiating Bilateral Trade Agreements in the European Union written by Markus Gastinger and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Which issues does the Commission focus on in the negotiation of bilateral trade agree-ments? How (to what extent) autonomous is the Commission, which sources and causal mechanisms bring this autonomy to bear, and have these sources changed over time? Which is the most effective mechanism of control available to member states in the Council to rein in the Commission? These are the three interrelated questions addressed by this study. Concerning the first question, I find that the Commission focuses on integration issues. These are primarily found in the joint bodies established by the underlying agreements as well as the number of substantive issues mentioned therein. On question number two, I find that the Commission distinctly shapes BTAs slightly over 50 per-cent of the time. The primary source of Commission autonomy in the 1970s and 1980s was asymmetric information, i.e. the Commission having greater knowledge about all contingencies in the negotiations than the member states. More recently, Commission autonomy is better captured by its agenda-setting power, here defined as its ability to put before the Council an agreement that member states can vote only either up-or-down. With regard to question three I find that, initially, member states' credible threat of non-ratification provided the most effective backstop to the Commission running lose. Over time, member states have stepped up monitoring mechanisms to take control of negotiations earlier, making direct oversight the most important tool for Council control. I examine and expound this argument by adopting a Principal-Agent (PA) perspective and process-tracing methodology against the backdrop of six in-depth case studies selected in accordance with objective and replicable criteria, of which five are retained for the final analysis. In conclusion, I join the camp of scholars making the case for a significant independent causal influence of the Commission on European public policy outcomes.
Download or read book The Trade in Services Agreement TISA written by Elina Viilup and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 27 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Launched at the beginning of 2013 by a group of World Trade Organisation (WTO) members calling themselves Really Good Friends of Services, negotiations on the plurilateral Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) are nearing an important juncture. The TISA agreement is the biggest free trade agreement currently under discussion when measured by the number of negotiating parties – 23 at present. It is designed to boost liberalisation of the global services sector, moving beyond the current, outdated GATS provisions and unlocking huge economic potential. The EU undoubtedly has important stakes in these negotiations as its economy is highly - and increasingly - dependent on the service sector. However, there remain several obstacles to the successful completion of the agreement and its effective WTO integration, with the most important of these being the inclusion of more WTO members among the signatories - and the hearts and minds of citizens.