Bilateral vertical specialization between the U.S. and its trade partners — before and after the free trade agreements

2016 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 177-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Y. Leung
Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (14) ◽  
pp. 4363
Author(s):  
Christopher M. Dent

Efforts to tackle climate change are taking place on multiple fronts. This includes trade, an increasingly important defining feature of the global economy. In recent years, free trade agreements (FTAs) have become the primary mechanism of trade policy and diplomacy. This study examines the development of climate action measures in FTAs and discusses what difference they can make to tackling climate change. Its primary source research is based on an in-depth examination of FTAs in force up to 2020. This paper is structured around a number of research questions forming around three main inter-related areas of enquiry. Firstly, to what extent are these provisions in FTAs essentially derivative of energy’s connections with climate change, and thus part of a wider trade–climate–energy nexus? Secondly, what kinds of climate action are FTAs specifically promoting, and how effective a potential positive impact may we expect these to have? Thirdly, are certain climate action norms being promoted by trade partners in FTAs and if so, then who are the norm leaders, what is motivating them, and to what extent are they extending their influence over other trade partners? In addressing these questions, this study offers new insights and analysis regarding a potentially important emerging trend in the trade–climate–energy nexus. Its international political economy approach and latest empirical research also provide a further distinctive contribution to knowledge in this inter-disciplinary area, developing new comprehensions of the relationship between trade, climate action and energy.


Author(s):  
Fabiani A Duarte ◽  
Fabiani A Duarte

By providing over $24 billion in foreign assistance to 154 countries, the United States was the largest economic and humanitarian aid donor in the world in 2008 (Schaefer, 2006; Tarnoff & Lawson, 2009). By viewing the U.S. government through this lens, U.S. free trade agreements (FTA), like U.S. foreign aid, assist economically-weaker countries to develop while advancing specific U.S. foreign policy initiatives. By analyzing NAFTA’s effects on Mexico’s economic growth and the provisions of the signed U.S.-Colombian Free Trade Agreement, this paper demonstrates the inefficiencies and unintended consequences of multilateral and bilateral FTAs. The analysis concludes by suggesting an alternative approach to proactive and productive economic development: regional economic FTAs. Keywords: free trade agreement (FTA), tariff, economic development program, foreign direct investment (FDI), internally displaced persons (IDPs), bilateral FTA, multilateral FTA, regional FTA


2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 573-592 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa K. Griffith ◽  
Richard H. Steinberg ◽  
John Zysman

AbstractIn this paper, we place the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) into broader geo-political and economic context given the current Trump Administration's withdrawal from the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the loss of momentum for TTIP. Both TPP and TTIP sought to provide key tactical solutions to the particular trade/investment problems participating states faced. For the U.S. government, these free trade agreements also represented a geo-political undertaking, an attempt to once again set trade rules in light of deadlock in the WTO. Ultimately, the inability of the Obama Administration to successfully complete negotiations for and ratification of these two deals does not alter the underlying motivations that led to them in the first place. The stagnation of these deals, however, has intensified geo-economic and geo-strategic concerns: opening the door to rival articulations of trade governance and undermining U.S. credibility with its partners.


2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Kenta Yamanouchi

This paper investigates the trade creation effects of Japan's free trade agreements (FTAs) using aggregate trade data for the years 1996–2015. We estimate various specifications of a gravity model. Our main finding is that the effects of Japan's FTAs are not clearly observed when the gravity model is specified with three types of fixed effects (i.e., exporter-year fixed effects, importer-year fixed effects, and country-pair fixed effects). In fact, the effects of FTAs vary substantially among trade partners and around half of the FTAs increase Japan's trade values. Our results also suggest that FTAs with small trade partners tend to have large effects on Japan as well as other countries. Recently enforced FTAs, however, increase Japan's import values more rapidly.


2019 ◽  
Vol 74 (4) ◽  
pp. 537-558
Author(s):  
Kim-Lee Tuxhorn

Does the factor endowment (FE) of trade partners influence mass support for free trade agreements (FTAs), and if so, how? Preference models based on factor endowment expect that individual attitudes toward trade partners should systematically vary by factors of endowment and respondents’ skill level. This paper provides the first systematic examination of the effect of trade partner’s FE on mass support for FTAs. Using a conjoint analysis design on a sample of respondents from developed and developing economies (the US and India), the findings show that respondents consistently favour trade partners with a highly educated workforce and a higher level of gross domestic product per capita. Moreover, preferences for these country attributes hold regardless of respondents’ skill level or their country’s FE. Data from a nationally representative survey on Canadian trade preferences offer additional corroborating evidence. Together, the findings offer limited support for economic preferences derived from factor endowment trade models, indicating that individuals, within and across countries, may share a common bias against trade with lesser-developed states.


2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vinod K. Aggarwal

Abstract This article examines the driving factors that account for patterns of linkages to broader economic, labor, environmental, and security issues in U.S. Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). Rather than only emphasizing trade benefits or security considerations as in much recent work on FTAs, this analysis provides a richer empirical picture by focusing on the full universe of U.S. FTAs. It conceptually differentiates among different issues that might be linked to FTAs and categorizes different patterns of U.S. FTAs based on the key issues that drove negotiations. The article then examines these negotiations from a theoretical standpoint, focusing on three elements. First, it examines the degree to which linkages in the U.S. domestic policymaking process are top-down or bottom-up. Second, it considers linkages types in terms of the underlying basis for issue connections – either power or knowledge. Third, it more briefly examines the bargaining process. The conceptual and theoretical analysis is buttressed through an examination of various illustrative cases of U.S. FTA negotiations to demonstrate the utility of this approach to illuminate the variety of ‘linkage packages’ that have driven U.S. FTAs. We conclude with the broader implications of linkages politics in FTAs.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document