A novel institution: the Zollverein and the origins of the customs union

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Florian Ploeckl
Keyword(s):  
Free Trade Agreement ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
Customs Union ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Institutional Form ◽  
Welfare Gains ◽  
Agenda Setter ◽  
Multilateral Negotiations ◽  
German States ◽  
Reservation Prices

Abstract The Zollverein, the outcome of sequential negotiations between Prussia and other sovereign German states in 1834, was the first international customs union, the template for modern ones such as the European Union. This paper applies a bargaining model to analyse the logic behind the creation of this novel institutional form and the choice of sequential rather than multilateral negotiations. The existence of negative coalition externalities, the effects of new coalitions on non-participants, led the agenda setter, Prussia, to choose sequential over multilateral negotiations as that lowered the membership reservation prices of the other states involved. Institutionally, the features of a customs union structure provided a higher payoff for the agenda setter than capturing the welfare gains from the differential tariff setting in a free trade agreement, explaining the emergence of this novel institutional structure on an international scale.

Yerevan’s Choice: Armenia and its Integration into the Eurasian Customs Union

2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 395-404
Author(s):  
Anthony Rinna
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
Direct Investment ◽  
Free Trade Agreement ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
Customs Union ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Foreseeable Future ◽  
South Caucasus

In the fall of 2013, Armenia made the decision to accede to the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia. Prior to this, the country had been involved in negotiations with the European Union regarding Armenian participation in a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement. While many were quick to assert that Armenia’s decision was based primarily on Russian pressure, closer analysis shows that Armenia’s decision to join the Eurasian Customs Union was taken based in large part on considerations such as the direct investment Armenia would receive from Russia, as well as strategic considerations involving Armenia’s neighbours in the South Caucasus and the Middle East. Armenia’s integration into Russia’s economic fold appears to be set for the foreseeable future.

Free Trade Agreement between Tunisia and the European Union, Do Institutions Matter?: An Empirical Validation by A Gravity Model

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 19-36
Author(s):  
Anis Kacem
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
International Trade ◽  
Gravity Model ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
Spatial Econometrics ◽  
Free Trade Agreement ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Institutional Dimension ◽  
North And South

Tunisia has signed a free trade agreement with the European Union in 1996, which provides for the reduction of tariff barriers between Tunisia and the EU. In this article, we aim to know and test whether the similarity of the institutional framework has to stimulate international trade between Tunisia and the European Union. In this context, we built a variable called “Institutional distance” to valid the institutional dimension of international trade, near borders effects reported in the literature. To this end, a gravity model was used initially (Tunisia and 21 European countries). Secondly, the estimate shows the existence of spatial autocorrelation. The latter has been corrected using spatial econometrics. The results show that the geographical distance remains more important than the institutions in this type of agreement between north and south shores of the Mediterranean.

The Turkey-UK Free Trade Agreement in Terms of Economic Diplomacy

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (Fall 2021) ◽  
pp. 193-211
Author(s):  
Kaan Yiğenoğlu
Keyword(s):  
Free Trade ◽  
Free Trade Agreement ◽  
Bilateral Trade ◽  
Free Trade Agreements ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
Economic Diplomacy ◽  
The Uk

This article scrutinizes relations between economic diplomacy and free trade agreements by focusing on the Turkey-UK free trade agreements which came into force in 2021. Accordingly, the article first introduces the concept of economic diplomacy, an important issue as it has been shown that bilateral trade agreements, nowadays preferred by many countries, can be used as a tool of economic diplomacy. The article then discusses the history and development of free trade agreements signed by Turkey, including its long-running experience of economic integration with the European Union. Although Turkey began establishing free trade agreements in the 1990s, it has been concentrating on and accelerating its use since 2000. Based on economic and political reasons underlying the free economic agreements, the reasons why Turkey and the UK have reached such an agreement are summarized. Economic relations between the two countries are then analyzed and the details of the agreement are investigated in the context of the changes that it provides.

Ein ökonomisches Happy End aus geostrategischen Gründen? Erfolgsaussichten für den Freihandel zwischen der Europäischen Union und Indien

IG ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 301-317
Author(s):  
Mariano Barbato
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
Free Trade Agreement ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
Positive Outcome ◽  
Good Chance ◽  
Economic Factors ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Decisive Reason ◽  
Climate Crisis

The talks that have been resumed for reaching a free trade agreement between the European Union and India have a good chance for success. Both partners, especially India, have to achieve new economic dynamics in order to be able to face the challenge posed by China. This decisive reason is supported by Brexit, the pandemic and the climate crisis, which also spark an exogenous, geostrategic dynamic that gives new impetus to the paralyzed liberal paradigm of free trade. Taken together, it is likely that exogenous geostrategic factors realign the endogenous economic factors and thus promote a positive outcome despite the ongoing weakness of liberal free trade ideas.

OPINION 2/15 OF THE CJEU: DELINEATING THE SCOPE OF THE NEW EU COMPETENCE IN FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT

2018 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-32
Author(s):  
Rumiana Yotova
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Foreign Direct Investment ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
Direct Investment ◽  
Free Trade Agreement ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
The Eu

ON 16 May 2017, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) delivered its Opinion 2/15 concerning the competence of the EU to conclude the Free Trade Agreement with Singapore (EUSFTA) (ECLI:EU:C:2017:376). The Opinion was requested by the Commission which argued, with the support of the European Parliament (EP), that the EU had exclusive competence to conclude the EUSFTA. The Council and 25 of the Member States countered that the EUSFTA should be concluded as a mixed agreement – that is, by the EU and each of its members – because some of its provisions fell under the shared competence of the organisation or the competence of the Member States alone.

Singapore and Its Free Trade Agreement with the European Union: Rationality ‘Unbound’?

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 858-889
Author(s):  
Mahdev Mohan
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
Free Trade Agreement ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Next Generation ◽  
National Courts ◽  
Investment Treaties

Abstract Querying Poulsen’s view that some States negotiate investment treaties in ‘bounded’ rational ways, this article focuses on how the recently concluded European Union-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (EUSFTA) illustrates the evolution of Singapore’s treaty practice. Singapore has abandoned the ‘old’, and has joined the bandwagon of next-generation FTAs; yet, shrewdly, it is not fully convinced about the ‘new’ either. For example, the EUSFTA does not include a most-favoured nation clause, and does not commit to an appeals mechanism, unlike its Canadian and Vietnamese counterparts. Singapore’s caution appears to be motivated by a pragmatic desire to avoid the pitfalls that these provisions could bring with them, as Investor-State arbitration (ISA) jurisprudence demonstrates, and to study the implications of a recent decision by the EU’s highest court regarding the FTA. Indeed, that shows that the EU itself is now equally wary of the ISA regime removing disputes from the jurisdiction of national courts.

scholarly journals New chapter in EU-UK relations: Ambitious unprecedented partnership or the first trade and cooperation agreement setting barriers and removing freedoms

2021 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 540-563
Author(s):  
Jovan Vujičić
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Free Trade Agreement ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Cooperation Agreement ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Eu Membership

In this paper the author analyses the new relationship between the European Union and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Given the scope and complexity of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, the intention was not to explain in detail all its aspects, but only the basic and most important provisions. First of all, those of the free trade agreement, but also in the areas where ties are being renewed, which would otherwise be interrupted by the withdrawal of the United Kingdom. Although it does not reflect the benefits of EU membership, the agreement certainly limits the negative consequences compared to the situation without it and provides much needed predictability and certainty, allowing Europe to leave Brexit behind and move on.

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