In a World of Value Chains: What Space for Regulatory Coherence and Cooperation in Trade Agreements?

2019 ◽  
pp. 217-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernard Hoekman ◽  
Charles F. Sabel
Keyword(s):  
Industrial Organization ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Basic Unit ◽  
Value Chains ◽  
Global Supply Chains ◽  
Regulatory Authorities ◽  
Ex Post ◽  
Regulatory Cooperation ◽  
Trade Partners

This chapter argues that the changes that make global supply chains a basic unit of industrial organization also prompt regulatory concern with rigorous, ex post, or post-approval monitoring domestically and in the economies of trade partners. Continuing and deep sectoral cooperation among regulatory authorities is increasingly important both to establish the operational equivalence of distinct regulatory regimes and to facilitate trade by reducing the incidence of non-tariff measures (NTMs) that have become relatively more important obstacles to trade as tariffs have declined. These emerging forms of regulatory cooperation, this chapter argues further and counterintuitively, do not decrease, but rather increase possibilities for holding sovereign commitments to trade partners accountable to continuing democratic oversight.

Anticipating exclusion: Global supply chains and Chinese business responses to the Trans-Pacific Partnership

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 253-278
Author(s):  
Robert Gulotty ◽  
Xiaojun Li
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Preferential Trade Agreements ◽  
Global Supply Chain ◽  
Global Supply Chains ◽  
Production Networks ◽  
General Sense ◽  
Chinese Firm ◽  
Chinese Business

AbstractPreferential trade agreements (PTAs) promise exclusive access for their members at the expense of excluded parties. But what does this exclusivity mean for firms in nonmember states if production networks are internationally organized? This paper analyzes the effect of PTA exclusion on firms embedded in the global supply chains, focusing on the case of China's exclusion from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Drawing on a survey of Chinese firm managers during the TPP negotiations, we find that productive and downstream firms anticipated the exclusion and made adjustments accordingly, which led to a general sense of optimism toward the agreement. When presented with the prospect of an expanded TPP, however, firms are divided depending on how their own positions in the global supply chain complement or compete with the new member. These findings, validated with interviews in the field, suggest that the effects of PTA exclusion depend on the ability and need for firms to adjust. As a result, exclusion does not equate to an unalloyed loss for excluded firms.

Reimagining the Unimaginable: Law and the Ongoing Transformation of Global Value Chains into Integrated Legal Entities

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 160-185
Author(s):  
Kevin B. Sobel-Read
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chains ◽  
Global Value Chains ◽  
Popular Media ◽  
Legal Responsibility ◽  
Value Chains ◽  
Global Supply Chains ◽  
Global Commerce ◽  
Mary Douglas ◽  
Single Category ◽  
Made In

AbstractThere is a growing push to reduce the labour and environmental harms caused throughout the supply chains of large corporations. But very little progress has been made in holding these corporations legally responsible for such harms. This corporate immunity is not caused by shortcomings in the law itself but rather by the limits of the categories through which we make sense of the world. For voters and policymakers alike, regulation is only appropriate for entities that fall into the same category of classification. And so far in our collective understanding, the firms in global supply chains have each inhabited separate legal categories and so each is deemed to have separate legal responsibility. As a result, the chains as a whole have remained free from regulation. But as global commerce becomes more systematised, global value chains are becoming more intimately integrated. This practical integration is likewise transforming our thinking: we are coming to understand chains as discrete entities within a single category. As this transformation solidifies, the regulation of entire chains will no longer be unthinkable but rather inevitable. Drawing on the insight of Mary Douglas and Benedict Anderson, I substantiate these assertions with evidence from corporate accounts, legislation and popular media.

Transforming global value chains amidst the COVID-19 crisis

2021 ◽  
pp. 176-189
Author(s):  
Natalya Jurievna Rodigina ◽  
Ofeliia Andranikovna Azarova ◽  
Maria Vladimirovna Logina ◽  
Vladislav Igorevich Musikhin
Keyword(s):  
International Trade ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Emerging Market ◽  
Continuous Production ◽  
Global Value Chains ◽  
Value Chains ◽  
Global Supply Chains ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Business Entities

The reasons for the decline in the importance of global supply chains for international trade relations may be the creation of the new, politically motivated barriers to international trade and an attempt to replace foreign-made goods with domestic counterparts. Therefore, the issue of reducing global supply chains has been discussed by many experts in recent years. However, despite the decline in their importance, global supply chains are often becoming the subject of various scientifi c research. During the crisis caused by the spread of the coronavirus infection, global value chains are criticized again for the fact that they are not functioning any longer, which, by the way, corresponds to the progressive fi nancial crisis. Amidst this background, greater “reintegration” of production processes into the company’s own network, less emphasis on the just-in-time production and expansion of warehouse capacity become priority measures aimed at ensuring continuous production of products. Of particular importance is the question of the feasibility of returning production facilities to the country of the headquarters in the light of the accelerated and eff ectively implemented robotization of production. All this poses a signifi cant threat to the sustainable economic growth of many developing countries and emerging market economies that depend on the cheap production and export of semi-fi nished products, components and the products of the intermediate use. A coordinated political response, such as that off ered by the United Nations and other multilateral political institutions and organizations, is perhaps the most promising way out of the impending economic recession. Diff erent industries will probably need diff erent time spans to return to the normal functioning. The question if globalization remains as a trend of the development of the international economic relations in the near future, will assess the viability of the concept of the international division of labour, will lead to the transformation of the global value chains, and create incentives for states and business entities for the creation of more stable structures during the forthcoming decade.

International Regulatory Cooperation and Trade Agreements

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernard Hoekman
Keyword(s):  
Market Access ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Global Supply Chains ◽  
Gradual Reduction ◽  
International Firms ◽  
Regulatory Standards ◽  
Regulatory Cooperation ◽  
Trade Frictions ◽  
The Eu ◽  
Do So

The gradual reduction of traditional barriers to trade such as tariffs and quotas implies that the agenda for international cooperation on trade has changed. The focus of international firms increasingly is on the trade and transaction costs effects of differences in national regulatory standards and regulatory regimes. Such differences are also a matter of concern to consumers, who worry about the health consequences and safety of products produced as part of global supply chains. This chapter discusses the challenge of managing the interface between the market access objectives of trade agreements—that is, the reduction of trade frictions—while not undercutting national regulatory objectives and preferences. It develops a typology of approaches that can be used to reduce the negative trade spillovers created by regulatory differences across countries and discusses how trade agreements can help do so, drawing on the experience of efforts by the EU and other OECD nations to negotiate deeper integration agreements.

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