The Trans-Pacific Partnership: The Challenges of Unraveling the Noodle Bowl

2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah Elms
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Market Access ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
The United States ◽  
Preferential Trade Agreements ◽  
Preferential Trade

Abstract Much has been made of the “spaghetti or noodle bowl” problem of overlapping preferential trade agreements (PTA). A new PTA, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), currently under negotiation between eleven states – Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam – is intended to help address this issue. The TPP will lower or eliminate barriers to trade among the partners. But officials are not operating in a vacuum as they negotiate this new agreement. Instead, they must contend with rules created in previous agreements, many of which link TPP partners together in ways that constrain their options now. This article looks in detail at negotiations over market access in goods to better understand the tradeoffs faced by negotiators. Unfortunately, some of the decisions made so far after three years of talks suggest that the TPP market access deal could end up being just another twisted noodle in a crowded bowl.

Preferential Trade Agreements as Stumbling Blocks for Multilateral Trade Liberalization: Evidence for the United States

2006 ◽  
Vol 96 (3) ◽  
pp. 896-914 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nuno Limão
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Trade Liberalization ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
The United States ◽  
Preferential Trade Agreements ◽  
Detailed Data ◽  
Preferential Trade ◽  
Multilateral Trade ◽  
Multilateral Trade Liberalization ◽  
Tariff Reductions

Most countries are members of preferential trade agreements (PTAs). The effect of these agreements has attracted much interest and raised the question of whether PTAs promote or slow multilateral trade liberalization, i.e., whether they are a “building block” or “stumbling block” to multilateral liberalization. Despite this long-standing concern with PTAs and the lack of theoretical consensus, there is no systematic evidence on whether they are actually a stumbling block to multilateral liberalization. We use detailed data on U.S. multilateral tariffs to provide the first systematic evidence that the direct effect of PTAs was to generate a stumbling block to its MTL. We also provide evidence of reciprocity in multilateral tariff reductions.

scholarly journals Transatlantic convergence of preferential trade agreements environmental clauses

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 621-658 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Frédéric Morin ◽  
Myriam Rochette
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
European Union ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
The United States ◽  
Preferential Trade Agreements ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Policy Coherence ◽  
Preferential Trade ◽  
Playing Field ◽  
Cooperative Approach

AbstractThe United States and the European Union include several environmental clauses in their respective preferential trade agreements (PTAs). Building on an exhaustive and fine-grained dataset of PTAs’ environmental clauses, this article makes two contributions. First, it shows that the United States and the European Union have initially favored different approaches to environmental protection in their PTAs. The United States’ concerns over regulatory sovereignty and level playing field have led to a legalistic and adversarial approach, while the European Union's concerns for policy coherence have led to a more procedural and cooperative approach. Second, this article provides evidence that European and American trade negotiators have gradually converged on a shared set of environmental norms. Although the United States and the European Union initially pursued different objectives, they learned from each other and drew similar lessons. As a result, recent American agreements have become more European-like, and European agreements have become more Americanized. This article concludes that U.S. and E.U. approaches, far from being incompatible, can usefully be combined and reinforce each other.

scholarly journals The Impact of NAFTA on Australia’s Trade and the Implications of Preferential Trade

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-84
Author(s):  
Jarrad Marthaller
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
The United States ◽  
Preferential Trade Agreements ◽  
Preferential Trade ◽  
Trade Relations ◽  
Strong Relation ◽  
The Impact

This article will be exploring and evaluating trade relations between Australia and The United States of America, with a particular focus on the effects of NAFTA (North American Free Trade agreement) on the amount of trade between these two countries. I used trade data available over a narrow span of several decades in order to create several tables that document the change in volume of trade between Australia and The United States in an attempt to demonstrate that NAFTA and Preferential Trade Agreements in general run contrary to the principles of free trade that the World Trade organization espouses. By showing a strong relation between a downturn in the demand for Australian exports and the timing of the NAFTA’s signing, I show that Preferential Trade Agreements such as NAFTA and more recently, the Trans-Pacific Partnership may be leading to protectionist regional blocs.

Deforestation and the United States–Peru Trade Promotion Agreement

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clint Peinhardt ◽  
Alisha A. Kim ◽  
Viveca Pavon-Harr
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Satellite Imagery ◽  
Market Access ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
The United States ◽  
Forest Sector ◽  
Illegal Logging ◽  
Multiple Methods ◽  
Border Regions ◽  
Trade Promotion

Do environmental provisions in trade agreements make a difference? In part to coopt environmental criticisms, the United States has included environmental components to trade agreements since NAFTA side agreements in the mid-1990s. Environmental components are increasingly more integrated and more specific, as illustrated by the 2009 United States–Peru Trade Promotion Agreement (PTPA). In exchange for increased market access to the United States, the Peruvian government agreed to reduce illegal logging and improve forest sector governance. Recent qualitative assessments of deforestation highlight difficulties in implementing the specific requirements of the PTPA’s Annex on Forest Sector Governance, but tests with Peruvian data on logging appear unreliable. We circumvent this difficulty by using satellite imagery of deforestation across Peruvian border regions and by engaging multiple methods to estimate the PTPA’s impact. All results suggest that deforestation has actually increased since the PTPA entered force, although no more than in other Amazonian countries. We conclude by emphasizing the limits of external imposition of environmental rules, which appear prone to failure unless domestic interests mobilize in their support.

scholarly journals Services liberalization in the new generation of preferential trade agreements (PTAs): how much further than the GATS?

2007 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARTIN ROY ◽  
JUAN MARCHETTI ◽  
HOE LIM
Keyword(s):  
Active Role ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
The United States ◽  
Preferential Trade Agreements ◽  
Economic Costs ◽  
Comprehensive Overview ◽  
Preferential Trade ◽  
Mode 3 ◽  
New Generation

AbstractThis paper attempts to fill a gap in the trade literature by providing a comprehensive overview of services liberalization commitments in the new generation of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) as compared to prevailing GATS commitments and Doha Round offers. The paper reviews the commitments undertaken by 36 WTO Members (counting the EC as one) under mode 1 (cross-border supply) and mode 3 (commercial presence) in 32 PTAs negotiated since 2000. Among other things, the results suggest that, overall, PTA commitments tend to go significantly beyond GATS offers. Countries that have signed PTAs with the United States have made spectacular improvements, but GATS+ commitments are not limited to such agreements. The paper also discusses the potential economic costs arising from these preferential agreements and implications for the role of GATS and for multilateral services negotiations. The paper concludes by exploring possible approaches to overcome the downsides of services PTAs, including suggestions for a more pro-active role for the WTO in the surveillance of these agreements.

scholarly journals The impact of preferential trade agreements on bilateral trade: A structural gravity model analysis

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. e0249118
Author(s):  
Xing Yao ◽  
Yongzhong Zhang ◽  
Rizwana Yasmeen ◽  
Zhen Cai
Keyword(s):  
Gravity Model ◽  
Bilateral Trade ◽  
Market Access ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Preferential Trade Agreements ◽  
Trade Integration ◽  
Preferential Trade ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Impact

Trade agreements are thought to raise trade integration, but existing preferential trade agreements (PTAs) are insufficient in measuring market access of products. This study develops a product-based coverage index of PTAs using the World Trade Organization (WTO) preferential trade agreements and calculates bilateral trade measures using the EORA multi-regional input-output (MRIO) tables covering 189 countries worldwide over the period 1990–2015; the structural gravity model is employed to test how PTAs affect bilateral trade. Our findings show that countries sharing a common PTA could boost the trade volume compared to those without PTAs, supporting the trade creation effect. However, the trade promotion effect of the product-based coverage index of PTAs is significant only if the member countries are low-and middle-income countries. Further, the wide range of product liberalization brought by PTAs can promote global production networks by stimulating the trade of intermediate goods. Our results are important for understanding the market access effect of PTAs with the increasing development of trade integration and global value chains (GVCs).

scholarly journals Znacaj porekla proizvoda u evropskim sporazumima o trgovini

2003 ◽  
Vol 44 (157) ◽  
pp. 61-83
Author(s):  
Radovan Kovacevic
Keyword(s):  
Free Trade ◽  
Market Access ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Preferential Trade Agreements ◽  
Rules Of Origin ◽  
Preferential Trade ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Policy Objectives ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Eu

The key element of the EU's free trade and preferential trade agreements is the extent to which they deliver improved market access and thus contribute to the EU's foreign policy objectives towards developing countries and neighbouring countries in Europe, including the countries of the Balkans. The previous preferential trade schemes have been ineffective in delivering improved access to the EU market. The main reason for this is probably very restrictive rules of origin that the EU imposes, coupled with the costs of proving consistency with these rules. If the EU wants the 'Everything but Arms' agreement and free trade agreements with countries in the Balkans to generate substantial improvements in access to the EU market for products from these countries, then it will have to reconsider the current rules of origin and implement less restrictive rules backed upon by a careful safeguards policy. Governments apply rules to distinguish between foreign and domestic products and to define the foreign origin of a product where some imports receive preferential treatment. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the issue of the rules of origin, and on the "cummulation" of such rules within the EU preferential trade agreements. It does this, firstly, through detailing rules of origin, secondly, by providing a conceptual discussion of the impact of (the cummulation of) rules of origin, and thirdly, by exploring characteristics of preferential trade agreements.

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