scholarly journals Trade Agreements and Enforcement: Evidence from WTO Dispute Settlement

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 64-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chad P. Bown ◽  
Kara M. Reynolds
Keyword(s):  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Terms Of Trade ◽  
Trade Volume ◽  
Trade Theory ◽  
Trade Dispute ◽  
Wto Dispute Settlement ◽  
Trading Partners ◽  
Efficient Level

This paper examines implications of the terms-of-trade theory for the determinants of outcomes arising under the enforcement provisions of international agreements. Like original trade agreement negotiations, formal trade dispute negotiations are modeled as potentially addressing the terms-of-trade externality problem that governments implement import protection above the globally efficient level so as to shift some of the policy's costs onto trading partners. The approach first extends the Bagwell and Staiger (1999, 2011) model from trade agreement accession negotiations to the setting of enforcement negotiations, and the resulting theory guides the empirical assessment on trade volume outcomes from WTO disputes over 1995–2009. (JEL D74, F13, K33)

scholarly journals The ASEAN Free Trade Agreement and Vietnam’s Trade Efficiency

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hai Thi Hong Nguyen ◽  
Thang Ngoc Doan
Keyword(s):  
Free Trade ◽  
Free Trade Agreement ◽  
Free Trade Agreements ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Trade Volume ◽  
Large Space ◽  
Trading Partners ◽  
Efficiency Performance ◽  
Stochastic Gravity

This study employs a stochastic gravity model to estimate the efficiency performance of Vietnam’s trade with its main trading partners from 1995-2015. Trade efficiency is measured as the ratio of actual trade volume to the maximum likelihood. Moreover. it analyzes the effects of both natural and man-made trade barriers on trade efficiency. The empirical results suggest that the actual trade of Vietnam appears to be much smaller than a possible efficiency level and that there is large space for further progress. Export efficiency outweighs that of import. Vietnam’s ASEAN Free Trade Agreement membership has, in general, improved the trade efficiency, whereas tariffs and domestic devaluation have impaired it. Our findings lead to the recommendation that Vietnam should join more Free Trade Agreements and break down the man-made barriers.

Trade Agreements: Theoretical Foundations

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mostafa Beshkar ◽  
Eric Bond
Keyword(s):  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Trade Barriers ◽  
Trade Theory ◽  
Protection Measures ◽  
Theoretical Literature ◽  
Noncooperative Equilibrium ◽  
Tariff Reductions

International trade agreements have played a significant role in the reduction of trade barriers that has taken place since the end of World War II. One objective of the theoretical literature on trade agreements is to address the question of why bilateral and multilateral trade agreements, rather than simple unilateral actions by individual countries, have been required to reduce trade barriers. The predominant explanation has been the terms of trade theory, which argues that unilateral tariff policies lead to a prisoner’s dilemma due to the negative effect of a country’s tariffs on its trading partners. Reciprocal tariff reductions through a trade agreement are required to obtain tariff reductions that improve on the noncooperative equilibrium. An alternative explanation, the commitment theory of trade agreements, focuses on the use of external enforcement under a trade agreement to discipline domestic politics. A second objective of the theoretical literature has been to understand the design of trade agreements. Insights from contract theory are used to study various flexibility mechanisms that are embodied in trade agreements. These mechanisms include contingent protection measures such as safeguards and antidumping, and unilateral flexibility through tariff overhang. The literature also addresses the enforcement of agreements in the absence of an external enforcement mechanism. The theories of the dispute settlement process of the WTO portray it as an institution with an informational role that facilitates the coordination among parties with incomplete information about the states of the world and the nature of the actions taken by each signatory. Finally, the literature examines whether the ability to form preferential trade agreements serves as a stumbling block or a building block to multilateral liberalization.

Reimagining Trade-Plus Compliance: The Labor Story

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-43
Author(s):  
Kathleen Claussen
Keyword(s):  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Central American ◽  
Trade Dispute ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Dispute Settlement System ◽  
Structure Of Trade ◽  
Critical Policy

ABSTRACT Trade agreements today are omnibus instruments characterized by extensive commitments in areas referred to as ‘trade-plus’ because they expand the traditional notion of trade. This Article offers an original challenge to the jumbled consensus that including trade-plus provisions in trade agreements and treating them like ‘ordinary’ trade issues subject to dispute settlement is all positive. Nowhere was this more obvious than in the outcome of the USA–Guatemala labor case under the US trade agreement with the Central American states. The Article critically considers for the first time the broader implications of the USA–Guatemala case for the framing of the system and concludes that the trade dispute settlement system is not well suited for these types of questions in its present iteration. In so doing, the Article seeks to draw attention to the disparity in theory and design in free trade agreements and to make some critical policy recommendations for the ongoing debate about the content and structure of trade agreements in the USA and beyond.

Intellectual Property and Mega-Regional Trade Agreements

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Cottier
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Cooperation Agreement ◽  
Transatlantic Trade ◽  
Wto Dispute Settlement ◽  
Innovation And Technology ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Partnership Agreement ◽  
Trade And Investment

The chapter assesses recent developments in intellectual property protection in the EU–Canadian Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, and extrapolates results of these negotiations to the pending EU–US negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). It discusses the likely implications of ever-increasing protection of IPRs on international trade, innovation, and technology transfer. Given the complex interaction of TRIPs and WIPO Agreements with the newly emerging agreements, the chapter finally examines the structure and operation of dispute settlement and how existing fragmentation could be overcome. Intellectual property, it is submitted, offers an important case to extend the jurisdiction of WTO dispute settlement to preferential trade agreements.

Living without the WTO Appellate Body – Procedural Developments in International Trade Dispute Settlement

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 166-190
Author(s):  
Andrea Hamann
Keyword(s):  
International Trade ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
Free Trade Agreements ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Settlement System ◽  
Trade Dispute ◽  
Appellate Body ◽  
Wto Appellate Body ◽  
Dispute Settlement System

Abstract The current column covers selected procedural and institutional developments in international trade dispute settlement in 2020. During the reporting period, World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement has been facing unprecedented challenges due to the collapse of the Appellate Body. While this calls for a systemic reflection in the WTO forum regarding the future not only of appellate review but of the entire dispute settlement system, the current unavailability of the Appellate Body has triggered WTO Members into improvising temporary solutions. At the same time, some of them have equally seemed to turn to free trade agreements (FTAs) or otherwise to pursue solutions outside of the multilateral forum.

Endogenous Preferential Trade Agreements: An Empirical Analysis

2003 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher S Magee
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Empirical Analysis ◽  
Bilateral Trade ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Preferential Trade Agreements ◽  
The Political ◽  
Preferential Trade ◽  
Trading Partners ◽  
Regional Agreements

Abstract This paper provides one of the first assessments of the hypothesis that two countries are more likely to form a preferential trade agreement (PTA) if they are already major trading partners. The paper also tests a number of predictions from the political economy literature about which countries are expected to form regional agreements. The results show that countries are more likely to be preferential trading partners if they have significant bilateral trade, are similar in size, and are both democracies. Finally, the paper measures the effect of preferential agreements on trade volumes while, unlike previous studies, treating PTA formation as endogenous.

Exceeding the Limits of Territorial Bounds: The Helms-Burton Act

1997 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 161-213
Author(s):  
H. Scott Fairley
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
International Law ◽  
International Institutions ◽  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
The United States ◽  
International Trade Agreements ◽  
Title Iv ◽  
Trading Partners ◽  
Title Iii

SummaryThe author argues that the Helms-Burton Act violates general principles of international law. The analysis begins with a brief discussion of the extraterritorial purposes, structure, and operation of the act, followed by a survey of international responses to Helms-Burton by the principal trading partners of the United States: diplomatic protest, formalized dispute settlement under international trade agreements, retaliatory blocking leghlation, and multi-hteral scrutiny in and by international institutions. The author then turns to principles of jurisdiction with a view to demonstrating that Helms-Burton does not meet the applicable thresholds to support either the private right to sue for trafficking in confiscated property under Title III of the act or the governmental exclusion of designated aliens from admission to the United States under Title IV. In this regard, substantive international law arguments in relation to extraterritoriality and nationality, remoteness, the effects doctrine, human rights, and the reasonable expectations of other nations are also considered.

scholarly journals The Two Noble Kinsmen: Internal and Legal Transparency in the WTO and Their Connection to Preferential and Regional Trade Agreements

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 539-569
Author(s):  
Maria Panezi
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Regional Trade Agreements ◽  
Regional Trade ◽  
Preferential Trade ◽  
Institutional Processes ◽  
Multilateral Trading System ◽  
The Impact

Abstract The proliferation of Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs) and Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) has given rise to significant debate on the need to measure, understand and possibly regulate the impact these agreements have on the multilateral trading system under the umbrella of the World Trade Organization (WTO). This article will discuss the two Doha Transparency Mechanisms (legal transparency) regarding regional trade agreements, as they appear in two General Council decisions from 2006 and 2010. I will argue based on a closer look and a consistent interpretation of Paragraph 10 of the Doha Ministerial Declaration that there is another type of transparency that is relevant to the discussion on PTAs/RTAs, namely “internal transparency.” “Internal transparency stricto sensu” highlights the significance of trust in the WTO institutional processes, such as negotiations, decision-making, dispute settlement and trade monitoring that the representatives of developing member states should have in order for the WTO system to function productively. “Internal transparency lato sensu” is introduced in this article as an extension to include any decision-making deficits, exclusionary and asymmetrical outcomes specifically in the area of unchecked Preferential Trade Agreement proliferation. Instead of a conclusion, the article offers some proposals for more a meaningful progress in the WTO with respect to PTAs/RTAs The proposals aim at raising the profile of both legal and internal of transparency and posit that raising the profile of one will inevitably lead in improvements in the other.

Making Sense of U.S. Trade Policy: What Recent Negotiations Can Tell Us

2019 ◽  
Vol 113 ◽  
pp. 378-380
Author(s):  
Inu Manak
Keyword(s):  
Trade Policy ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
Free Trade Agreement ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Trade Relations ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
The North ◽  
Trading Partners ◽  
The U.S

U.S. trade policy is not what it used to be. Since the U.S. withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership in January 2017, Indo-Pacific trade relations have been in constant flux. It is not clear where U.S. trade policy will end up, particularly with regard to its relationship with China. However, the conclusion of two renegotiations of previous U.S. trade agreements can tell us generally about the new U.S. approach and what this means for our trading partners. I will discuss developments from the renegotiation of the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement (KORUS) and the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) as a replacement for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

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