Estimating the Impact of Cumulative Rules of Origin on Trade Costs: An Application to Mega-regional Free Trade Agreements in the Asia-Pacific Region

We investigate the effects of free trade agreements (FTAs), focusing on the impact of cumulative rules of origin (ROO) on trade costs. Using a gravity regression model, we estimate the effect of various cumulative ROO systems on the measured trade costs. We apply these estimates to static and capital accumulation computable general equilibrium models to compare the effects of mega-regional FTAs in the Asia-Pacific region—namely, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), and Free Trade Areas in the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP). We find that mega-regional FTAs may not be a viable alternative to a multilateral trading system or bilateral FTAs unless less restrictive cumulative ROO are adopted. Successful FTAs depend on an appropriate cumulative ROO provision system rather than their membership expansion.

Beihilfenkontrolle zwischen Supranationalität und Intergouvernementalität

The Brexit experience sheds new light on the question of whether credible state aid regulation must by its nature be supranational. Following a review of the disciplines of EU state aid law and WTO subsidy law, which shape international subsidy law, it is explained why the introduction of bi- and plurilateral control regimes beyond the WTO is necessary from the EU's point of view and which hurdles these efforts must overcome. Finally, on the basis of an overall analysis of EU (free trade) agreements, a concentric circle model of state aid law is developed, which reveals the link between type of agreement, market integration, geographical proximity and the impact of EU law on the state aid rules agreed with the treaty partners.

LABOUR STANDARDS AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE REGULATION – A NEW ERA OF ENFORCEMENT?

Although the ILO has been in existence for over a century, it is not equipped with international mechanisms for enforcement of the labour standards that it promotes. Globalization and trade liberalization have exposed a strong relationship between labour rights and trade regulation, leading to attempts to regulate labour provisions in a trade context, initially through the WTO and, more recently, through labour clauses in bilateral and regional free trade agreements (FTAs). This contribution provides a historical overview of these attempts and presents most recent developments, which reflect a new policy of the United States and the European Union to use their FTAs as a stronger instrument of labour standards enforcement.

UK’s Free Trade Agreements with Non-EU Countries: the Case of the Black Sea Region

With the end of the Brexit transition period and its final departure from the EU, the United Kingdom lost its access to the EU trade agreements that its economy had previously benefited from. Therefore, the UK has been determined to preserve the preferential trading terms with states and trading blocs that used to be covered during its membership in the EU, and introduced a number of Free Trade Agreements (FTA) to guarantee a smooth transition both for the UK and non-EU countries’ economies with which it has extensive trade. The objective is to analyze the signing of Free Trade Agreements between UK and non-EU countries, namely, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine and Turkey. The methodology is based on comparative case-by-case study. The results indicate that UK’s trade with the countries in Black Sea region (also quite affiliated with the EU) is going to gain more importance, which will broaden the opportunities for the UK become more involved in the economy of the region and, potentially, build stronger and independent political ties with the countries studied.

Estimating the Impact of EU Membership on United Kingdom’s Export by Using Gravity Model

After a year from the formal UK withdrawal from the EU, there are still different opinions about the potential economic impact of Brexit. This paper gives a detailed overview of the trade profile of UK and explores the determinants of United Kingdom`s export. We apply the gravity model to estimate the aggregate benefits of EU membership or the reversed, lost (foregone) benefits from leaving the EU. We measure the influence of GDP, distance, population, the EU membership, and signed free trade agreement with the trading partners on UK’s export as a dependent variable. The analysis includes data for 70 UK trading partners in a period of 48 years (from 1973 to 2020) since Great Britain become EU member. The results show that UK’s export is directly proportional to trade partner’s GDP and inversely proportional to distance. In order to estimate the average benefit due to EU membership, we estimated subsequent equations with different time periods. The coefficient decreases and becomes negative as we shorten the time periods, proving that the average trade advantage due to EU membership diminishes over time. According to the economic theory of regional integration, it is expected that the coefficient increases due to many rounds of enlargement, especially the biggest one in 2004 as well as due to the introduction of the Euro. On the contrary, as we shorten the time periods in the analysis, we obtained increasing coefficient for the variable free trade agreements. This confirms that trade exchange within FTA has significantly higher effect on United Kingdom’s export in comparison with trade within EU.

Economic security in Southeast Asia: An introduction

The subject of economic security has always been bandied about in academic discourse since the emergence of an interconnected world economy. With ASEAN states getting increasingly enmeshed in free trade agreements, and common market like arrangements, it is imperative to explore what economic security means for national governments today. The shocks of the 2017-20 Donald Trump presidency of the USA and the COVID-19 pandemic impart timely momentum for inquiring after economic security. If the USA currently embodies the idea of zero-sum economic logics as the way forward into the twenty first century, it becomes even more urgent that Asians re-examine the degrees of openness needed to sustain growth and prosperity. Contributors to this Special Section will not only examine government-to-government trade interactions, the prospects of Islamic Finance and gender inequalities will also be analysed in terms of how they can make or break conventional notions of economic security.

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

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.