Free Trade Pact Research Articles

African Union (Au) and Challenges of Intra-African Trade: A Study of African Continental Free Trade Pact, 2018- 2023.

The study assessed the efforts of the African Union in addressing the challenge of poor intra-African trade using the AfCFTA between 2018 and 2023. The study specifically examined how the implementation of the AFCFTA impacted on intra-African trade profile, as well as how the African Union fared in deepening Africa’s market integration using the mechanisms of the AfCFTA. Anchored on the documentary method and Neo-functionalism, the study ascertained that the implementation of the AFCFTA has undermined the intra-African trade profile. The study also revealed that the African Union has not fared well in deepening Africa’s market integration using the mechanisms of the AfCFTA. Accordingly, the study contends that the AfCFTA deal, though a laudable initiative, may not surmount the enduring structural challenges to regional integration to reposition African economies and expand opportunities for all Africans as projected. The study thus underscores the fact that despite AfCFTA deal, Africa is likely to remain an ultimate loser in the growing regional trade arrangement which is a major feature of the world trading system. Among others, the study recommends that the African Union, through the mechanisms of AfCFTA, should work towards removing all non-tariff barriers and reducing tariff barriers that undermine intra-African trade. Keywords: AfCFTA, Intra-African Trade, Market Integration, Non-Tariff Barriers, Region Trade Challenges.

Surge in Fixed-Dose Combination Drugs: Need for Data Exclusivity Protection in India Recently, India Rejected the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) Nations' Demand to Keep the Data Exclusivity Provision in the Free Trade Pact as it Would be Detrimental to its Generic

Surge in Fixed-Dose Combination Drugs: Need for Data Exclusivity Protection in India Recently, India Rejected the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) Nations' Demand to Keep the Data Exclusivity Provision in the Free Trade Pact as it Would be Detrimental to its Generic

Understanding India’s Exit from the RCEP

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership is a huge free trade pact which was signed in November 2020 after eight years of laborious talks and deliberations by 15 Asia-Pacific countries. It was ratified on January 1, 2022. Besides 10 ASEAN member countries, the pact includes China, Australia, Japan, South Korea, and New Zealand. However, despite the long negotiations, India withdrew from the pact in November 2019. To explore why, I use the “two-level game” perspective offered by Robert Putnam. The main argument is that by themselves neither domestic nor international/structural factors can account for India’s exit; but the enmeshment of both provides a comprehensive treatment.

International Economic Law and the COVID-19 sanitary crisis: an introduction

The sanitary crisis has already had a substantial influence on the global economy, with restrictions on sanitary material exports, interruption of international transportation, increased screening of foreign investment, and challenges to intellectual property rights. It has compelled states to reconsider their core interests and national security, for example, in terms of maintaining pharmaceutical and vaccine manufacturing capacity. In addition, the lockdowns adopted in many countries have raised questions about their conformity with the existing free trade and investment treaties, and about the rationale of exceptions and derogations in these treaties. The economic consequences of the crisis have resulted in huge stimulus packages by national governments, putting a strain on the public exchequer and increasing debt. Financial experts also anticipate that the public debt to GDP ratio of most developed as well as emerging nations would further skyrocket and therefore the IMF, development banks, and other international financial institutions have been mobilized to meet the current and forthcoming financial needs of the most affected economies. Consequently, these diverse topics need a legal discussion, with an emphasis on the States' unique reactions and practices in their economic interactions, as well as the possibility of a post-COVID-19 world economic order.

Assessing U.S. Agricultural Export Growth Under North American Free Trade Agreement: A Shift-Share Analysis

NAFTA is the first free-trade pact that has transformed and driven economic integration among the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The three NAFTA countries’ agricultural export performance in four major classified commodities was each analyzed prior to the implementation and active years of NAFTA by applying a dynamic shift share model to data from 1992 through 2018. The overall results show United States was found to be the overall beneficiary NAFTA among the participating countries. The U.S. led in the exports of all the four major classified agricultural commodities followed by Canada, and then, Mexico. The most highly exported commodity among the four by any of the member nations, was consumer-oriented products while agricultural-related, intermediate, and bulk commodities follow in that order.

The Politics of Musical Standardization in Nineteenth-Century France and Britain

Abstract This article examines mid-nineteenth-century Anglo-French relations through the prism of musical standardization. Bringing together perspectives from musicology, history of science, and political history, it demonstrates the holistic value of musical practices for the study of processes of political integration. In 1859, Napoléon III's government determined a national pitch to which musicians should tune their instruments. The following year, Britain's Society of Arts attempted to emulate this standard. Amid tense Anglo-French relations, British audiences interpreted the French pitch as a measure of the country's autocracy, and these political anxieties materialized through a redefinition of the standard. The challenges of introducing a musical pitch within a liberal political framework encountered in 1859 were subsequently echoed in debates over the reform of weights and measures following the 1860 free trade treaty between Britain and France. Both the economic and artistic integration of these countries involved the problem of how to regulate society within a laissez-faire state. Musical standardization has received little historiographical attention, but the regulation of this art offers insights into mid-nineteenth-century Anglo-French political culture. Entangled within complex network of industrial, institutional, and social structures, musical pitch demonstrates how problems of economic and social integration were inseparable from international and socio-political contexts.

Free Trade, Environment, Agriculture, and Plurilateral Treaties: The Ambivalent Example of Mercosur, CETA, and the EU–Vietnam Free Trade Agreement

Transnational trade holds opportunities for prosperity and development if accompanied by a robust political and legal framework. Yet, where such a framework is missing, transnational trade is frequently associated with, among others, negative impacts on the environment. Applying a legal comparison, this article assesses if recent free trade agreements, i.e., the Mercosur Agreement, CETA and the EU–Vietnam Free Trade Agreement, negotiated by the European Union, have been underpinned with effective environmental standards so that they are in line with global environmental goals and avoid detrimental effects on climate and biodiversity. Besides that, we evaluate the extent to which these agreements at least enable and incentivise environmental pioneering policies in the trading Parties. In particular, we discuss the likely impacts of the agreements on the agricultural sector. The analysis finds that, while a few mandatory standards concerning, e.g., deforestation have been established, overall, the agreements lack a comprehensive legal framework to uphold/enhance environmental protection. Moreover, weak dispute settlement mechanisms to ensure compliance with sustainability measures limits their effectiveness. In addition, the provisions on regulatory cooperation and investor-state dispute settlement are likely to negatively affect the decision-making processes and (thus) discourage ecological pioneering policies in the trading Parties. Hence, there is a long way to go so that transnational trade is compatible with global environmental goals.

US – EU: new priorities in the transatlantic relations

The European Union is an important player in the U.S. policies aimed at maintaining liberal world order. The US-EU interaction has been shaped by a number of key variables, including international environment, specific goals of the U.S. administrations, institutional maturing of the EU, and a complex interplay of American and European diverging and overlapping interests. President D. Trump’s tenure was the most strained period in the US-EU relations, with an erosion of mutual trust and a ghost of trade war looming large. The Biden administration has reversed the U.S. policy towards the European Union. The US-EU summit held last June signified a return of normality in the relations of the transatlantic partners. Washington and Brussels outlined a broad agenda that embraces security, trade and economic issues, coordination in international affairs (concerning, in particular, Russia, China, and Iran), cooperation in decarbonizing of the world economy and promotion of a climate-friendly environment. A broad web of links between the United States and Europe facilitates their joining efforts in addressing global and regional challenges. Although, the US and the EU reached a series of compromises to mitigate their most acrimonious disagreements (Boeing–Airbus subsidies dispute is a vivid example in this regard), there are still unsettled major issues like a comprehensive free trade treaty unsuccessfully negotiated since the Obama presidency. The “Chinese factor” may turn out to be the most divisive one in the transatlantic relations, since the U.S. tough policy towards Beijing makes the EU countries to take hard decisions they prefer to avoid. While it is premature to predict precise implications of the Biden administration’s policy, one can reasonably expect the EU to become a more helpful partner to Washington in diplomatic and economic affairs.

Developing Value Innovation Strategy In The "Blue Ocean Shift" Framework At The Flat Glass Industry In Indonesia

Competition in the flat glass market in Indonesia since 2015 has been increasingly severe because much imported glass has entered Indonesia. The rapid rate of imported glass is due to two factors: the enactment of the free trade pact in Southeast Asia and the expansion of the Chinese glass factory that built new factories in the Southeast Asia region, especially in Malaysia. Most of the imported glass entering Indonesia is commodity glass at a lower than local products, so they have begun to take a portion of the market share of local products. This competition is getting more onerous because the local flat glass industry has difficulties in reducing the price to be equal or lower than competitors' price due to the production cost structure is already too high. This research explores the basic concepts of strategies carried out by local flat glass companies in the face of competition in the flat glass industry. This is based on the concept of value innovation in the framework of “blue ocean shift.” The research method used is an exploratory case study draws on an in-depth field study conducted in a local flat glass company based in Indonesia.

Poétique gravitationnelle. Artaud véloce

Isn’t Earth the matrix of the human species, in all of its creations and re-creations? This “essay-fiction” offers a reflection on the concept of planetarity. It sparks a debate on the aftermath of economic globalism and commercial borders (free trade treaties, the return of bilateralism during the Trump era among several other questions). The evocation of the oeuvres of Antonin Artaud and Arthur Rimbaud allows us to describe what is gravitational poetics, where the texts seem to feel the power of terrestrial attraction. The planetary humanity raises the question of the uniqueness of the human subject, following the abolition of all physical frontiers.

China's Economy Is Not Overtaking America's

Most scholars and pundits, along with the general public, believe that China is an economic juggernaut set to overtake America as the world's dominant power. But the conventional wisdom is wrong. The United States is several times wealthier than China; and since the global financial crisis over a decade ago, the absolute gap between the two nations has been growing by trillions of dollars each year. China's economy is big but inefficient. It produces high output at high costs. Chinese businesses suffer from chronically high production costs, and China's 1.4 billion people generate massive welfare and security burdens. The United States, by contrast, is big and efficient, producing high output at relatively low costs. American workers and businesses are seven times more productive than China's, on average; and with four times fewer people than China, the United States has much lower welfare and security costs.The conventional wisdom about China, besides being wrong, has dangerous policy implications. For starters, it creates the impression that the United States and China are locked in “Thucydides' trap” in which a rising power challenges the ruling hegemon, and the two slide into a major war. This misguided notion, widespread in both countries, is driving a spiral of hostility. Slowing this spiral requires both sides to take a clear‐eyed look at the real balance of power, which is now, and will likely remain, highly skewed in America's favor.A second danger is that an exaggerated sense of China's rise continues to fuel the current trade wars. The United States should aggressively punish unfair Chinese trade practices, but do so through a reformed WTO, regional free trade pacts, and targeted investment restrictions and economic decoupling—not with unilateral tariffs.A third danger is that exaggerated fear of China's rise and America's decline could cause the United States to back off from many of its foreign policy commitments, divesting all obligations to maintaining the global order save those linked to vital national interests. Advocates of an “America First” foreign policy are probably right that the United States could improve its relative position by ditching allies and international institutions and letting the world burn. But one of the benefits of unrivaled wealth and power is that the United States can afford to pursue absolute gains, sacrificing a bit of relative advantage to make the United States and the world better off overall. As the most secure and powerful country in history, the United States can and should do more than ceaselessly struggle for power.

Regulatory Framework on IPR in Indonesia: Overview and Preliminary Assessment on the RCEP-IP Chapter

In respect to the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) talks, Indonesia, the ASEAN coordinator for what will be the world's largest free trade pact, has acclaimed the substantial progress in negotiations, which has seen leaders agree to complete the deal this year. On the 33rd ASEAN Summit held in 2018, President Joko Widodo had stressed the importance of a mandate to agree on the RCEP. However, one question needs to bring to light is whether Indonesia's determination has been supported by adequate preparedness to comply with various binding provisions, especially the IPR regime designed to go beyond WTO TRIPs. In an effort to answer that question, this article will be focused on examining the IPR regulatory framework in Indonesia and to what extent it is compatible with the anticipated IPR provision based on the leaked draft of RCEP IP Chapter . Keywords: RCEP, TRIPs Plus, Intellectual Property Right, ASEAN, Indonesia DOI : https://doi.org/10.33005/jgp.v7i01.1816

Pan-African Aspirations Drive a New Free Trade Pact

Ideally, the free movement of goods and services should coexist with the free movement of people.

Brexit Diplomacy, Trump, and the uk’s “Special Relationship” with the United States

The much-praised “special relationship” between the US and the UK has had little, if any, relevance for President Donald Trump. After the Brexit referendum of June 2016 Prime Minister Theresa May and many of the “Brexiteers” in the Conservative Party hoped that a rejuvenation of relations with the U.S., perhaps by means of free trade treaty, would counter-balance any loss of political and economic influence due to the UK’s departure from the European Union. Some of Trump’s rhetoric seemed to indicate this. He repeatedly praised the country for its desire to get back “its sovereignty” and “control over its borders.” In reality Trump was so focused on the realization of his “America First” policy that it was unlikely that he would be inclined to grant any special favors or generous trade terms to the UK, “special relationship” or not.

Trump, American hegemony and the future of the liberal international order

Through its ambivalence towards its global security alliances, abrogation of free trade treaties and questioning of globalization, the Trump administration has argued that the United States-led liberal international order is too burdensome. How accurate is this portrayal? Drawing on theories of hegemonic leadership, the paper argues that the US national interest became globalized in the postwar international system and the US-led liberal order has given it enormous positional advantages. These include the capacity to shape the international preferences of other states, externalize domestic economic crises and construct the kind of international economy it wanted. Despite growing international competition, the US still has essentially the same global interests. However, neo-liberal globalization has weakened the domestic consent for American leadership among large sections of the American working class, who have rationally rejected continued US commitment to a system that has deepened economic inequality in the US. Trump has ridden the wave of this discontent, and although US elites may wish to return to the status quo after President Trump, these structural issues will remain. Trump may well do irreparable damage to the liberal order and thus, more broadly, to the West. While imperfect, the liberal order is still the ‘best of a bad bunch’ in terms of forms of systemic order on offer, and if the luxury of choice remains after Trump, a new domestic and international social contract is needed to revive US global leadership.

Regulatory Chill: Learnings From New Zealand’s Plain Packaging Tobacco Law

Australia’s precedent-setting Tobacco Plain Packaging Act 2011 (Cth) took two and a half years from its public announcement to come into force. The fact that New Zealand’s almost identical legislation was still not in force six years after it was first mooted suggests it was subject to regulatory chill through both specific threats and systemic influences within the policy making process. This article examines the hypothesis that three elements associated with New Zealand’s free trade and investment treaties combined to chill a National government that was already luke-warm on a plain packaging law: perceived risks from litigation; associated arguments pressed by politically influential industry lobbyists; and the bias in the regulatory management regime that favours minimal intervention and empowers the tobacco industry, consistent with contemporary trade agreements. It concludes that these mutually reinforcing factors delayed the passage of New Zealand’s legislation, but did not see it abandoned. This suggests that health policies supported by public opinion, international health obligations, and precedents from other countries can withstand regulatory chill. But the difference from Australia also highlights the need to pay more attention to ways of neutralising those factors if a Smokefree Aotearoa New Zealand, and similarly ground-breaking public health policies, are to be achieved.

Yom Kippur’s Call for Environmental Repentance

Yom Kippur’s Call for Environmental Repentance

Lineages of Dissent: Popular and Artistic Resistance to Imperialism and Extraction on 'The Beautiful Island'

Lineages of Dissent: Popular and Artistic Resistance to Imperialism and Extraction on 'The Beautiful Island'

Free Trade

Illustration: Sohyun KimFor the past nine years, Ángel Gurría has presided over the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) as its fifth secretary-general. But Gurría’s early career was remarkable in its own right—the man who served as the principal architect of Mexican economic stabilization, cutting the nation’s bloated government spending six times when he served as Minister of Finance and Public Credit under the administration of President Ernesto Zedillo. That followed a term as Minister of Foreign Affairs when he restructured his nation’s foreign debt and helped negotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), still the prototype for such free trade pacts. Trained as an economist, comfortable in six languages, and specializing in economic development, Gurría has been a vocal advocate, during his two terms at the helm of the OECD, for sustainable growth and employment and rising living standards. From his perch at OECD headquarters in Paris, he presides over an organization dedicated to transparency and fighting corruption—critical elements that Gurría and the OECD believe will help improve governance and growth, in the developing as well as the developed world, but especially in Latin America where Gurría retains close ties. He spoke with World Policy Journal Editor David A. Andelman and Managing Editor Yaffa Fredrick from Guadalajara, Mexico, where he was attending the Fifth OECD Global Forum on Well-Being, one of his primary global initiatives.

Exports Trade Fight Looms As Key Bills Head For House And Senate Votes

Congressional committees recently agreed to give President Barack Obama the authority he needs to wrap up the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the proposed free-trade pact between the U.S., Japan, ...