International Economic Governance Research Articles

THE ISSUES OF SCOPE AND LEGAL STATUS IN WTO – IMF CONSULTATIONS

In designing the international economic governance system after the Second World War, trade and finance, due to the close connection between them, were addressed as parts of a whole. A predictable and stable international monetary system was recognized as prerequisite for healthy and sustainable trade. However, these two issues were regulated under different institutional structures, by envisaging close cooperation and coordination. The International Monetary Fund (IMF), designed to be responsible for international finance and monetary issues, was established in 1944. The International Trade Organization (ITO) was designed to address international trade, while the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), with a limited scope, was temporarily put into implementation in January 1, 1948 to provide rapid tariff reductions until the ratification of ITO Charter. The ITO became still-born as it was not approved by national parliaments, especially the USA, and international trade continued to be regulated by the GATT. The GATT, with its unique organizational structure that gradually developed, continued its existence until the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995 and hosted international trade negotiations. WTO, with more advanced legal and institutional structure, took over the functions of the GATT. Formal consultation procedures have constituted an important part of the cooperation between the GATT/WTO and the IMF in the context of the management of international trade and monetary/financial system. These procedures differ from traditional cooperation activities between international organizations and have a special character. It is regulated in a binding language as an obligation for the relevant WTO bodies to apply for consultations with the IMF on certain issues and to comply with the inputs received from the IMF. There are some points open to interpretation regarding the scope of the consultations and the binding and functional status of IMF inputs in the WTO. This study discusses the issues of scope and legal status.

Behind the Huawei sanction: national security, ideological prejudices or something else?

Digital supremacy is fundamental to national security and global economic competitiveness. An imperative of protecting critical information infrastructure (CII) is the theoretical basis for cybersecurity policies. The cyber competition has the potential to reshape global tech supply chains and international economic governance. The winner will make standards and rules that can take the most advantage of a first mover. The assumption that governments across jurisdictions embrace similar policies, regardless of their ideologies, is not a paradoxical proposition any more in the time of globalisation 2.0. Both the US and China use law enforcement power to advance their national strategic interests. The imposition of sanctions against Huawei is an epitome of the current US–China cyber competition game far beyond the mere economic scenario. This study seeks to explore whether the unilateral approaches would be well justified in a new normal of the decoupling era and how to establish a viable global cyber governance regime.

Regulatory Convergence in International Law: Evaluating Models of Global Economic Governance

This essay explores the intersection of international law and economic governance, focusing on the Regulatory Convergence Model as outlined by Daniel K. Tarullo. It examines the processes and challenges in international law-making, emphasizing the role of transnational regulatory standards in global economic governance. The discussion delves into issues of legitimacy and regulatory capture, critiquing the effectiveness of current regulatory approaches. The essay concludes by assessing the impact of these regulatory models on the stability of global financial markets, offering insights into the complexities of international economic regulation in a globalized world.

RCEP이 아세안 무역에 미치는 영향

Purpose - This research aims to enhance the understanding of Asia’s economic relationships and international economic governance, with a focus on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). Specifically, this paper seeks to provide recommendations for South Korea’s participation and effective utilization in RCEP within the Asian region. Also this study suggests the significance of the Rule of Origin in Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), and highlights the importance of a cumulative certificate of origin, which refers to a document that verifies the cumulative origin of goods in international trade, applicable to 15 RCEP countries, as compared to existing bilateral FTAs.
 Design/Methodology/Approach - This paper reviews previous studies related to ASEAN and RCEP, discussing the findings and key issues addressed in earlier research efforts. News articles and statistics either of political conflicts or economic implications are utilized in this context.
 Findings - Currently, the global economic governance system, centered around the World Trade Organization (WTO), is facing challenges due to economic and trade friction between major powers, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Regional economic integration bodies like RCEP are taking on a new central role in international trade rules.
 Research Implications - This research implies that the economic relations in the Asia-Pacific region have been steadily strengthening, and this contributes to maintaining stability through economic interdependence even in the presence of political conflict, and there is a room for South Korea to contribute.

BRICS Countries’ Increasing Role in the world economy, Including Institutional Innovation

This paper seeks to determine whether the BRICS group has lived up to the expectations that their influence in international economic governance will increase. Stellar economic performance and the resulting well-being are important factors that may cause this influence to grow. However, there has been increasing recognition that welfare does not depend merely on income but on a broader set of indicators as exemplified by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) or the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). BRICS may increase their influence through their achievements on the social front and their soft power. Using simple statistical methods to examine their macroeconomic performance the paper found that only China and India had done well and lived up to the initial expectations. The social achievements of the BRICS have also been limited. The BRICS have sought to translate their dissatisfaction with the IMF and the World Bank into establishment of the New Development Bank (NDB) to provide loans for infrastructure projects and the Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA) to cover the needs for financing balance of payments deficits. The paper examines the working of these organizations to find out if they have been successful in meeting their objectives. The results of the analysis allows us to conclude that the NDB has been successful, unlike CRA, which proved to be ineffective.

Economic Migration in the Early League of Nations

This article analyzes how economic migration was addressed in the technical institutions of the League of Nations and in the International Labor Organization (ILO), during the initial period of institutional genesis after the First World War. New archival material is used to integrate the fragmented scholarship on migration cooperation and establish dialogue with broader research on the development of international economic governance in the 1920s. This transversal analysis highlights commonalities and interactions that cut across institutional boundaries. Within the League system, different economic institutions carved out limited areas of cooperation in migration policy, while collectively reaffirming national sovereignty over borders and population.

Managing economic statecraft via multilateral agreements: the roles of ASEAN member states in shaping Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership

Economic statecraft (ES) has been playing an increased role in affecting the international relations. While armed conflicts decline, states have been weaponising trade, investment, and other economic ties to gain leverage over their counterparts. In the contemporary world, ES is not only used to galvanise countries’ influence in specific issue areas but also part of their grand strategy to achieve broad power-maximisation goals. Despite a proliferation of ES literatures in recent years, extant research tended to focus on great powers’ ES, leaving small states’ ES under-examined. Also, previous studies usually looked into how countries unilaterally employ ES. Hence, insufficient attention has been paid to how regional states work together to collectively alter multilateral frameworks to advance their ES. Against this backdrop, this paper investigates small nations’ roles in the development of multilateral cooperative frameworks. Using the ES lens, it explores how these countries leverage these schemes to push forward their collective ES. The main argument is that regional states worked together to craft the terms of multilateral economic agreements to galvanise their clout over certain governance areas. I validate this argument by using the case of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). This study makes contributions to the research pertaining to ES, small states’ strategies, and economic regionalism. It also yields practical implications for policymakers involved in fostering international economic governance.

Research on the Risk Evaluation and Prevention Strategy of Cross-Border Merger and Acquisition Projects of Energy Enterprises Under the New Situation

At present, the world is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century, and the international political and economic governance system is undergoing profound changes. Protectionism and antiglobalization are on the rise, and the normalization of COVID-19 prevention and control has intensified international investment and economic and trade frictions. The domestic and foreign environment faced by the overseas investment and merger of Chinese power enterprises is increasingly complex, and the potential risks and uncertainties are increasing. Combing the energy industry key risk points of transnational mergers and acquisitions, this paper analyse the energy industry transnational M&A project political risk and legal risk evaluation method, and put forward the company transnational M&A project political risk and legal risk prevention strategy.

WHY GLOBAL GOVERNANCE MATTERS FOR AFRICA: CRISES, LESSONS AND SETTING THE POLITICAL AGENDA FOR POST-WESTERN ORDER

Using Africa’s experience during the 2008 global financial crisis and COVID-19 pandemic, this study explores how the peripheral positions of Africa in global governance has disproportionately exposed the continent to inordinate impacts of global crises and argues for an increased role for Africa in global governance. A common Africa position premised on the AU is advanced as capable of providing the continent with adequate impetus to shape global affairs by espousing unified position of Africa in multilateral platforms. This study reiterates that developing such an expanded role that can shape global responses to issues such as reforms in the UNSC, international aid regime, climate change, debt management, global trade, and global economic governance, the continent should adopt common position and leverage its continental frameworks such as AfCFTA and the AfDB to unlock its economic capacity which is the foundation upon which contemporary political influence in global affairs is premised.

Silences of Bretton Woods: gender inequality, racial discrimination and environmental degradation

In the formal deliberations of the Bretton Woods conference, little was said about gender inequality, racial discrimination, or environmental degradation. At the time, however, the significance of these issues to international economic governance was prominently discussed elsewhere, including in other conferences planning the postwar international order. The fact that the Bretton Woods architects chose to ignore these issues, thus, was an anomaly that needs to be recognized as an important part of the content of the conference and its ‘embedded liberal’ normative framework. Explaining these silences also reveals important dimensions of the politics of Bretton Woods that have been understudied. More generally, this history highlights how efforts to encourage the Bretton Woods institutions to engage more with these three issues—and political resistance to those efforts—are not unique to the current era but were present at the founding of these bodies. It also contributes to recent calls for IPE scholars to devote more attention to the study of gender inequality, racial discrimination, and environmental degradation. These issues may be ‘blind spots’ in contemporary IPE, but discussions of their relevance to international economic governance have deep historical roots, including at the creation of the postwar international economic order.

What Endgame for the Deglobalisation Narrative?

From the perspective of international economic governance, other than casting aspersions on the judgement of those that negotiated previous multilateral trade accords and the accession of China to the World Trade Organization, the deglobalisation narrative is silent on how to reform that organisation — or what to salvage from existing global trade rules.

Special Economic Zones Facing the Challenges of International Taxation: BEPS Action 5, EU Code of Conduct, and the Future

ABSTRACT Corporate taxation and particularly corporate tax incentives that jurisdictions introduce in special economic zones have not, until recently, been subject to extensive international regulation. Only in the last decade has a regime of soft law standards and European Union measures with extraterritorial effect been constructed. This article explains how the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Action Plan developed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the European Union Code of Conduct for Business Taxation interact with corporate tax incentives in special economic zones. Empirical evidence from Latin American and Caribbean jurisdictions shows that this emerging international regime began having an impact on special economic zone laws beyond the OECD and European Union Member States. An analysis of ongoing negotiations on the further developments of the international tax regime permits the cautious conclusion that the regulation of SEZs may in the future be affected in a more fundamental manner by international norms. Thereby, the article shows that special economic zones’ unilateralism in corporate taxation may be slowly receding in contrast to other areas of international economic governance.

Using Business Models beyond Business

Business models describe the way organizations create and deliver value necessary for their existence. In the mid-1990s, they arose as a buzzword relating to the development of “dot-com” firms and their hunt for capital. The theory and application of business models have focused on business.Consequently, the definitions and archetypes of business models proposed in the extant literature have addressed profit-making organizations. This paper argues that business models are equally useful in the establishment, evolution, and analysis of non-profit organizations. Moreover, there is a real need for these models, as non-profit organizations are part of the national and international economic governance. Thus, the paper reframes business models through a non-entrepreneurial lens and proposes a new archetype with generalized applicability to all organizations, whether for-profit, non-profit, public, or private. A “hybrid” archetype is developed, synthesizing existing business model archetypes while extending their reach to better embrace the overarching core logic of organizations, reflecting the political mandate of not-for-profit entities and the business remit of firms. The validity of the proffered archetype is tested on two international not-for-profit organizations and serves well as a conceptual map of their decision-making and policy-making activity. Furthermore, the testing process demonstrates that business models, when devised externally and retrospectively, can be equally well used in hindsight as organizational analysis tools, possibly conjointly with other methods.

THE INFLUENCE OF OWNERSHIP STRUCTURE ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNATIONAL ACTIVITIES OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS ENTITIES

The purpose of the article is to generalize the existing views on ensuring the effectiveness of international business entities in the context of globalization trends and the implementation of the tasks of domestic companies to enter international markets. Systematization of problems of international business development on the basis of the research of the impact of structural aspects in ensuring economic development, with special emphasis on studying the development of the ownership structure of international business in the formation of the foundations of sustainable economic growth. Methodology. The study is based on comparing trends in the development of international business of countries, processing the results of studying the issues of the topic by domestic and foreign economists, domestic and foreign literature, statistical data, the results of analytical studies of rating agencies, international organizations. In the process of research, the method of theoretical generalization and comparison, and general scientific research methods were used, mainly, analysis, synthesis, abstraction. The information basis of the research consisted of the works of domestic and foreign scientists on the problems of the theory of international business, international economic relations, international management, and international corporate governance of international business. The results of the research showed that the modern conditions for conducting international business were changing dynamically, which required the development of international business entities special improvement of existing approaches to management in accordance with the conditions of globalization, manifestation of innovative development and striving for openness as the best way of modern coexistence. The country’s position in the world economic system is determined by the structure of the economy. Practical implications. Thus, the structure of the economy determines the possibilities of economic development, the ownership structure is an important aspect in ensuring the efficiency of international business. In the context of globalization, corporate governance is seen as a tool for development and needs improvement for the enterprises to enter into international markets. The ownership structure is able to determine the innovative potential of enterprises in world markets. Value/originality. The identified current trends in the development of structural relationships of the economy based on the generalization of research on structural interdependencies in creating the preconditions for sustainable economic development allows to determine the basis for the actions of international business in the globalization and manifestations of innovative economy more objectively. The special value of the work lies in a more detailed study of the ownership structure in ensuring the efficiency of international business and the effects of globalization, which determines the main directions of improving Ukrainian enterprises, their organizational and legal forms of doing business to ensure compliance with international business principles and access to international markets.

Selective Reshaping: China’s Paradigm Shift in International Economic Governance

Abstract In contrast with the selective adaptation approach toward external norms seen in its accession to the World Trade Organization, China increasingly plays a proactive role on the international stage, with the Belt and Road Initiative at the center of these activities. How can we understand this new approach by China toward international economic governance? What is responsible for China’s shifting approach, and what are the implications of this shift? The paper presents selective reshaping as a new theoretical framework, and argues that China is shifting toward the selective reshaping of institutions and rules within the global economic order. Within this theoretical framework, perception and conception, complementarity and legitimacy are influencing components that affect selective reshaping, and which manifest substantially differently in this context, when compared with selective adaptation. Selective reshaping is likely to transform the institutions and rules within the international economic order, and carry long-term implications.

Introduction: International economic governance in a multipolar world

The articles in this special issue are placed in the context of the crisis of multilateralism and of the post-war Bretton Woods arrangements that was already in train before the pandemic, with its economic, political and international reverberations, accelerated, widened and deepened it.

The WIPO-WTO Relationship

Abstract The current, prevailing narrative on the WIPO-WTO relationship refers to “forum-shifting”. The idea is that developed countries moved from WIPO to WTO in order to obtain stronger IP protection at the international level by joining trade talks with IP negotiations. As a result, WTO would have become the main international forum for trade-related IP issues. This paper argues that the forum-shifting narrative, despite its merits, may fail to catch the complexity of WIPO-WTO relationship. Moreover, long-standing issues, as well as recent developments in trade and IP, demonstrate that the two Organizations have been characterized by continuity and constitute in reality interdependent, complementary fora. This is not to deny the differences existing between WIPO and WTO nor to discard the merits of the forum-shifting theory. Nonetheless, it is argued, it is time to move beyond it in order to grasp the implications of the WIPO-WTO relationship towards future international economic governance.

Global Value Networks of Manufacturing: Accounting Framework, Power Centers and World Images

Based on the global value chains theory and social network analysis, this paper constructs the global value networks accounting framework for manufacturing by selecting the data of domestic value-added in exports from 2005 to 2015. Density and centralization were used to measure the spatio-temporal evolution of network cohesion and heterogeneity, the multi-dimensional quantitative indexes about centrality power were used to measure the country's core and control force in the field of manufacturing, and the agglomeration subgroup and block model were used to analyze the global spatial structure and power change of the manufacturing industry. Research findings show that the cohesion of global value network is increasing, but the imbalance of internal value creation is developing in polarization. Concentration of the value added created by the global manufacturing industry is increasing, but the absorption capacity of major developed economies to the value of the manufacturing industry is decreasing. The power control of manufacturing network in the United States began to be weakened obviously, while the power center is transferring to China, and it is still difficult. The world image dominated by China, the United States and Germany has been formed. China's manufacturing is in the center of the world, and the East Asian manufacturing network integrated by China supports global manufacturing. With the strong development of China's manufacturing, the competition of manufacturing against the United States and Germany will continue to face enormous cooperative challenges and power games. This paper provides theoretical basis and situation research for China to optimize its position in the global value network of manufacturing and enhance its international economic governance capacity.

Chinese Resource-for-Infrastructure (RFI) Investments in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Future of the "Rules-Based" Framework for Sovereign Finance: The Sicomines Case Study

China has emerged as sub-Saharan Africa’s largest development financier over the past two decades. While commentators have observed novel, sui generis transactional structures in China’s financing arrangements, legal analysis of those contractual forms and their relationships to incumbent international economic governance regimes remains scant. This note addresses those scholarly lacunae, taking as its case study the 2008 Sicomines Agreement—a multi-billion USD investment financing agreement between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and various Chinese corporate entities that merges infrastructure investment with a mineral extraction joint-venture project. It demonstrates that the Sicomines Agreement selectively draws on and integrates pre-existing modes of sovereign development finance, but in ways that subvert the extant legal and customary frameworks those modes have depended on. Legal issues arising under the Sicomines Agreement fall under two analytical categories: (1) areas of the Sicomines Agreement that the extant, “rules-based” framework governing sovereign development finance adequately captures; and (2) elements of the transaction that subvert that framework, confounding existing rules. This note concludes by considering what broader implications Chinese-origin development finance may have on the legal regimes and institutions governing the international financial system as a whole.

Digital Trade and the Rules-based System: Scoping the Reform Agenda

The rules-based trading system is rightly celebrated for having provided order and indeed a civilizing legality to the greater part of international commerce over the past 70-odd years. Its survival for this length of time can be attributed in good measure to two things – that it provides an important public good, taming the mercantilist contest for rents and terms of trade gains implicit in the imperfect markets of international trade; and that the trading system evolved within a geopolitically stable order under an undisputed hegemon. By the same token, the rupture of the system today reflects the emergence of new fact situations on both accounts. The digital transformation has created conditions for rent generation in ways that are not governed by the existing rules. It has also shifted the competition for these rents into a new and contestable technological dimension in which the established geopolitical assets of the industrial age are of limited value, giving rise, for the first time, to new fault lines within the rules-based system. Institutions are creatures of their age. The WTO in its current form was not designed to mediate the issues at play in this emerging economy. This note sketches out the issues for international economic governance raised by the digital transformation and suggests a number of areas for reform.