Multilateral Trade Negotiations Research Articles

Trade Costs and International Trade Flows: Methodologies, Data, and Empirical Evidence

A growing literature has begun to focus on the empirical relationship between transportation costs and international trade flows. This survey will document some of the most important recent trends in this literature, including a burgeoning focus on frictions at the border (such as customs procedures and port quality) as well as those behind-the-border (e.g. domestic infrastructure and regulatory quality). These empirical analyses have become possible because of the development of a number of new data sets, especially from World Bank initiatives. This new focus is particularly welcome for two reasons. Firstly, falling formal trade barriers from past negotiations means that transportation costs have more relative importance for trade. Secondly, stalled multilateral trade negotiations means that some of the most important sources of trade integration benefits may come from “trade facilitation,” especially in developing countries.

Empirical Analysis on Trade Promotion Effect of “Rapid Clearance”

In the era of low tariffs, the rapid clearance is likely to be an important means to break the trade barriers and promote the development of international trade. This paper summarizes the effect of rapid clearance on international trade in four aspects, and then conducts an empirical study through the export data of 113 countries from 2008 to 2010 and a Heckman two-stage selection model. The results show that rapid clearance plays a significant promotion role in trade participation and trade scale, and through robustness check from multiple perspectives, the conclusions are still valid. Through demand preference effect, cost effect and globalization production network effect, rapid clearance curbs the negative effects of increasingly growing non-tariff barriers to trade, making tariff reduction effect based on multilateral negotiations really exert. In addition, this paper also argues that the establishment of FTA can improve the trade volume between countries by enhancing the transparency of customs clearance efficiency and border management. The conclusions are of important significance to the understanding of the establishment of China's free trade zones and the implementation or provisions of rapid clearance measures in bilateral or multilateral trade negotiations, and a breakthrough in the technical barriers to trade.

The EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement: Relevance, Content and Policy Implications

On 6 July 2017, after four years of negotiation, the EU reached an agreement with Japan over the main elements of a comprehensive free trade agreement. The breakthrough came at a time when progress on multilateral trade negotiations at the global level seemed out of reach and EU bilateral trade agreements faced strong public opposition. This paper examines the content of the new agreement with a view to global trade dynamics and assesses its main trade policy implications.

Modeling and Extrapolating Wheat Producer Support Using Income and Other Factors

AbstractUsing wheat market support data from 55 countries for 1961–2011 from the World Bank Agricultural Distortion database, we develop a fixed effect model that shows a more complicated, nonlinear relationship between income and wheat support and its components than previously realised. We find that income generally has a greater effect on border market price support than on domestic price support. Moreover, the difference between these types of support is greater for net importers than for net exporters and has increased with the URAA or WTO accession. Holding other variables constant, the wheat support level of China, driven mainly by border market price support, is projected to rise with future income growth. Meanwhile, Japan is projected to maintain its high level of support, while the US and EU are projected to maintain their lower levels of support. These results are relevant in the context of multilateral trade negotiations, arguing against a narrow focus on past or current policy profiles and for long‐run analyses that might mistakenly rest on the inconsistent assumptions of constant agricultural policies against the backdrop of rising incomes.

A contract theory approach to special and differential treatment and the WTO

PurposeThis paper is prompted by the dissatisfaction of developing countries regarding the grant of special and differential treatment (SDT) under the legal framework of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). As a result of such dissatisfaction, the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations explicitly called for a review of such treatment with a view to making it more precise, effective and operational. This mandate has not yet been met to the satisfaction of many developing countries. This paper aims to provide an alternative way of examining and evaluating the contestation which exists regarding SDT in the WTO.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses the conceptual framework provided by the economic contract theory and in particular, the concept of the incomplete contract to provide a scaffold for analysing SDT. This approach is intended to offer insights beyond those elucidated so far in the literature on the topic.FindingsThis paper, by using an economic contract theory approach, finds that SDT is constructed as an incomplete contract. Furthermore, the suboptimal outcomes associated with incomplete contracts are apparent in the constitution of SDT. This finding is useful in both an evaluative and programmatic sense, providing us with an alternative entry point to explain some of the shortcomings with SDT, as well as garnering us with a useful conceptual tool to think upon how SDT can be improved.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to the literature on SDT within the WTO in particular and differential treatment in international law in general. Drawing on literature on the WTO as an incomplete contract, the paper provides an original frame for analyzing SDT and draws attention, in particular, to the utility of the economic contract theory as a programmatic and evaluative frame for SDT and differential treatment more generally.

Deep Integration: Considering the Heterogeneity of Free Trade Agreements

Regional Trade Agreements have emerged in an environment of stalled multilateral trade negotiations. Although the impact of Regional Trade Agreements on international trade has been well documented, scant attention has been paid to empirical studies exploring their heterogeneity from the point of view of deep integration. We set out to determine whether deeper Regional Trade Agreements promote trade more effectively than less ambitious ones. We generate credible deep integration indicators using two recently available datasets from the World Trade Organization and the World Trade Institute. We then test the effect of depth on trade using a gravity model. We treat additive indicators as factor variables and use multiple correspondence analysis to obtain distilled indicators of deep integration to offer new insights and confirm recent deep integration findings. We find that deeper Regional Trade Agreements increase trade more than shallow agreements do, irrespective of whether the provisions they contain are within or beyond the competence of the World Trade Organization.

Recalcitrant spoiler? Contesting dominant accounts of India’s role in global trade governance

India is frequently cast as a troublemaker and blamed for the breakdown of the Doha Round. This article provides a critical re-reading of India’s trade policy and its position in multilateral trade negotiations. It challenges the widespread characterisation of India as a recalcitrant spoiler, intent on derailing trade liberalisation at the WTO. It shows that with the emergence of its highly-competitive, export-oriented services sector, India became one of the leading advocates of global services trade liberalisation in the Doha Round. Yet, not unlike the traditional powers, India’s offensive trade interests are also combined with significant defensive concerns in agriculture.

EU/US Migration Policy Towards Emerging Countries: Regulatory Power Reversed?

As attractive destinations, both the EU and the US have long sought the cooperation of countries of origin of migrants to regulate cross-border flows. Large emerging economies like China and India are no exception. While hierarchical attempts at striking readmission agreements with these countries have been met with clear resistance, both the EU and the US have turned to ‘softer’ modes of coordination, eventually becoming themselves the targets of China’s and India’s demands for wider openings on migration and mobility. These demands have emerged in different venues: multilateral trade negotiations in the context of the WTO’s General Agreement on Trade in Services, bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations and migration dialogues. This article maps the countries’ respective agendas and analyses to what extent and through which channels China and India are gaining regulatory influence on international migration cooperation

Leadership competencies at Tata steel Jamshedpur since Globalization

Central problem of globalization is competition, because the principal driving force in the globalization process today is precisely to gain profits world over, and for this firms now have to formulate strategies which allow them to exploit all available sources of competitiveness on whatever markets they choose to compete. This, of course, has been made possible on the one hand by advances in technological progress, which have greatly increased the scope of the international division of labor and factor movement, and on the other by the liberalization of world trade in the course of the various rounds of multilateral trade negotiations. But in its widest sense competition also means the survival of the fittest, and indeed it has been said that competition kills competition. The present study endeavors to study the leadership competencies of Tata steel since globalization

Why Aid for Trade matters to small-island developing states

Trading among countries has the potential to be an engine of growth that lifts millions of people out of poverty. However, many developing countries face obstacles that prevent them from fully benefiting from global trade. Some are in export markets, which the Doha Development Round of multilateral trade negotiations aims to reduce or eliminate. These include traditional tariffs as well as non-tariff barriers that are increasing in significance. Barriers found at home, including a lack of knowledge, excessive red tape, inadequate financing and poor infrastructure, can also act as major impediments for exporters.

A Road Map for More Inclusive Canadian Trade Policy (Conclusion)

Canada sits at a risky crossroads. Our economic prosperity depends on international trade and investment, but new global realities are calling into question long-standing policy goals and approaches in these critical areas. A big existential threat to the global trading system lies on our southern border, with President Trump intent on fundamentally altering US trade policy. The noisy signals of negotiating tactics may change from day-to-day, but even if the Americans’ exact position remains unclear, the broader stated objectives are known, and the ripple effects of any significant retreat from a rules-based trading system could bring considerable collateral damage for Canada. Unfortunately, but somewhat understandably at this critical time, much of the recent talk in Canada is based on short-term calculations, essentially trying to predict what Trump might do on the topic of interest that day. What Canada desperately needs now is a calm, evidence-based discussion that seeks to better understand recent developments — including the factors that are driving anti-trade sentiment — to explore potential responses, and to think hard to define our longer-term policy priorities, which as part of a global view, can help guide us through the current turmoil. The global economy is complex and changing rapidly. Productivity, innovation and growth at home depend on both exports and imports. Instead of producing goods and services within a single country, businesses collaborate in global supply chains, and use foreign affiliates to serve foreign consumers directly in their markets. Small firms and big firms face different trading opportunities and constraints, and use different channels to internationalize. Emerging markets, such as China and India, have fast become important players in the global economy, leading to a shift in global economic power that is one reason multilateral trade negotiations under the World Trade Organization have stalled. Diminished growth prospects, especially since the financial crisis of 2008-09, have led to economic anxiety in many developed countries, including Canada. This changing context calls for a renewed, deliberate approach to Canada’s global commerce policies. The broad-based weakness in our international economic performance over the past 15 years suggests that a concerted, comprehensive and long-term approach is required. To help Canadians keep their focus on these key objectives, even as they attempt to manage the risks in the short term, we propose four key areas for attention and action. First and foremost, we must develop more inclusive policies that helps more Canadians share in the benefits of globalization and technological progress. An inclusive trade agenda — as a key contributor to broader efforts to deliver more inclusive growth — is vital to maintain public support for trade and trade agreements. If Canadians believe that the benefits are too narrowly concentrated at the top, then efforts to use more open trade to promote economic prosperity will face resistance. An important part of this package of reforms is strengthening the social safety net to better protect workers whose jobs are negatively affected by a variety of economic dislocations (not only those that are trade-related), by emphasizing skill development and retraining. Second, we must focus on how new trade growth can be unlocked and productivity improved by facilitating, rather than hindering, resource reallocation. Our policies need to allow capital and labour to flow to their best uses, and do so flexibly and quickly in response to changing circumstances in the global economy. Third, we need to enable international connectivity by enhancing the ability of Canadian firms and workers to engage with foreign partners and markets. The productivity of our firms and workers reflects not only their own actions, but also their connections, networks and ability to collaborate with the strongest partners, regardless of where they are located. Fourth, Canada must play a leading role in building a more robust, rules-based global trade and investment system. Given the global nature of production, trade and investment, we need to think “multilateral first”, one of the best ways to deepen our links to fast-rising emerging markets, and thereby diversify Canada’s trade and investment. Middle powers such as Canada will not become stronger by going it alone. As we shape our strategy for renegotiating NAFTA, and for bilateral negotiations aimed at learning how to further integrate China into the global trading system, we should keep these longer-term priorities in view. Canadians need an inclusive trade policy agenda that facilitates resource reallocation and enables international connectivity. At this critical juncture we should keep our eyes on the forest not the trees.

Power, knowledge and resistance: between co-optation and revolution in global trade

ABSTRACTIt has been recognised that the process of multilateral trade negotiations has been fundamentally altered by the increased involvement of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) since the Uruguay Round. NGOs have helped to increase the voice of the developing world, nullify some of the asymmetries in political power vis-à-vis the rich world, and provide trade analysis to bolster participation. What is less recognised is the growing importance of certain international governmental organisations (IGOs) that provide demand driven advocacy through the provision of knowledge and expertise to developing states that, at times, challenges the dominant neoliberal agenda at the WTO. Unlike NGOs, many of these organisations are able to hold observer status on WTO committees and write member state submissions. Yet, ideologically and in terms of their specific capacity-building functions, these organisations are also distinct from other IGOs operating in the area of global trade. Through everyday actions, ‘insider’ IGOs such as the South Centre and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development undertake work that redresses imbalances of power in global economic governance and transforms the ‘common sense’ underlying trade practices. In this paper, we develop a set of ideal types aimed at unpacking and illuminating the variegated degrees and types of ‘resistance’ exercised within the international trade system.

Reforming the Multilateral Decision-making Mechanism of the WTO: What is the Role of Emerging Economies?

The paper focuses on the future of global economic governance in the light of the current state of multilateral trade negotiations. The aim is to analyse identified key historical issues at the heart of the decision-making system of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The current and ongoing Doha Round of trade negotiations and the multilateral system reflect inequalities that still prevail in the global trade architecture. Is there a need for a paradigm shift? The paper will provide recommendations on how reform of the multilateral decision-making structures should focus on promoting the interests of developing countries that have historically been marginalised. Developing countries, like those making up BRICS, stand ready to contribute to the construction of a new international architecture, to bring the voices of the south together on global issues and to deepen their ties in various areas.

Water for Grain: The Great Plains in a Time of Globalization

Water is an open-access resource, whose benefits can be enjoyed by many. This case on water use in America's breadbasket, the Great Plains, illustrates the “tragedy of the commons” in an international context. The case details water depletion in the Ogallala Aquifer, which lies beneath the Great Plains. At the same time, questions are raised about what constitutes optimal use of groundwater resources and what the role of U.S. agricultural and trade policy is or should be.This case is used in Darden's elective, “The Global Economics of Water.” It would also work well in courses covering environmental sustainability or international economics. Excerpt UVA-GEM-0114 Aug. 27, 2013 Water for Grain: The Great Plains in a time of Globalization The reaction of Pascal Lamy, the outgoing director general of the World Trade Organization (WTO), to the launch of bilateral negotiations between the United States and Europe in July 2013 was not very diplomatic. The former European Commissioner for Trade seemed undeterred by praise that the EU–U.S. negotiations were to reinject dynamism into the global trade liberalization process. For reference, the multilateral Doha Development Round that was launched over a decade earlier with the goal of liberalizing trade in agricultural commodities still had not reached an agreement. No doubt, Pascal Lamy worried that the growing number of regional trade agreements would undermine the WTO's position as the main platform for multilateral trade negotiations. As a high-ranking official, however, he made a more general point that revealed a clear sense of frustration on his part. “None of these bilateral, plurilateral, mini or mega [negotiations] will ever lead to an agreement to reduce trade-distorting agricultural subsidies,” he said. “We've heard a lot about this EU–US [negotiation towards a trade agreement]. But nobody ever said that these two elephants would put on their menu the reduction of their trade-distorting subsidies. And they still have quite a lot of them.” . . .

The service sector in the free-trade agreement between the EU and Singapore: closing the gap between policy and business realities

The aim of this paper is to investigate how new rules and practices in multilateral, regional and bilateral trade negotiations related to the services industries can be adopted and implemented at the business level, using the recently concluded free-trade agreement (FTA) negotiations between the EU and Singapore as an illustrative case. The purpose is to put the services sector into the larger framework of business service interaction between the EU and the outside world by identifying crucial sub-sectors within the services industries and their relations to physical, ‘visible’ production and trade. Furthermore, to assess the prospects of ‘multilateralising’ regional trade agreements within the service sector, through the ambitions by both parties to make bilateral and interregional FTAs and EPAs more compatible and mutually comparable with the multilateral GATS’ rules. The EU-Singapore FTA is an agreement that became a ‘second-best’ solution of the stalled interregional EU-ASEAN negotiation, taking place 2006–2009. It can nevertheless be seen as a ‘WTO-plus’ endeavour, since it aims at reaching beyond what is under negotiation in the likewise stalled Doha Development Agenda within the WTO framework, particularly in the fields of business services, public procurement, intellectual property rights, trade-related investment measures, and, generally, competition rules. Since both parties already apply low or zero tariffs in most sectors of manufacturing, the main issues in the negotiations were related to services in general and knowledge-intensive business services in particular, with an emphasis on technical barriers to trade. To what extent will there be a true mutual opening up of the service markets between the two parties as a result of the agreement, and what technical and mental barriers remain? This FTA, if successfully implemented, can also pave the way for a revitalisation of the ‘paused’ EU-ASEAN talks, in which issues related to services were most controversial. Furthermore, it should also be seen in the global context of parallel and overlapping existing agreements or proposed talks, e.g. FTAAP, RCEP, TTIP and TPP, as well as the plurilateral TiSA initiative. In this respect, it can also be considered a test of the EU ‘Global Europe’ initiative, launched in 2006, and its follow-up communications from the Commission—the latest so far by the ‘Trade-for-All’ document in October 2015. The paper takes a combined policy- and firm-level approach, by investigating the already reached as well as the potential future impacts by the actors at both sides of the agreement through interviews with diplomatic officials representing EU, ASEAN and separate member-states within both parties, as well as with EU-originated service firms operating in Singapore. A major conclusion is that the business sector sees little direct impact of the future FTA, and that most companies stick to an ‘ad-hoc’ approach to meet and to overcome trade barriers rather than building a comprehensive strategy regarding how to behave after that the agreement has come into force. On the other hand, most companies are positive to the agreement as such but would welcome resumed EU-ASEAN talks, since the most troublesome remaining barriers are related to doing business with neighbouring countries in the region, using Singapore as the hub for transfer of knowledge-based services.

The Forgotten History of Food Security in Multilateral Trade Negotiations

AbstractFood security emerged as a major source of political deadlock in the WTO Doha Round negotiations. Concerns about food security only intensified at the WTO following the 2008 Global Food Crisis, with the Bali and Nairobi Ministerials revealing polarized views between the US and India on the financing of public food stockholding. These ‘food fights’ at the WTO have attracted significant international media, civil society, and scholarly attention. In this article, I argue that inter-state disagreement on food security is not new or specific to the Doha Round but instead has been a recurrent phenomenon in the multilateral trade system for decades. Employing an historical approach, I show that food security has repeatedly been an item of negotiation in successive GATT negotiating rounds and has been steadily codified in international trade law over time. Today, food security is deeply integrated into the rules of the trade regime, making the WTO an important yet largely unacknowledged institution in global food security governance.

Impact of WTO's AOA on India's Trade in Agriculture

The agreement on agriculture (AOA) forms a part of the final act of the Uruguay round of multilateral trade negotiation, which was signed by the member's countries in April 1994 at Marrakesh, Morocco and came into force on 1st January 1995.for the first time, agriculture features in a major way in the GATT round of multilateral trade negotiations. Although the original GATT- the predecessor of the World Trade organization (WTO) applied to trade in agriculture, various expectations to the disciplines on the use of non-tariff measures and subsidy meant that it did not do so effectively. The Uruguay round agreement sought to bring order and fair competition to this highly distorted sector of world trade by establishment of a fair and market oriented agriculture trading sector. Therefore the formation of the world trade organization (WTO) in January 1, 1995 as a successor organization for the General Agreement of Tariff and Trade (GATT) was watershed event in the history of global trade reform.

THE G77+CHINA'S ROLE IN TRADE MULTILATERALISM: ADVOCATING FOR SOUTH AGENCY

The Group of Seventy-Seven (G77) plus China is positioned in global multilateralism as a platform for advancing the collective interests and issues of the global South in the United Nations (UN) system. For this reason, the organization has a special role to play in the multilateral trade negotiation system where groups, coalitions and alliances are crucial negotiation levers for individual countries. On this basis, the G77 seeks a fair, just and equitable international trade environment, an ideal linked directly to the pursuit of global reform towards a post-Western-led world. This article analyses critically the role of the G77 in exercising global South agency on international trade within the World Trade Organization (WTO) system and the efficacy of its role in promoting South-South trade co-operation. As the group is not without its challenges and its diverse membership has varied interests within the multilateral trade system, it is difficult to ascertain the group’s authority in advocating for reforms in the system. The G77’s advocacy for South agency, however, remains important.

Perspectives for the World Trade System: From Multilateral Integration to Free Trade Agreements?

The difficulties encountered in multilateral trade negotiations well illustrate the significant obstacles confronting further development of the World Trade System. At the same time, however, Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) become increasingly important. The successful negotiations of the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership are recent examples of this trend. Will FTAs come to be viewed in the future as the dominant model for international economic integration? This article focuses on the interaction between the World Trade System and FTAs and identifies the prospects for the multilateral system in a constantly changing economic, political and geopolitical environment.

Introduction: Emerging Powers and the wto

International trade has become increasingly important to emerging market economies. Concurrently, increasing trade liberalization through the multilateral Doha Round, launched in November 2001, from the World Trade Organization (wto) has been a failure. The essays in this issue evaluate the role of Brazil, China, and India at thewtoexamining in particular their domestic and coalitional constraints, the fairness and justice claims underlying their interests, and the types of identity politics that inform their negotiation positions. These three facets do not make multilateral negotiations easy but they do offer possibilities for future negotiations. Multilateral trade negotiations may not decline but the current era of ‘managed multilateralism’ has become complex balancing great and emerging powers interests.