Proliferation Of Trade Agreements Research Articles

Trade Policy in Indonesia: Between Ambivalence, Pragmatism and Nationalism

Protectionism in Indonesia has been returning since the mid-2000s following a brief period of deregulation and liberalisation after the Asian financial crisis (AFC). This Survey reviews recent developments in Indonesia’s trade policy. It argues that the current approach to trade appears to vacillate between ambivalence, pragmatism and nationalism. Three cases are used to demonstrate the interplay between these characterisations: ‘downstreaming’ and local content requirement policies, Indonesia’s relationship with the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the proliferation of trade agreements, and the commodity balance sheet approach to trade. The paper argues that increasing trade and integrating further into the global value chains are important to have faster economic growth and one way to facilitate that is by improving logistics infrastructure.

Tracing carbon emissions convergence along the way to participate in global value chains: A spatial econometric approach for emerging market countries

The proliferation of trade agreements has offered a viable framework for the economic and trade integration of many nations. Additionally, the growth and expansion of global value chains has increased prospects for knowledge and technological spillovers as well as the potential for production method convergence. This might have possible effects on the environment in both developed and developing nations. The objective of this study is to determine whether participation in global value chains (GVCs) can serve as a foundation for the convergence of carbon emission across nations. Spatial panel data econometrics is used to examine data from 22 emerging economies between 1995 and 2019 in order to provide an answer. The findings support the global value chains-based conditional carbon convergence of the countries and show a spatial link between global value chains participation and CO2 growth. Furthermore, results show that increasing global value chains participation with other variables; both directly and indirectly, via spillover effects, encourages closing the CO2 emission gap across nations. The findings show that global value chains may be able to increase how successful carbon efficiency initiatives are. Therefore, when developing environmental legislation, many aspects of global value chains participation and their advantages should be considered.

Deep Trade Agreements and Domestic Institutions in the Americas

Preferential trade agreements (PTAs) have spread rapidly around the world since the 1990s. In the Americas, the proliferation of trade agreements with countries from within and beyond the region have resulted in a “spaghetti bowl” of overlapping rules and regulations, some of which address behind-the-border issues such as investment, competition, labor, and environmental standards. Earlier research has linked trade agreements to increased foreign investment inflows. This article argues instead that the effects of PTAs on FDI depend on the domestic institutional capacities of member countries. Domestic institutions condition the benefits and effectiveness of PTAs by influencing governments’ external credibility as well as their ability to implement the agreements they sign. The empirical findings show that weak state capacity exacerbates the spaghetti-bowl effects of multiple, overlapping agreements. Moreover, it is not the quantity but the quality, and more specifically, the depth of trade agreements that matters for attracting FDI.

Торговая интеграция в АТР: декомпозиция эффектов

The article uses international statistics to make a comparative assessment of the effects of integration within the Asia-Pacific region, the Western and Eastern macro-zones of the Asia-Pacific region, in terms of the contribution of the processes of globalization and regionalization in 1994–2018 due to trade agreements and their expansion. The resulting assessment of the effects of integration indicated a greater contribution of the globalization process to the growth of trade in the Asia-Pacific region (APR), especially for the countries of the Eastern macro-zone. It was found that in the Eastern macro-zone, the impact of trade agreements hindered the positive effects of integration. The author discovers fundamental differences between the effects occurring from expanding trade agreements. The process of globalization prevailed over regionalization only in the exporting countries of the Eastern macro-zone; the effects from regionalization were stronger for the importing countries compared to the exporters, which indicates the manifestation of the effect of trade diversion in the Eastern macro-zone. Obtained estimates indicate that from 1994 to 2018, the globalization process acted as a necessary condition for the expansion of trade in both the APR as a whole and in its Western macro-zone, while the process of regionalization played an important supporting role. In the Eastern macro-zone the positive effects of globalization compensated for the ambiguous effects of the regionalization, which, possibly, was the reason for the unsuccessful attempts to create trade mega-formats within this macro-zone. At the same time, the Eastern macro-zone countries that were expanding trade agreements (based at the economic framework) have achieved noticeable increase in trade interactions, especially exports. This is why it is assumed that the quality of the trade agreements, which affects the impact from their realization, is crucial as the assessment of the effects from proliferation of trade agreements demonstrate implicit discrimination of the countries that implement moderate policy of reducing trade barriers through trade agreements. Given the small size of domestic markets, the APR countries implementing such policy can only rely on the effects from globalization, which tend to diminish over time

Deep Trade Agreements and Domestic Institutions in the Americas

Preferential trade agreements (PTAs) have spread rapidly around the world since the 1990s. In the Americas, the proliferation of trade agreements with countries from within and beyond the region have resulted in a ‘spaghetti bowl’ of overlapping rules and regulations, some of which address behind-the-border issues such as investment, competition, labor and environmental standards. Has the increasing number of overlapping agreements helped attract foreign direct investment (FDI) into the region, thus facilitating integration in the global economy? Earlier research has linked trade agreements to increased foreign investment inflows. We argue, instead, that the effects of PTAs on FDI depend on the domestic institutional capacities of member countries. Domestic institutions condition the benefits and effectiveness of PTAs by influencing governments’ external credibility as well as their ability to implement the agreements they sign. Our empirical findings show that weak state capacity exacerbates the ‘spaghetti bowl’ effects of multiple, overlapping agreements. Moreover, it is not the quantity but the quality, and more specifically, the depth of trade agreements that matters for attracting FDI.

Rules of Origin in the Mercosur–UE Agreement

Preferential rules of origin have increased with the proliferation of trade agreements between two or more countries. They are regarded as instruments that allow privileged market access. Following the evolution of these rules in Mercosur and the ones negotiated in the Mercosur–UE Agreement we will focus in certain sectors to suggest that these guidelines are crucial in the negotiation process as they reflect a definition of economic policy, productive development and commercial integration. Mercosur, European Union FTA, ALALC, ALADI, Accumulation, Automotive Sector, Vehicles, Beverages, spirits and vinegar, Footwear, preferential rules of origin

Few and Far Between: Some Explanations of Health Provisions in Trade Agreements

AbstractThe recent proliferation of trade agreements and swelling membership of the WTO can be explained in part by the promise of faster growth and economic development that trade liberalization is supposed to deliver. But many countries enter into arrangements that fail to safeguard national health objectives. This article proposes some explanations by developing a formal model. It identifies a country’s trade negotiation capacity, the significance of its exports to its trade partners, and its public health status as important determinants of how sensitive its trade agreements are to its health concerns. Some examples are provided to illustrate the predictions of the model.

Could Predatory Pricing Rules Substitute for Antidumping Laws in the Proposed China–Japan–Korea Free Trade Agreement?

The proliferation of trade agreements heightens the interest in predatory pricing rules because of their possibility to replace antidumping laws. Successful practices have already been achieved in several regional trade agreements. The current paper focuses on the proposed China–Japan–Korea Free Trade Agreement (CJK FTA) and argues that substitution may be complicated by the presence of two different forms of predatory pricing: dominance-orientated predatory pricing and unfair predatory pricing. Reviewing the rules of the former fortifies the evidence that specific rules of competition law can substitute antidumping law. However, by exploring the rules of the latter, this conclusion is troubled. Unfair predatory pricing rules, as they exist in China, Japan, and Korea, are prone to protectionist abuse. Hence, efforts to harmonize predatory pricing rules so as to abolish antidumping laws would confront more difficulties in the proposed CJK FTA.

Bridging the ASEAN Development Divide: A Regional Overview

I. Introduction Individually and collectively, Southeast Asian countries have set very challenging economic goals. The Ninth Malaysia Plan, for example, targets the country to be a fully developed economy by 2020, eradicating hardcore poverty. This will require over the next few years GDP growth of 6 per cent, higher than recent experience. Collectively the members of ASEAN have committed to economic integration of the region--to establishing the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). This will require thorough-going and co-ordinated liberalization of markets and harmonization of national rules and regulations. The experience both in the region and in other parts of the world suggests how difficult it is to realize such a goal. This paper examines the context for development in Southeast Asia, highlighting two themes: * Investment: In the short run, investment spending directly supports aggregate demand and growth. In the longer term, investments in infrastructure, in productivity enhancements by businesses, and in the public provision of education and health services determine the potential for growth. This type of spending is also a factor in the ability of firms and individuals to compete in the international marketplace. With the possible exception of Vietnam, across the region, there is simply too little investment to meet national and regional development goals. * Co-operative Norms: Southeast Asia needs to provide both a wider regional market and the policy environment that will allow firms and individuals to participate more fully in international marketplaces. ASEAN as an organization has provided a forum for this, particularly looking towards the formation of the AEC. One aspect of this will be the investment in infrastructure to link hitherto fragmented regional markets. Section II of the paper discusses broadly regional economic performance and policy: growth and the impact on poverty, investment trends, fiscal policy, and inflation. Second III reviews issues related to encouraging higher potential for growth through the provision of infrastructure, higher levels of private investment, supporting education and health, and addressing environment practices. Section IV examines efforts towards regional economic integration, especially the proliferation of trade agreements and the role of international financial institutions in promoting regional cooperation. II. Recent Economic Performance: Growth, Investment, Fiscal Policy, and Inflation II.1 GDP Growth and Poverty Reduction Growth in Southeast Asia in 2006 averaged 5.9 per cent, about one-half percentage point above 2005. (1) This is better than earlier projected. Economies worldwide appear more resilient than thought, facing high oil prices and concerns about sudden changes in international capital or trade flows proved so far unfounded. Only one country, Cambodia, showed significantly lower growth in 2006:6.3 per cent, less than half the 13.1 per cent in 2005. The exceptional growth in 2005 was largely due to strong agriculture sector production, itself a result of unusually good weather, which returned to more normal conditions in the following year. Figure 1 shows the 2006 experience along with average annual growth for the first six years of the decade for most of Southeast Asia. In an arithmetic sense the development divide is being eased as growth rates are generally higher in the less developed countries. Over 2000-2006, the poorer developing countries, (Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Vietnam) saw average annual GDP growth rates ranging from 6.3 per cent to 8.3 per cent, while the remaining developing countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand) exhibited a range from 4.6 per cent to 5.3 per cent. A growth differential of 2-3 percentage points can make a large difference over a long period of time. However, if one targets the ASEAN milestone year of 2015, when the AEC should be established, while the income differences between the two groups of countries may shrink in relative terms, the development gap will still loom huge. …

Trade Agreements and the Environment: An Industry Level Study for NAFTA

The aim of this paper is to explore two apparently unrelated issues – regional trade agreements and the pollution-haven hypothesis. They are linked by the belief that the elimination of trade barriers will further encourage firms already considering a move to countries with weak environmental regulations. Given the proliferation of trade agreements, as well as the movement of environmental issues to the forefront of our political process, a better understanding of the policy effects is needed. We apply a test equation loosely based on the gravity model to a data set of industry-level foreign direct investment from the Unites States to 23 partner countries from 1982 to 1999. Using pollution emissions as a proxy for environmental stringency, we find strong evidence in support of the pollution-haven hypothesis. We also find the NAFTA increase outflows of U.S. FDI. Finally, the NAFTA appears to encourage the pollution-haven effect.