Regional trade agreements
Conclusion
Dans le cadre de la quatrième révolution industrielle l’élaboration et l’adoption des technologies connaissent une croissance exponentielle. La récente pandémie de COVID-19 a accéléré l’adoption et l’acceptation par la société des technologies numériques et a mis en évidence une chose : l’avenir du commerce est numérique et les 5 piliers des technologies au service du commerce en sont les moteurs.
Résumé
Les promesses des technologies au service du commerce – l’ensemble de technologies grâce auxquelles le commerce mondial peut devenir plus efficace plus inclusif et plus durable – sont multiples depuis la facilitation des échanges jusqu’aux gains d’efficacité et à la réduction des coûts en passant par le renforcement de la transparence et de la résilience des chaînes d’approvisionnement. La présente publication s’intéresse en particulier à la façon dont l’intelligence artificielle la technologie de la chaîne de blocs et la technologie des registres distribués (DLT) et l’Internet des objets (IdO) pourraient reconfigurer l’écosystème du commerce mondial.
Reconnaissance juridique mondiale des transactions et documents électroniques
Une transaction transfrontières nécessite en moyenne l’échange de 36 documents et de 240 copies (Fletcher 2019). L’expédition de roses du Kenya à Rotterdam peut générer une pile de papier de 25 cm de haut dont le coût de traitement peut être supérieur au coût du transport des conteneurs (Allison 2016).
Prólogo
La tecnología siempre ha dado impulso al comercio. Desde la invención de la máquina de vapor y del buque de vapor en el siglo XVIII la popularización del contenedor normalizado de transporte marítimo en el decenio de 1950 y el auge de Internet en el decenio de 1990 la tecnología ha cambiado profundamente nuestras formas de comercio a lo largo de los siglos. En la actualidad las nuevas tecnologías y la digitalización están cambiando el comercio a una velocidad mucho mayor lo que brinda oportunidades y también plantea desafíos.
Resumen
Las promesas de la tecnología comercial —el conjunto de tecnologías que permiten que el comercio mundial sea cada vez más eficiente inclusivo y sostenible— abarcan múltiples aspectos desde la facilitación del comercio hasta el aumento de la eficiencia y la reducción de los costos así como la mayor transparencia y resiliencia de las cadenas de suministro. Para esta publicación reviste especial interés el potencial de la inteligencia artificial (IA) las cadenas de bloques la tecnología de registro distribuido (DLT) y la Internet de las cosas para configurar el ecosistema del comercio mundial.
Accès aux règles du commerce mondial et droit computationnel
Les entreprises évoluent dans un environnement à la complexité juridique croissante. Au niveau mondial l’observation des règles commerciales est particulièrement chronophage et coûteuse car les entreprises doivent connaître et respecter des règles relevant de différents accords internationaux tout en s’acquittant de leurs obligations contractuelles.
La identidad digital mundial
La identidad y la confianza son esenciales en cualquier interacción comercial. A medida que las cadenas de valor mundiales se digitalizan cada vez más las organizaciones necesitan asegurarse de que pueden confiar en la identidad digital de las personas físicas y jurídicas con las que tratan o de sus productos y de que pueden asociar realmente esa identidad digital con una entidad un producto específico o un dispositivo reales (véase el recuadro 17).
El acceso a las normas comerciales mundiales y el derecho computacional
Las empresas operan en un entorno cada vez más complejo desde el punto de vista jurídico. A escala mundial dar cumplimiento a las normas comerciales resulta especialmente gravoso en términos de tiempo y dinero ya que las empresas deben conocer y respetar las normas establecidas en los diferentes acuerdos internacionales y cumplir al mismo tiempo sus obligaciones contractuales.
Identité numérique mondiale
L’identité et la confiance sont au coeur de chaque interaction commerciale. Alors que les chaînes de valeur mondiales deviennent de plus en plus numériques les organisations doivent s’assurer qu’elles peuvent faire confiance à l’identité numérique des personnes morales et physiques ou des produits avec lesquels elles traitent et qu’elles peuvent efficacement relier cette identité numérique à une organisation réelle à un produit spécifique ou à un dispositif en particulier (voir l’encadré 17).
Conclusión
En la Cuarta Revolución Industrial el desarrollo y la adopción de nuevas tecnologías están creciendo exponencialmente. La reciente pandemia de COVID-19 ha acelerado la adopción y aceptación social de tecnologías digitales y ha dejado clara una cosa: el futuro del comercio es digital y las cinco “M” de la tecnología digital son sus motores.
Interopérabilité mondiale des modèles de données pour les documents commerciaux et les plates-formes de commerce
Dans un environnement numérique pour que les Parties puissent échanger des données et des documents de manière transparente tous les renseignements doivent être clairement définis et sans ambiguïté (Forum économique mondial/CEE-ONU 2017). Il est essentiel de parvenir à un accord à la fois sur le contenu sémantique (c’est-à-dire les définitions des données par exemple pour savoir si le « port de débarquement » correspond au « port de déchargement ») et sur la syntaxe des données (c’est-à-dire la structure ou le format des données) pour s’assurer que les partenaires commerciaux souhaitant échanger des renseignements les comprennent de la même manière.
El reconocimiento jurídico mundial de las transacciones y los documentos electrónicos
En promedio una transacción transfronteriza requiere el intercambio de 36 documentos y 240 copias (Fletcher 2019). Un envío de rosas de Kenya a Rotterdam puede generar una pila de papel de 25 cm de altura y el coste de gestionarla puede ser superior al coste de transportar los contenedores (Allison 2016).
La interoperabilidad mundial de los modelos de datos para documentos y plataformas comerciales
En un entorno digital para que las partes puedan intercambiar datos y documentos sin obstáculos toda la información tiene que estar definida de forma clara e inequívoca (Foro Económico Mundial/CEPE 2017). Resulta esencial llegar a un acuerdo tanto sobre el contenido semántico (es decir las definiciones de los datos por ejemplo si “puerto de descarga” es lo mismo que “puerto de desembarque”) como sobre la sintaxis de los datos (es decir la estructura o el formato de los datos) para garantizar que los interlocutores comerciales que deseen intercambiar información la interpreten de la misma manera.
Investment Provisions in Preferential Trade Agreements: Evolution and Current Trends
Our analysis covers 230 PTAs of which 111 contain substantive provisions on investment. Over the past 60 years or so States have created an extensive network of Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) that govern and protect international investment. The number of BITs concluded annually continues to increase although this rate has tapered off over the past decade.
The Treatment of Medical Products in Regional Trade Agreements
The WTO Secretariat has published a new report on the treatment of medical products in regional trade agreements (RTAs) amid current supply shortages caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The report examines the extent medical products are traded among preferential partners and the difference in liberalization rates within and outside these trade agreements.
Provisions on Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Regional Trade Agreements
This paper reviews the different types of provisions explicitly addressing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) including micro firms (MSMEs) in regional trade agreements (RTAs). The analysis covers the 270 RTAs currently in force and notified to the WTO as of April 2016. The analysis shows that half of all the notified RTAs namely 136 agreements incorporate at least one provision mentioning explicitly SMEs. These SMEs-related provisions are highly heterogeneous and differ in terms of location in the RTA language scope and commitments. Many of the SMEs related provisions are only found in a single or couple of RTAs. A limited but increasing number of RTAs incorporate specific provisions in dedicated articles or even chapters on SMEs. Although the number of detailed SMEs-related provisions included in a given RTA has tended to increase in recent years most SMEs-related provisions remain couched in best endeavour language. The two most common categories of SMEs-related provisions found in RTAs are provisions (1) promoting cooperation on SMEs and (2) specifying that SMEs and/or programs supporting SMEs are not covered by the RTAs' obligations provisions. Other types of SMEs-related provisions incorporated in a limited number of RTAs refer inter alia to government procurement trade facilitation electronic commerce intellectual property or transparency.
How Does the Regular Work of WTO Influence Regional Trade Agreements?
This paper illustrates how the work of the WTO's standing committees is fuelling regulatory cooperation between WTO members and inspiring RTA negotiators.
Preferential Rules of Origin in Regional Trade Agreements
This study surveys preferential rules of origin applied by 192 regional trade agreements (RTAs) covering trade in goods notified to the GATT/WTO up to 1 November 2010. It takes into account the preferential rules of origin that were notified to the WTO; whenever known and available modifications to the original rules of origin have been updated. This study contains two basic features: a description of some key elements of preferential rules of origin in RTAs followed by an attempt to provide a reality-check of how these rules affect actual trade. That is done by an ex-post examination of data on the use of RTAs' preferences and in their absence of their margins of preference (MOPs). While the raison d'être of preferential rules of origin is the avoidance of trade deflection the practice in RTAs has diluted this objective and it would seem that preferential rules of origin are increasingly becoming an economic political and trade instrument. In its descriptive part the study identifies what seems to be a tendency to design stricter rules of origin while detecting concomitantly the inclusion in modern preferential rules of origin of flexibilities that provide through the rules of origin themselves a preference beyond the lower tariff rate resulting from the preferential treatment and mechanisms that allow the integration of third-parties into preferential rules of origin regimes. The reality-check part of the study points to the fact that much beyond the coverage of RTAs it is their effective implementation that poses a challenge to economic operators. Though data on the use of preferences is either not disclosed or inexistent they are nevertheless available for some economies. On the basis of existing data of preference utilization the analysis of the effects of rules of origin on preferential trade flows appears to give rise to a dual reality - namely a relatively high use of preferences in certain instances coexisting with preferences failing to attain their potential in other cases. As regards RTAs for which utilization rate is not available the paper analysis preferential rules of origin from a MOPS perspective assuming that MOPs of at least 5 percentage points would offset compliance costs and thus provide a stimulus to comply with rules of origin in order to benefit from preferences. The analysis made for 68 out of 192 RTAs do not allow any conclusion regarding that generally presented hypothesis. Finally the paper briefly outlines some suggestions for further action including the launching in the WTO of exploratory work on preferential rules of origin within an "open regionalism" scenario.
Market Access Provisions on Trade in Goods in Regional Trade Agreements
This paper assembles detailed information on the market access provisions in trade in goods contained in 192 active regional trade agreements (RTAs) notified to the WTO as of November 2010. Although market access provisions in trade in goods in RTAs have been addressed in a number of studies much of this work has been limited to subsets of RTAs particularly plurilateral RTAs involving three or more parties. The goal of the current study is to expand beyond the more commonly studied RTAs and to include all RTAs notified to the WTO for which data are available. This task has been facilitated by the recent Transparency Mechanism for RTAs (TM) adopted in 2006 that provides the basis for the systematic provision of detailed tariff and trade data by WTO Members engaged in RTAs. This information has been supplemented by other public sources of data where available. A number of trends are evident. While a majority of RTAs result in a reasonably high degree of liberalization overall (with developing countries often liberalizing as much or more than developed countries) liberalization is not uniform across products or RTA parties. In some RTAs the degree of iberalization appears to be a negotiated outcome depending on the RTA partner. Agricultural goods continue to be subject to lower levels of liberalization frequent product exclusions and systematic protection in some RTAs regardless of the RTA partner's comparative advantage. Nonetheless a lower level of ambition in some RTAs is tempered by a commitment to negotiate further concessions or expand upon the RTA's scope at some future point: more than half the RTAs analysed contain such a commitment. Much has been written about the potential for the multilateralization of commitments undertaken in RTAs. While there may be scope for positive externalities in terms of regulatory convergence particularly with regard to services liberalization undertaken in RTAs there is less evidence in this study to suggest that increased market access in merchandise goods leads to a more favourable trading environment for third parties. Continuing constructive engagement by WTO Members in the Transparency Mechanism through the provision of data timely notifications and submission of implementation reports will increase the availability of tariff and trade liberalization data thus facilitating further examination of the topics highlighted in the study as worthy of future research.
Intellectual Property Provisions in Regional Trade Agreements
This paper assembles detailed information about the intellectual property (IP) provisions contained in 194 active regional trade agreements (RTAs) that had been notified to the WTO by November 2010. IP provisions in RTAs have been the subject of much study and commentary. However much of this work has focused on a relatively limited number of RTAs with a concentration on parties with narrow geographical and economic profiles. The goal of the current study was to expand beyond the more commonly studied RTAs to make an initial review of the full array of RTAs notified to the WTO and in that way to lay the groundwork for a more comprehensive overview that would enable consideration of the broader system implications of this more diverse range of norm-setting activity. This was tackled by conducting a comprehensive mapping of the IP content in a larger number of RTAs involving parties from all regions and across different levels of development. This broad approach is necessary to better understand cross-cutting trends in RTAs and how all the parts of the international IP framework influence each other. The methodology followed involved surveying each RTA in the sample to determine whether it made reference to any of 30 different IP-related provisions. The relevant provisions are discussed in detail and summary statistics used to identify patterns over time and by continent level of economic development and selected traders. The number of IP provisions in each RTA is then used to classify agreements according to their level of IP content. The first significant identified trend is the acceleration in the conclusion of RTAs with IP provisions after the creation of the WTO and the entry into force of the WTO TRIPS Agreement. A significant proportion of those RTAs contain some type of IP provision but the number and type of those provisions vary widely across agreements. More than two-thirds of the RTAs surveyed include provisions on border measures or statements of general commitment to IP protection or cooperation. A smaller proportion contains explicit provisions on specific fields of IP law such as geographical indications patents trademarks and copyright. The inclusion of even more detailed provisions elaborating on specific areas of IP law is less common. As a result the actual IP content of RTAs differs greatly across the sample with about 40% of these agreements found to have negligible substantive IP standards. A significant number of RTAs containing more detailed IP provisions are characterized by a hub-andspoke architecture in which the wording and structure of IP provisions converged around the RTAs of specific countries or blocs. The largest systems are grouped around the EFTA the European Union and the United States with countries like Chile Japan and Mexico constituting other hubs. The huband- spoke architecture seems to have encouraged the convergence of domestic IP regimes among the respective RTA signatories. The mechanics of this potentially crucial process and its economic implications require further investigation. The analytical methodology followed in this paper also needs additional development to take better advantage of the information gathered together in the course of this study and other data.
TBT Provisions in Regional Trade Agreements
This paper investigates whether TBT provisions included in RTAs differ from those under the WTO TBT Agreement and if they do whether they entail broader commitments. Our analysis covers 238 RTAs of which 171 include at least one provision and focuses on the provisions on technical regulations conformity assessment procedures transparency dispute settlement marking and labelling and sector-specific commitments. We find that all RTAs signed since 2010 systematically include TBT provisions and that the most frequent provisions are those referring to the TBT Agreement and transparency. Moreover even if there are RTAs that include new or broader commitments than the TBT Agreement our study shows that their number remains very limited. For instance relatively few RTAs have included provisions to better implement WTO provisions in the area of transparency or provisions requiring the equivalence or harmonization of technical regulations among the parties or even the recognition of conformity assessment results. RTAs with a dispute settlement provision that applies exclusively to TBT issues are also very few. These RTAs give in general exclusive jurisdiction to the WTO DSM over TBT related disputes. Finally also only a minority of RTAs include provisions on new issues such as marking and labelling or sector-specific provisions typically for electric and electronic products pharmaceuticals or vehicles.
Services Rules in Regional Trade Agreements
The study tries first to assess the extent of similarities and divergences among services rules in regional trade agreements as compared to the GATS. To do so it uses a typology identifying variations in 48 key provisions structured under seven themes commonly found in RTAs and using the GATS as a benchmark. The analysis identifies two main “families” of agreements GATSinspired and NAFTA-inspired) and a residual category. The paper briefly explores the historical development that led to these families as well as their geographical spread both on an agreement by agreement basis and a country by country basis. The paper then analyses by theme the variations found in the RTAs among services rules including their novelty as compared to the GATS. Given the lack of available information on the implementation of the agreements the paper tries to assess whenever possible the magnitude of the discrepancies and their practical impacts. While subject to some qualifications the results of the study are relatively straight forward: there is no "spaghetti bowl" in services rules but just two "families" and one residual category. The details reveal that the degree of divergence between those two families does not overall seem insurmountable. This assessment concords with other studies (e.g. Marchetti Roy) that have equated them in terms of national treatment and market access and have compared directly commitments undertaken under the three families of agreements. One may even note a certain tendency to a convergence towards the GATS model (e.g. the addition of market access clause in the second generation of NAFTA-like agreements or the use of GATS-type architecture by EU for agreements else than pre-adhesion ones). In terms of "novelty" the results prove somewhat disappointing except in certain areas like mode 4 and transparency. Other issues in which in view of the intensity of WTO DDA debates one would have expected a lot of bilateral creativity such as domestic regulation safeguards and recognition provisions show themselves to be surprisingly embryonic. Finally anecdotal evidence gathered for instance during the drafting by the WTO Secretariat of Trade Policies Reviews and factual presentations on RTAs suggest that in numerous instances provisions relating to future negotiations or even regular meetings are not implemented thereby casting doubt on the effective impact of RTA provisions (including diverging ones) on trade realities.
Poison in the Wine?
Commitments in regional trade agreements (RTAs) that fall short of the same countries' obligations under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) are a relatively frequent phenomenon. However they have gone widely unnoticed in the literature to date and drawn very little attention in relevant WTO fora either. Nevertheless 'minus commitments' are potentially poisonous and for various reasons would deserve close attention. Given the broad definitional scope of the GATS extending inter alia to commercial presence such commitments may impinge upon the rights of third-country investors in the RTA economies. Their existence casts doubts on the legal status of the respective agreements under the GATS and can have severe implications for the trading system overall. If not complemented by comprehensive Most-favoured-Nation clauses the RTAs concerned are disconnected from the WTO and virtually impossible to multilateralize. Based on a review of some 80000 commitments in 66 agreements this study seeks to develop a reasonably comprehensive picture of the frequency of 'minus commitments' and their dosage in terms of sectors measures and modes of supply. It also discusses potential remedies from a WTO perspective.
The Evolution of Gender-Related Provisions in Regional Trade Agreements
Regional Trade agreements (RTAs) are sometimes considered as laboratories in which new types of provisions are negotiated to address recent trade-related issues. Although the inclusion of gender-related provisions in RTAs is not a recent phenomenon only a limited but increasing number of RTAs refer explicitly to gender-related issues. These gender-related provisions are highly heterogeneous and differ in terms of location in the RTA language scope and commitments. Some of the most detailed gender-related provisions are found in stand-alone chapters on gender. Cooperation provisions on gender-related issues including labour health and social policy remain the most common type of gender-related provisions found in RTAs.
How to Design Trade Agreements in Services
This paper deals with claims recently raised in various circles that structural faults in the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) have prevented WTO Members from advancing services liberalization under the Agreement. The GATS is generally associated in this context with a bottom-up (positive-list) scheduling approach where the sectors on which trade commitments are undertaken are selected individually. This is claimed to be less efficient in terms of liberalization effects than alternative approaches under which everything is considered to be fully committed unless specifically excluded (top-down or negative listing). However a closer look at services negotiations conducted in various settings including the Doha-Round process WTO accession cases and different types of regional trade agreements suggests that such structural issues have limited if any impact on the results achieved. What ultimately matters are not negotiating or scheduling techniques but the political impetus that the governments concerned are ready to generate.
Trade Remedy Provisions in Regional Trade Agreements
This paper maps and examines the provisions on anti-dumping countervailing duties and safeguards in seventy-four regional trade agreements (RTAs). The RTAs vary in size degree of integration geographic region and the level of economic development of their members. The key policy concern of the paper is that the elastic and selective nature of trade remedies may lead to more discrimination with reduced trade remedy actions against RTA partners but a greater frequency of trade remedy actions against non-members. The adoption of RTAspecific trade remedy rules increases this risk of discrimination with trade remedies against RTA members being abolished outright or being subjected to greater discipline. The templates used for mapping the trade remedy provisions reflect this central concern. The results of the mappings suggest the need to be vigilant about increased discrimination arising from trade remedy rules in RTAs. A number of RTAs have succeeded in abolishing trade remedies. Probit and multinomial logit model estimations suggest that these RTAs are characterized by a higher share of intra-RTA trade and deeper forms of integration that go well beyond the dismantling of border measures. A fairly large number of RTAs have adopted RTA-specific rules that tighten discipline on the application of trade remedies on RTA members. In the case of anti-dumping for example some provisions increase de minimis volume and dumping margin requirements and shorten the duration for applying anti-dumping duties relative to the WTO Anti-dumping Agreement. In similar fashion many of the provisions on bilateral safeguards lead to tightened discipline or reduce the incentives to take safeguard actions. Safeguard measures can be imposed only during the transition period have shorter duration periods and require compensation if put in place. Further retaliation is allowed if there is no agreement on compensation. RTA provisions on global safeguards require that under certain conditions RTA partners be exempted from multilateral safeguard actions. This conflicts with multilateral rules which require that safeguard measures be applied to all sources of imports and highlights the problem of trade diversion. A small number of RTAs give a role to regional institutions to conduct anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations and to review final determinations of national authorities. There is a theoretical presumption and some empirical evidence to suggest that this reduces the frequency of anti-dumping initiations and final determinations against RTA members. In the case of CVDs we are unable to find major innovations in CVD rules and practice by past and present RTAs. A major reason for this may be the absence of commitments in the RTA on meaningful or significant curbs on subsidies or state aid.
Provisions on Electronic Commerce in Regional Trade Agreements
This paper reviews the different types of provisions explicitly addressing electronic commerce (e-commerce) in regional trade agreements (RTAs). The analysis covers the 275 RTAs currently in force and notified to the WTO as of May 2017.
Trade Facilitation Provisions in Regional Trade Agreements Traits and Trends
The paper first surveys the Trade Facilitation landscape at the regional level and analyses the main forces shaping it. It identifies key factors driving regional Facilitation approaches examining their priorities features and underlying philosophies. The study also highlights significant trends in regional Trade Facilitation provisions and analyses their implications. The paper then compares regional and multilateral initiatives looking at areas of convergence and divergence and highlighting where potential gaps exist. It analyses negotiating positions in the respective frameworks and discusses both the benefits and limitations of the resulting Trade Facilitation provisions. Examining the impact of the recently concluded WTO Agreement the study highlights its potential value added.
Hold the Line: The Evolution of Telecommunications Provisions in Regional Trade Agreements
Based on the first comprehensive mapping of telecommunications provisions telecommunications in regional trade agreements (RTAs) this paper shows that telecommunications provisions in RTAs have evolved and expanded significantly over the years. While some provisions focus on information and communications technologies (ICT) infrastructure policy and investment other provisions address telecommunications services as well as standards and conformity assessment procedures of ICT equipment. The most detailed and comprehensive telecommunications provisions are found in stand-alone chapters sections or annexes on telecommunications services. A network analysis further reveals that telecommunications provisions remain highly heterogenous.
A Survey of Investment Provisions in Regional Trade Agreements
The liberalization and protection of investment flows has become an increasingly indispensable pillar of economic integration. The objective of this study is to contribute to a better understanding of the ways in which RTAs achieve such liberalization and protection. To this end we have surveyed the investment provisions contained in 260 RTAs notified to the WTO by 31 December -2015- and in force on that date. More than half of these RTAs contain investment chapters though they vary in terms of their substantive scope and coverage. The main categories of investment provisions in RTAs reviewed in the paper include the definitions of investment and investor investment liberalization investment protection and ISDS. Also included in our analysis are provisions supporting the investment framework host state flexibilities investment promotion as well as provisions on sustainable and socially responsible investment.
R&D in the Network of International Trade
Recent empirical evidence has shown that trade liberalization promotes innovation and productivity growth in individual firms. This paper argues that different types of trade liberalization – multilateral versus regional – may lead to different R&D and productivity levels of firms. Trade agreements between countries are modelled with a network: nodes represent countries and a link between the nodes indicates the existence of a trade agreement. In this framework the multilateral trade agreement is represented by the complete network while the overlap of regional trade agreements is represented by the hub-and-spoke trade system. Trade liberalization which increases the network of trade agreements reinforces the incentives for firms to invest in R&D through the creation of new markets (scale effect) but it may also dampen these incentives through the emergence of new competitors (competition effect). The joint action of these two effects within the multilateral and the regional trade systems gives rise to the result that for the same number of direct trade partners the R&D effort of a country in the multilateral agreement is lower than the R&D effort of a hub but higher than the R&D effort of a spoke. This suggests that a ”core” country within the regional trade system has higher R&D and productivity level than a country with the same number of trade agreements within the multilateral system whereas the opposite is true for a ”periphery” country. Additionally the paper finds that while multilateral trade liberalization boosts productivity of all countries regional trade liberalization increases productivity of core economies but may decrease productivity of periphery economies if the level of competition in the new trade partner countries of the periphery economy is ”too high”. Furthermore the aggregate level of R&D activities within the multilateral trade agreement exceeds that in the star – the simplest representative of the hub-and-spoke trade system.
Mapping of Safeguard Provisions in Regional Trade Agreements
This study surveys safeguard provisions on trade in goods in 232 regional trade agreements (RTAs) notified to the GATT/WTO up to 31 December 2012. In particular it identifies those RTAs that modify the conditions applicable to the RTA partner (either substantively or procedurally) in the event that a global safeguard is invoked. In the case of bilateral (or intra-RTA safeguards) the study analyses provisions governing injury assessment causation conditions for the invocation of a measure and the types of measures that may be employed. We use the yardstick of GATT Article XIX and the WTO Safeguards Agreement to determine whether the provisions applicable to bilateral safeguard measures are more or less stringent than the corresponding multilateral rules. The study also includes an inventory of infant industry balance of payments and special safeguards applicable to agricultural products found in RTAs. We demonstrate through various examples that safeguard provisions have become more prescriptive in recent years though little homogeneity in their design is found even for a given country. In the case of global safeguards roughly a quarter of RTAs provide for the possible exclusion of the RTA partner subject to certain criteria thus discriminating against non-parties. In the case of bilateral safeguards some RTAs use looser language to define the trigger mechanism to invoke a safeguard and to determine injury standards thus potentially offering greater scope to use such measures. We found wide variety in the types of bilateral safeguard measures that are permitted in RTAs. A number of more recent RTAs tighten the conditions for application of a bilateral safeguard through limiting the duration of the safeguard measure allowing the use of tariff-based measures only and binding the use of the measure to the transition period. Other RTAs specify neither the length of the bilateral safeguard measure nor the conditions for its reapplication thus providing greater scope to impose such measures than in the multilateral context.
Typology of Environment-Related Provisions in Regional Trade Agreements
The last 25 years have witnessed a rapid increase in regional trade agreements (RTAs). Although RTAs generally aim at lowering tariff and non-tariff trade barriers an increasing number of trade agreements extend their scope to cover specific policy areas such as environmental protection and sustainable development. This paper establishes a comprehensive typology and quantitative analysis of environment-related provisions included in RTAs. The analysis covers all the RTAs currently into force that have been notified to the WTO between 1957 and May 2016 namely 270 trade agreements. While environmental exceptions along with environmental cooperation continue to be the most common types of environment-related provisions many other different types of provisions are incorporated in an increasing number of RTAs. The common feature of all environment-related provisions including environmental exceptions is their heterogeneity in terms of structure language and scope.
Competition policy, trade and the global economy: Existing WTO elements, commitments in regional trade agreements, current challenges and issues for reflection
Competition policy today is an essential element of the legal and institutional framework for the global economy. Whereas decades ago anti-competitive practices tended to be viewed mainly as a domestic phenomenon most facets of competition law enforcement now have an important international dimension. Examples include: the investigation and prosecution of price fixing and market sharing arrangements that often spill across national borders and in important instances encircle the globe; multiple recent prominent cases of abuses of a dominant position in high-tech network industries; important current cases involving transnational energy markets; and major corporate mergers that often need to be simultaneously reviewed by multiple jurisdictions.
Intellectual Property Provisions in Regional Trade Agreements
This is a revision and update of "Intellectual Property Provisions in Regional Trade Agreements" by Valdés and Runyowa (2012). This paper adjusts the methodology applied to assess the intellectual property (IP) provisions contained in regional trade agreements (RTAs) and the aggregation of such provisions into groups; it also updates the RTAs surveyed from 194 in November 2010 to 245 in February 2014. New information contained in this revision relates to three IP-related investment and non-violation provisions in RTAs. The methodological revisions and new information result in changes to the assessment of the IP content of certain RTAs while the update reveals a growing and increasingly complex network of RTAs with IP content. This revision also provides new insights into possible improvements to the methodological toolkit for analysing IP in RTAs. The paper assembles detailed information about the IP provisions contained in active RTAs notified to the WTO. The goal was to expand beyond the more commonly studied RTAs to review the full array of agreements notified to the WTO and thus to enable consideration of the implications of this diverse range of norm-setting activity for the multilateral system. Mapping of the IP content in RTAs involving parties from all regions and levels of development is necessary to better understand crosscutting trends in RTAs and how all the parts of the international IP framework influence each other. The methodology followed involved surveying each RTA in the sample to determine whether it made reference to any of 32 different IP-related provisions. Two of the three IP-related provisions new to this revision and update are investment-related IP provisions while the other concerns dispute settlement for non-violation claims. The relevant provisions are discussed in detail and summary statistics used to identify patterns over time and by continent level of economic development and selected traders. The number of IP provisions in each RTA is then used to classify agreements according to their level of IP content. The first significant identified trend is the acceleration in the conclusion of RTAs with IP provisions after the creation of the WTO and the entry into force of the WTO TRIPS Agreement. A significant proportion of those RTAs contain some type of IP provision but the number and type of those provisions vary widely across agreements. A majority of the RTAs surveyed include general IP provisions while a smaller proportion contains explicit provisions on specific fields of IP law such as geographical indications patents trademarks and copyright. The inclusion of even more detailed provisions elaborating on specific areas of IP law is less common. As a result the actual IP content of RTAs differs greatly across the sample with slightly less than half of these agreements found to havesubstantive IP standards that can be classified as moderate or high. The RTAs containing a high level of IP provisions are characterized by a hub-and-spoke architecture in which the wording and structure of IP provisions converged around the RTAs of specific countries or blocs. The largest systems are grouped around the EFTA the European Union and the United States. The hub-and-spoke architecture seems to have encouraged the convergence of domestic IP regimes among the respective RTA signatories. The mechanics of this potentially crucial process and its economic implications require further investigation.
Mapping of Dispute Settlement Mechanisms in Regional Trade Agreements
Regional trade agreements (RTAs) have become an indelible feature of the international trading landscape. Most if not all RTAs contain provisions that establish procedures for resolving disputes among their signatory members. Yet the design and functioning of these dispute settlement mechanisms (DSMs) and more specifically how they differ from the WTO dispute settlement system remain relatively unexplored. Existing academic literature has primarily focused on the narrow issue of jurisdictional conflict between DSMs of RTAs and the WTO dispute settlement system. Literature mapping out and classifying systematically the DSMs of RTAs is more limited. This research paper goes beyond considering the issue of jurisdictional conflict between the multilateral and "regional" regimes. We map out the DSMs in RTAs that have been notified to the WTO and were in force at the end of 2012 and consider a typology of these DSMs based on their nature and design. We also use the data obtained from our mapping exercise in two ways. First we identify trends and patterns of use either regionally or by individual countries of the different types of DSMs in RTAs. Trends are analysed in relation to five key factors: (i) evolution over time (ii) level of economic development (iii) regional characteristics (iv) level of integration (partial scope agreement free trade agreement or customs union) and (v) configuration (bilateral or plurilateral). Second we undertake a "nuts and bolts" analysis of the DSMs of RTAs by examining their approach to various issues in international dispute settlement. Our aim is to draw conclusions about the extent to which the predominant type of DSM in RTAs has features that are different from those of the WTO dispute settlement system.