scholarly journals Transatlantic convergence of preferential trade agreements environmental clauses

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 621-658 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Frédéric Morin ◽  
Myriam Rochette
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
European Union ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
The United States ◽  
Preferential Trade Agreements ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Policy Coherence ◽  
Preferential Trade ◽  
Playing Field ◽  
Cooperative Approach

AbstractThe United States and the European Union include several environmental clauses in their respective preferential trade agreements (PTAs). Building on an exhaustive and fine-grained dataset of PTAs’ environmental clauses, this article makes two contributions. First, it shows that the United States and the European Union have initially favored different approaches to environmental protection in their PTAs. The United States’ concerns over regulatory sovereignty and level playing field have led to a legalistic and adversarial approach, while the European Union's concerns for policy coherence have led to a more procedural and cooperative approach. Second, this article provides evidence that European and American trade negotiators have gradually converged on a shared set of environmental norms. Although the United States and the European Union initially pursued different objectives, they learned from each other and drew similar lessons. As a result, recent American agreements have become more European-like, and European agreements have become more Americanized. This article concludes that U.S. and E.U. approaches, far from being incompatible, can usefully be combined and reinforce each other.

Preferential Trade Agreements as Stumbling Blocks for Multilateral Trade Liberalization: Evidence for the United States

2006 ◽  
Vol 96 (3) ◽  
pp. 896-914 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nuno Limão
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Trade Liberalization ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
The United States ◽  
Preferential Trade Agreements ◽  
Detailed Data ◽  
Preferential Trade ◽  
Multilateral Trade ◽  
Multilateral Trade Liberalization ◽  
Tariff Reductions

Most countries are members of preferential trade agreements (PTAs). The effect of these agreements has attracted much interest and raised the question of whether PTAs promote or slow multilateral trade liberalization, i.e., whether they are a “building block” or “stumbling block” to multilateral liberalization. Despite this long-standing concern with PTAs and the lack of theoretical consensus, there is no systematic evidence on whether they are actually a stumbling block to multilateral liberalization. We use detailed data on U.S. multilateral tariffs to provide the first systematic evidence that the direct effect of PTAs was to generate a stumbling block to its MTL. We also provide evidence of reciprocity in multilateral tariff reductions.

China—US Trade War: A Modern Version of the Thucydides Trap

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (04) ◽  
pp. 5-23
Author(s):  
Yuqing XING
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
European Union ◽  
The United States ◽  
Foreign Firms ◽  
Level Playing Field ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Chinese Consumers ◽  
Playing Field ◽  
Thucydides Trap ◽  
Trade War

China—US trade war looks like a modern version of the Thucydides Trap. The devastating consequences of the trade war can be avoided if China takes the drastic step to open its market to US firms and allow foreign firms to have a level playing field to compete with Chinese firms. It is time that Chinese consumers embrace products “made beyond China”. Strengthening economic cooperation with the European Union (EU) and Japan would give China the leverage to counterbalance the pressure of the United States. China, however, should be ready to offer significant concessions in opening its domestic market too.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership: The Challenges of Unraveling the Noodle Bowl

2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah Elms
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Market Access ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
The United States ◽  
Preferential Trade Agreements ◽  
Preferential Trade

Abstract Much has been made of the “spaghetti or noodle bowl” problem of overlapping preferential trade agreements (PTA). A new PTA, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), currently under negotiation between eleven states – Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam – is intended to help address this issue. The TPP will lower or eliminate barriers to trade among the partners. But officials are not operating in a vacuum as they negotiate this new agreement. Instead, they must contend with rules created in previous agreements, many of which link TPP partners together in ways that constrain their options now. This article looks in detail at negotiations over market access in goods to better understand the tradeoffs faced by negotiators. Unfortunately, some of the decisions made so far after three years of talks suggest that the TPP market access deal could end up being just another twisted noodle in a crowded bowl.

scholarly journals El tema laboral en las negociaciones de los TLC: Lecciones de las experiencias de Colombia frente a los TLC con los Estados Unidos y la Unión Europea

2016 ◽  
pp. 205-244
Author(s):  
Daniel Hawkins
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
European Union ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Free Trade Agreements ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
The United States ◽  
Labor Rights ◽  
The European Union

Los dos tratados de libre comercio firmados por Colombia con los Estados Unidos (2012) y Perú y la Unión Europea (2013) no solo marcaron el eje central de la política de apertura e integración económica de los gobiernos de Álvaro Uribe y Juan Manuel Santos, sino también pusieron a prueba la capacidad del Gobierno estadounidense y las instituciones de la Unión Europea para asegurar que sus políticas comerciales hacia países del Sur, como Colombia, pudieran mejorar las precarias condiciones laborales de gran parte de la población trabajadora y la capacidad estatal para proteger y garantizar los derechos laborales fundamentales y demás derechos sociales. Este artículo analiza las diferencias en ambos modelos de negociar temas laborales y compara el grado de impactos sociales positivos que ambos TLC han traído a Colombia varios años después de su implementación.Palabras clave: Tratados de libre comercio, acuerdos laborales paralelos, derechos laborales fundamentales, plan de acción laboral, Resolución 2628. Abstract The Labor Issue in FTA Negotiations: Lessons from Colombia’s Experiences with FTAs with the United States and the European Union Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) signed by Colombia with the United States (2012) and Peru and the European Union (2013) not only marked the central axis of the economic liberalization and integration policy of Alvaro Uribe and Juan Manuel Santos governments, but they also put to test the ability of the US government and the EU institutions to ensure that their commercial policies with countries of the South, such as Colombia, would improve the precarious working conditions of a considerable part of the working population. Furthermore, they also challenge the capacity of the Colombian state to protect and guarantee fundamental labor rights and other social rights. This article examines the differences between both models of negotiating labor issues and compares the degree to which both FTAs have actually brought about positive social impact in Colombia a few years after their formal implementation.Key words: Free Trade Agreements, Parallel Labor Agreements, Fundamental Labor Rights, Labor Action Plan, Resolution 2628.

Fishing Downstream Revisited: A Multi-country Analysis of Antidumping Patterns

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 20170096 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maxwell T. Andersen ◽  
Robert M. Feinberg
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
European Union ◽  
Statistical Estimation ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
The United States ◽  
Trade Barriers ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The Us ◽  
Country Analysis

A long-held view in international trade policy analysis is that import protection flows downstream. The descriptive analysis of Feinberg and Kaplan 1993, looking at trends in upstream and downstream antidumping and countervailing-duty cases since the US Trade Agreements Act of 1979. It covers the period from 1980 to 2015 for the five leading users of temporary trade barriers (TTBs): Argentina, Brazil, the European Union, India, and the United States. We examine evidence for two broad sectors which have dominated the use of TTBs: metals and chemicals. Both via descriptive trend analysis and simple statistical estimation, we find suggestive evidence in support of cascading trade protection, though more so for the developing countries studied.

The World Trade Organization and the European Union

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jens Ladefoged Mortensen
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
European Union ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
The United States ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Current Crisis ◽  
The World ◽  
Sustainable Trade ◽  
The Eu

In a time of trade wars, free trade skepticism, tech rivalry, and multipolar disorder, the European Union (EU) cannot evade its responsibilities the last defender of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Yet, it raises the question of whether the EU has power to defend the WTO. The EU is a multilateralist-oriented power of global magnitude. Unlike the United States, the EU is openly defending the WTO in the current crisis created by continued refusal to appointment WTO Appellate Body members. Like the United States, the EU is concerned with the illegitimate trade practices of China. Yet, the EU uses diplomatic pressure on China within the rules of the WTO. The EU is actively trying to rescue the rule-based trade system. Yet, it cannot do so alone. It needs support, not just form other WTO members but also from within Europe itself. The current crisis is in part rooted in the inability of the WTO members to update the WTO rulebook. The focus will be on the potential clash between a more assertive EU on sustainability and the absence of updated WTO rules on sustainable trade issues. This may force the EU to confront a deep-rooted policy dilemma. The question is whether the EU should continue to refrain from using its market power to promote sustainable trade in respect of the WTO. As the EU is about to ratify several bilateral trade agreements of commercial, geo-economic, and indeed geo-political importance, such as the EU–Mercosur or EU–Vietnam agreements, the rule-orientation of the EU faces growing domestic opposition as well as external contestation. Furthermore, the EU is modernizing its trade defense weaponry, the antidumping instrument, and has recently declared its intent to impose unilateral climate-related trade policy measures, the carbon-adjustment tariff, in the future. Thus, an incident such as the burning of the Amazon forest may force the EU to take a tougher stance on sustainability at the risk of bringing the EU on a collision course with the WTO itself, its rules, process, and member states. Consequently, the complex setup of the EU as a trade power could make it difficult to ratify WTO-compatible trade agreements in the future.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document