Are Regional Trade Agreements Building Blocks or Stumbling Blocks to the Multilateral Trading System?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iqbalfatma Jaffry
Keyword(s):  
Building Blocks ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Regional Trade Agreements ◽  
Regional Trade ◽  
Trading System ◽  
Multilateral Trading System ◽  
The Multilateral Trading System

Regional Trade Agreements in a Multilateral Trade Regime

2005 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Parthapratim Pal
Keyword(s):  
Building Blocks ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Regional Trade Agreements ◽  
Regional Trade ◽  
Trading System ◽  
Multilateral Trading System ◽  
International Trading ◽  
World Trading System ◽  
Intense Debate ◽  
The Multilateral Trading System

One of the most striking developments in the world trading system since the mid 1990s has been the surge in Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs). From about 50 till 1990, the number of RTAs has crossed 250 in 2003. As trading within RTAs does not come under the purview of World Trade Organization (WTO), this explosive growth of regionalism is threatening to emerge as an alternative to the WTO led international trading system. This has initiated an intense debate among economists whether RTAs are “building blocks” or “stumbling blocks” of the multilateral trading system. In this backdrop, this paper traces the reasons behind this resurgent regionalism and surveys the literature on RTAs and its interaction with the multilateral trading system. This paper attempts to look at these issues from the perspective of a developing country.

scholarly journals THE EFFECTS OF MEGA-REGIONAL TRADE AGREEMENTS ON THE MULTILATERAL TRADING SYSTEM // EFEKTI MEGA-REGIONALNIH SPORAZUMA NA MULTILATERALNI TRGOVINSKI SUSTAV

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vlatka Bilas ◽  
Sanja Franc
Keyword(s):  
Emerging Economies ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Regional Trade Agreements ◽  
Regional Trade ◽  
Trading System ◽  
Transatlantic Trade ◽  
Global Standards ◽  
Multilateral Trading System ◽  
Trade And Investment ◽  
The Multilateral Trading System

The aim of this study is to investigate the motives and effects of mega-regional trade agreements on the multilateral trading system using the example of Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). Multilateralism and regionalism, although opposite trends, coexist simultaneously. While many arguments can be given for both approaches one has to recognize that the number of regional trade agreements is increasing and that regionalism is becoming a prevailing trend. The response to the regional trade agreements, especially mega-regionals, will mostly depend upon the effect on the third countries’ trade interests. Since it is expected that, over time, many of the currently excluded emerging economies will become a part of some mega-regional agreement, it is not likely that new global standards and rules will be created on a strictly regional but rather on multilateral level.

Regionalism and the Multilateral Trading System

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
James P. Murphy ◽  
Carolan McLarney
Keyword(s):  
World Trade ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Regional Trade Agreements ◽  
Regional Trade ◽  
Trading System ◽  
Trade Area ◽  
The Us ◽  
Multilateral Trading System ◽  
The World ◽  
The Multilateral Trading System

Regionalism and the Multilateral Trading System: The Role of Regional Trade Agreements is a discussion about the new reality and the evolution of the reduction of international barriers to freer trade under the World Trade Organization (WTO) formerly the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT). The chapter devotes time to the two largest regional trade agreements (RTAs), the European Union (EU) with 28 countries and North American Trading Agreement (NAFTA) with three countries account for half of all world trade (WTO, 2017a). The US set a course post World War II as the proponent of globalization and freer trade. RTAs at that time were failing or inconsequential. In response to the EU trading block, the US committed to a (Free Trade Area) FTA with Canada and subsequently the NAFTA with Canada and Mexico the rest of the world began to become concerned about being shut out of a preferential trade deal. The main theme of the chapter is that trade liberalization is moving forward because of Regional Trading agreements, not the WTO which is stalled and may never restart in its current form.

When the Multilateral Meets the Regionals: Regional Trade Agreements at WTO Dispute Settlement

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
MICHELLE Q. ZANG
Keyword(s):  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Regional Trade Agreements ◽  
Regional Trade ◽  
Trading System ◽  
Appellate Body ◽  
Wto Dispute Settlement ◽  
Multilateral Trading System ◽  
The One

AbstractInteraction between regional trade agreements (RTAs) and the multilateral trading system established by the World Trade Organization (WTO) is an issue of significance but nevertheless remains unsettled. This article aims to explore the influence RTAs have generated had on the WTO system, with particular focus on the approach adopted by the adjudicators when dealing with irreconcilable RTA–WTO conflicts. During the development of 20 years’ jurisprudence, WTO adjudicators offered responses to a number of critical questions. On the one hand, direct endorsement of RTA provisions with the effect of prevailing over the counterpart WTO rules appears to be very difficult, either through legal interpretation or application. On the other hand, unlike often being argued, a close review of WTO case law does not reveal a biased adjudicatory approach against regionalism, as compared to other sources of public international law. When dealing with RTA-related matters, the Appellate Body has been advocating an all-encompassing approach featured by the emphasis on the common intention during the interpretative exercise and the promotion for the WTO built-in mechanisms for valid modification. Such an approach is, to a certain extent, misleading in the RTA –WTO context and has led to certain ill-founded adjudicatory choice.

scholarly journals The Southern African Development Community Trade Legal Instruments Compliance with Certain Criteria of GATT Article XXIV

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 286
Author(s):  
A Saurombe
Keyword(s):  
Free Trade ◽  
Free Trade Area ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Regional Trade Agreements ◽  
Regional Trade ◽  
Trading System ◽  
Legal Principles ◽  
Customs Unions ◽  
Trade Area ◽  
Multilateral Trading System

Article XXIV of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) lays down the legal principles with which regional trade agreements have to conform.  Based on these principles, WTO members have the mandate to determine the legality of Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) under the GATT.  Article XXIV permits both regional and bilateral preferential trade agreements leading to the formation of customs unions and free trade areas, and seeks to integrate them in the multilateral trading system envisioned for the world.  SADC is an RTA created under this Article. Notwithstanding the controversies surrounding the provisions and interpretation of Article XXIV, this paper seeks to establish the extent to which the SADC Protocol on Trade and free trade area comply with WTO rules. An analysis of selected Article XXIV provisions and the SADC Trade Protocol provisions will be undertaken in trying to establish this compliance.

scholarly journals The Two Noble Kinsmen: Internal and Legal Transparency in the WTO and Their Connection to Preferential and Regional Trade Agreements

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 539-569
Author(s):  
Maria Panezi
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Regional Trade Agreements ◽  
Regional Trade ◽  
Preferential Trade ◽  
Institutional Processes ◽  
Multilateral Trading System ◽  
The Impact

Abstract The proliferation of Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs) and Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) has given rise to significant debate on the need to measure, understand and possibly regulate the impact these agreements have on the multilateral trading system under the umbrella of the World Trade Organization (WTO). This article will discuss the two Doha Transparency Mechanisms (legal transparency) regarding regional trade agreements, as they appear in two General Council decisions from 2006 and 2010. I will argue based on a closer look and a consistent interpretation of Paragraph 10 of the Doha Ministerial Declaration that there is another type of transparency that is relevant to the discussion on PTAs/RTAs, namely “internal transparency.” “Internal transparency stricto sensu” highlights the significance of trust in the WTO institutional processes, such as negotiations, decision-making, dispute settlement and trade monitoring that the representatives of developing member states should have in order for the WTO system to function productively. “Internal transparency lato sensu” is introduced in this article as an extension to include any decision-making deficits, exclusionary and asymmetrical outcomes specifically in the area of unchecked Preferential Trade Agreement proliferation. Instead of a conclusion, the article offers some proposals for more a meaningful progress in the WTO with respect to PTAs/RTAs The proposals aim at raising the profile of both legal and internal of transparency and posit that raising the profile of one will inevitably lead in improvements in the other.

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