Open Regionalism in a World of Continental Trade Blocs

Shang-Jin Wei; Jeffrey A. Frankel

doi:10.2307/3867411

An Exclusive Country Club: The Effects of the GATT on Trade, 1950–94

World Politics ◽

10.1353/wp.2006.0010 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 57 (4) ◽

pp. 453-478 ◽

Cited By ~ 54

Author(s):

Joanne Gowa ◽

Soo Yeon Kim

Keyword(s):

World War Ii ◽

Bilateral Trade ◽

World War ◽

Trade Blocs ◽

Country Club ◽

Before And After ◽

Bilateral Trade Flows ◽

Using Data ◽

Exchange Control ◽

The Impact

Using data on bilateral trade flows from both before and after World War II, this article examines the impact of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade on trade between its members and on the system of interwar trade blocs. It shows that the distribution of the benefits produced by the GATT was much more highly skewed than conventional wisdom assumes. The article also shows that the gold, Commonwealth, Reichsmark, and exchange-control blocs exerted positive and significant effects on trade after 1945. The authors attribute these effects to the bargaining protocol that governed successive rounds of GATT negotiations, the signature element of the postwar trade regime.

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Changing Tides: Geopolitics and Global Trade Blocs

The Segmentation of Europe ◽

10.1057/978-1-137-59013-8_10 ◽

2017 ◽

pp. 251-267

Author(s):

Mark Baimbridge ◽

Ioannis Litsios ◽

Karen Jackson ◽

Uih Ran Lee

Keyword(s):

Global Trade ◽

Trade Blocs

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Latin American Trade Blocs

An Atlas and Survey of Latin American History ◽

10.4324/9781351186032-46 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 108-109

Author(s):

Michael J. LaRosa ◽

Germán R. Mejía

Keyword(s):

Latin American ◽

Trade Blocs ◽

American Trade

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Conclusion

10.7591/cornell/9781501754517.003.0011 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 272-274

Author(s):

Sarosh Kuruvilla

Keyword(s):

Working Conditions ◽

Labor Standards ◽

The European Union ◽

Labor Laws ◽

Regional Trade ◽

Private Regulation ◽

Contract Work ◽

Playing Field ◽

Trade Blocs ◽

National Governments

This concluding chapter reviews the key findings and arguments of this book regarding private regulation. It also looks at other suggestions to reform and improve private regulation which are not canvassed extensively in this book. An important one is to reform the buyer–supplier contract to make the contract “work both ways” — that is, level the playing field so suppliers and workers can sue for buyer compliance. A second concerns institutionalizing unemployment insurance for supply chain workers. Meanwhile, a third suggestion is that global buyers reform their sourcing to source only from countries with good labor standards, or at a minimum, clearly indicate to those country's governments that they will stop sourcing if labor laws are not enforced. Ultimately, private regulation is not a panacea, and researchers have pointed to other steps that could improve working conditions in supply chains. For one thing, national governments need to do a better job enforcing existing labor laws; indeed, it was governments' failure to do so that gave rise to private regulation. Another step is regionalization — harmonizing national labor standards within regional trade blocs through arrangements similar to those employed by the European Union. Moreover, labor standards could be improved if the International Labour Organization (ILO) could be more forceful with its members with respect to adhering to ILO conventions.

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