How will TPP and TTIP change the WTO system? Hufbauer, Gary Clyde; Cimino-Isaacs, Cathleen
Journal of international economic law,
09/2015, Letnik:
18, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The rise of new free trade agreements in the 1990s and early 2000s altered the dynamic of the World Trade Organization (WTO) as the arbiter of world commerce forever. Moreover, WTO negotiating rounds ...over the past decade have been beset with irreconcilable objectives among WTO members, with emerging market members fundamentally opposed to opening their markets to exports from advanced countries. The consequence was scant progress and missed deadlines, culminating in the failed Geneva Ministerial of 2008. At the Bali Ministerial in 2013, the WTO members could only muster strength to endorse the Trade Facilitation Agreement, while postponing action on numerous and more contentious Doha issues. The cumulative result is that the WTO is now at the back of the parade in addressing 21st-century trade issues. Two mega-regionals-the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)-will undoubtedly change the multilateral trading system. This article assumes both negotiations will be concluded and ratified by 2018. However, even if neither mega-regional agreement succeeded, their negotiating objectives and ultimate stumbling blocks will shape the future of the WTO. If WTO members collectively reject the lessons, the institution will fade as an arbiter of commercial relations between nations.
Let me begin by tracing my assumptions about the expectations and aspirations various groups hold of international rules. Most people prefer a slowly growing but steady economy to a rapidly growing ...but volatile economy. People intensely dislike a sudden rise in unemployment or a sudden collapse in asset values (homes and shares). Indeed, in democratic countries, sharp economic downturns often lead to a turnover of political leadership. To summarize, people want the rules to deliver 'macro-stability', as Michael Gadbaw has rightly emphasized.
NAFTA Revisited Gary Clyde Hufbauer, Jeffrey Schott, Paul L. E. Grieco, Yee Wong
2005, 2005-10-15
eBook, Book
NAFTA entered into force in 1994 after a bitter Congressional debate. But NAFTA in operation has proved no less controversial than NAFTA before ratification, for both supporters and opponents of ...trade liberalization have cited experience with the agreement to justify their positions. To provide a factual basis for this ongoing debate, the authors evaluate NAFTA's performance over the first seven years, comparing actual experience with both the objectives of the agreement's supporters and the charges of its critics. They then examine future challenges and opportunities in the trade and investment relationships among the three partner countries and the broader implications for new trade initiatives throughout the hemisphere.
Increasing terrorist activity has led the Maghreb countries--Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Mauritania, and Libya--to focus on antiterrorism efforts, unintentionally at the expense of full-fledged ...economic reform. These countries have tightened their border restrictions on the flow of people and goods, reducing commerce and depressing economic activity. In fact, Maghreb has one of the lowest rates of intra-regional trade in the world; other factors like rigid economic structures, slow productivity growth, and modest investment levels continue to stymie progress toward economic integration. * Do these countries' diverse circumstances symbolize insurmountable obstacles in achieving economic cooperation and an improved standard of living for citizens? How can the United States and European Union facilitate economic progress? Maghreb Regional and Global Integration: A Dream to Be Fulfilled utilizes two distinct econometric tools to assess four key sectors--energy, banking and insurance, transport, and agribusiness--and outlines achievable sector-specific recommendations. This book not only assesses the gains from economic integration among the Maghreb countries, but also focuses on the tangible benefits from enhanced economic ties between the region and the world economy. With this critical analysis, the authors provide an in-depth look at practical measures such as bilateral trade and investment agreements, regional arrangements, and financial assistance that can significantly boost short-term success and ensure long-term gains through integration in an unstable region.
Since 1992, new issues have arisen in international taxation--for example, taxation of electronic commerce, novel means of shielding passive income, the World Trade Organization (WTO) debate over the ...foreign sales corporation and subsequent passage of the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004, the problem of corporate inversions, and alleged "earnings stripping" by foreign-based multinational enterprises (MNEs) operating in the United States. In the meantime, US-based MNEs operating abroad have used a variety of methods to cut the effective US tax on repatriated foreign source income to around 2 percent. This revised study analyzes the impact of taxes on industry location and profit shifting using new panel econometric studies. It also discusses and evaluates new paradigms that have been suggested for the international tax system.
The summit of the Americas hosted by President Clinton in December 1994 has given strong impetus to Western Hemisphere economic integration. This is the first comprehensive analysis of the economics ...and politics of a Western Hemisphere Free Trade Agreement. It has attracted considerable attention in business and policy circles throughout the hemisphere and is widely credited with having influenced the decision of the hemispheric heads of state to seek a free trade agreement by 2005. The US "sherpa" for the Summit, Assistant Secretary of State Alexander Watson, has described the book as the blueprint for US policy.The authors recommend that the NAFTA be extended to includeall of the countries in the region when and as they undertakethe economic and political reforms necessary to join. Theydevelop a set of readiness indicators to assess each country'spreparedness to join the NAFTA. The study approaches the subject from four perspectives: what trade issues the negotiations should cover;how the negotiations might be formally structured; whatimplications an agreement might hold for the multilateral trading system; and what the hemispheric agreement could mean for relations among Latin American countries and between them and countries inEurope and Asia.
Here, international economists Gary Clyde Hufbauer and Kati Suominen argue that globalization has been a force of great good, one that needs to be actively advanced and honed.
In the wake of the Great Recession of 200809, economists feared that protectionist policies might sweep the world economy, echoing the wave of tariff escalations during the Great Depression of the ...1930s. To some surprise, officials were more restrained and largely avoided traditional forms of protection (tariffs and quotas). As a result, economists underestimated the incidence of new protectionism because policymakers increasingly turned to more opaque behind-the-border nontariff barriers (NTBs).Using a combination of statistical analysis and case studies, the authors show that local content requirements (LCRs), a form of NTB, have become increasingly popular. How much was global trade actually reduced on account of LCRs? A conservative estimate might be $93 billion. Case studies featured cover the healthcare sector in Brazil, wind turbines in Canada, the automobile industry in China, solar cells and modules in India, oil and gas in Nigeria, and "Buy American" restrictions on government procurement.
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