Preferential Trade Agreements
A Law and Economics Analysis

Examines preferential trade agreements and the various dysfunctions that place them among the priority items for negotiation by the WTO.

Kyle W. Bagwell (Edited by), Petros C. Mavroidis (Edited by)

9781107459359, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 30 October 2014

290 pages, 9 b/w illus. 26 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.39 kg

This volume assembles a stellar group of scholars and experts to examine preferential trade agreements (PTAs), a topic that has time and again attracted the interest of analysts. It presents a discussion of the evolving economic analysis regarding PTAs and the various dysfunctions that continually place them among the priority items for (re)negotiation by the WTO. The book explores recent empirical research that casts doubt on the old 'trade diversion' school and debates why the WTO should deal with PTAs and if PTAs belong under the mandate of the WTO as we now know it.

1. Preferential trading agreements: friend or foe? L. Alan Winters
2. The legalization of GATT Article XXIV - can foes become friends? James H. Mathis
3. Third country effects of regional trade agreements Caroline Freund
4. Contingent protection rules in regional trade agreements Thomas J. Prusa and Robert Teh
5. Commentary on Prusa/Teh, contingent protection rules in regional trade agreements David A. Gantz
6. The limits of PTAs: WTO legal restrictions on the use of WTO-plus standards regulation in PTAs Joel P. Trachtman
7. Beyond the WTO? an anatomy of EU and US preferential trade agreements Henrik Horn, Petros C. Mavroidis and André Sapir
8. Straightening the spaghetti bowl Gary N. Horlick
9. Comments on 'Beyond the WTO? Coverage and legal inflation in EU and US preferential trade agreements' by Horn, Mavroidis and Sapir Nuno Limão
10. Labour clauses in EU preferential trade agreements - an analysis of the Cotonou Partnership agreement Jeff Kenner
11. Do PTAs actually increase parties' services trade? Juan A. Marchetti
12. A model Article XXIV: are there realistic possibilities to improve it? William J. Davey
13. Comments on 'A model Article XXIV: are there realistic possibilities to improve it?' by William Davey T. N. Srinivasan.

Subject Areas: International economic & trade law [LBBM], Law [L], International economics [KCL]