Regional Rules in the Global Trading System

This book describes the rules governing regional trade agreements, providing new insights into the interplay between regional and multilateral trade rules.

Antoni Estevadeordal (Edited by), Kati Suominen (Edited by), Robert Teh (Edited by)

9780521760843, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 18 June 2009

540 pages
23.5 x 15.6 x 2.7 cm, 0.89 kg

'The volume makes a useful contribution to existing literature and will be of interest not only to a policy audience, but also to researchers.' The Journal of World Trade Review

The proliferation of regional trade agreements (RTAs) over the past two decades has highlighted the need to look closely at the potential conflicts between regional and WTO rules or disciplines. A major obstacle to advancing understanding of RTAs is the absence of detailed information about their contents. This has limited the debate between those who view RTAs as discriminatory instruments hostage to protectionist interests and those who see them as conducive to multilateral trade opening. This book provides detailed analysis of RTA rules in six key areas - market access, technical barriers to trade, contingent protection, investment, services and competition policy - across dozens of the main RTAs in the world. The analysis helps to provide new insights into the interplay between regional and multilateral trade rules, advances understanding of the economic effects of RTAs and contributes to the discussion on how to deal with the burgeoning number of RTAs.

1. Introduction Antoni Estevadeordal, Kati Suominen and Robert Teh
2. Big-think regionalism: a critical survey Richard Baldwin
3. Market access provisions in regional trade agreements Antoni Estevadeordal, Matthew Shearer and Kati Suominen
4. Trade remedy provisions in regional trade agreements Robert Teh, Thomas J. Prusa and Michele Budetta
5. A mapping of regional rules on technical barriers to trade Roberta Piermartini and Michele Budetta
6. Services liberalization in the new generation of preferential trade agreements (PTAs): how much further than the GATS? Martin Roy, Juan Marchetti and Hoe Lim
7. Mapping investment provisions in regional trade agreements: towards an international investment regime? Barbara Kotschwar
8. Competition provisions in regional trade agreements Robert Teh
Appendix.

Subject Areas: International economic & trade law [LBBM]