Author: R. A. Sandrey
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Free trade
Languages : en
Pages : 35
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Book Description
"In a world where the World Trade Organization (WTO) has lost much of its momentum, attention has been focused on regional and bilateral trade agreements. Two of these agreements are considered to be 'mega-regional' whereby groupings of the largest developed economies make declarations of co-operation and possible integration. They are the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) between the US and many of the Asian-Pacific countries, and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the US and the European Union (EU). At the same time, South Africa is evaluating many of its unilateral and regional policies in the context of the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) for Eastern and Southern Africa. This paper assesses the mega regionals and their implications for South Africa. The difficulty is that these mega regionals are engaged in negotiations and little real information on this negotiation process, let alone a possible outcome, is available. As a result, assessing the final implications, even assuming that there will be agreed final negotiated settlements, involves a great deal of speculation. We do know, however, that the eventual agreements will be 'WTO-plus' in that they will be comprehensive in scope and go beyond the agreements reached in the multilateral WTO global benchmarks for trade and trade-related liberalisation. This will reinforce South Africa's realisation that it must similarly move forward with its unilateral and regional policies in order to keep abreast of international developments and best practices. In this paper the main focus is on the TPP, as it is the most advanced both in its negotiations and in the economic and development status diversity of its members. Its potential outcome also holds the most interest and important lessons for South Africa and the TFTA"--Publisher's web site.
Author: Peter Draper
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Free trade
Languages : en
Pages : 34
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Book Description
"For many years the Doha Round of negotiations of the World Trade Organization (WTO) had been in the doldrums, with little apparent prospect of success in its primary aim. In the wake of the ninth WTO ministerial conference in Bali in December 2013 there is renewed optimism that the WTO can deliver, and that something can still be made of the Round. The time is thus right for WTO member states to reappraise their positions in the Round in the context of their overarching domestic and regional trade strategies. Central to any appraisal is the new geopolitical reality represented by the free trade agreements (FTAs) being negotiated by the major industrial powers. Led by the US, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) are wide in scope, deep in ambition, and laden with implications for both non-states parties and the global trading system. Partly the products of the WTO impasse, these potential agreements have sucked negotiating energy out of the WTO, reducing the focus on bringing the Doha Round to a conclusion. They are also the product of China's geopolitical rise, to the point where it is close to asserting its leadership in the global trading system. The US and its European Union counterparts are also driven by their own geopolitical imperatives of locking in access to key markets and regions, a thrust that has direct implications for outsider states. Not surprisingly, China and other major developing economies are responding with initiatives of their own, such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership negotiations in Asia and the Pacific. Hence there is renewed impetus in FTA negotiations across the world. The paper explores these issues and lays out the policy options for South Africa in light of these developments"--Publisher's web site.
Author: Gbadebo Odularu
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319455699
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 166
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Book Description
This book provides a comprehensive analysis of South-South regional trade issues, with a particular focus on sustainably fostering Africa’s regional trade agenda. It examines the extent to which South-South regional trade agreements (RTAs) have contributed toward enhancing regional integration and economic expansion in Africa in particular, and in the South in general. The authors recommend new conceptual frameworks, appropriate initiatives, and workable policy recipes to help South-South RTAs enhance Africa’s economic transformation trajectory. The book underscores the geo-politics, as well as the opportunities and challenges that emerging economies now represent for Africa in the context of South-South regional trade policy. Readers will learn how Africa can strengthen its regional trade game by securing and building on the positive outcomes of South-South RTAs.
Author: Francis A. Kornegay
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : BRIC countries
Languages : en
Pages : 11
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Book Description
Global trade strategy does not appear to be a major focus of the Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (BRICS) grouping, apart from the priority given to completing the stalled World Trade Organization Doha Development Round of negotiations. Mega-regional trade initiatives led by the US -- the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) -- have stepped into the gap. These initiatives reflect a wider regionalisation of trade dynamics, which the BRICS, both individually and collectively, are already addressing in navigating their response to the TPP-TTIP. The tripartite free trade agreement between the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, the Southern African Development Community and the East African Community reflects one such option for South Africa as it tries to navigate contradictions involving its Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union (EU) and its hopes of not being "graduated" out of the US extension of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). It is in South Africa's interest to promote a US-EU harmonisation between the AGOA extension and the EPAs.
Author: Thilo Rensmann
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319566636
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 377
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Book Description
This book provides an in-depth analysis of "Mega-Regionals", the new generation of trans-regional free-trade agreements (FTAs) currently under negotiation, and their effect on the future of international economic law. The main focus centres on the EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), but the findings are also applicable to similar agreements under negotiation, such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).The specific features of Mega-Regional Trade Agreements raise a number of issues with respect to their potential effect on the current system of international trade and investment law. These include the consequences of Mega-Regionals for the most-favoured-nation (MFN) principle, their relation to the multilateral system of the World Trade Organization (WTO), their democratic legitimacy and their interaction with existing bilateral investment treaties (BITs).The book is intended for academics and practitioners working in the field of international economic law.
Author: Victor Murinde
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351889400
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 274
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Book Description
In the last ten years, while GATT and (later) WTO were actively advocating the doctrine of free trade, the world witnessed unprecedented formation of regional trading blocs. Focusing on the prospects and challenges of the free trade area of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the question of regional trade integration, the book also combines in-depth theoretical and empirical analysis with leading edge discussion of institutional and policy issues from a variety of African economies. This text makes a timely contribution not only to our understanding of the prospects and challenges of regional trading arrangements in Africa but also to the paradigm of regional trade integration in developing countries. Systematically structured, with thematically linked chapters and rigorous referencing, it is an essential guide for an international audience of academics, researchers, students and practitioners in International Trade, International Economics, Development Finance and Development Economics.
Author: James Thuo Gathii
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139498592
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 525
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Book Description
African regional trade integration has grown exponentially in the last decade. This book is the first comprehensive analysis of the legal framework within which it is being pursued. It will fill a huge knowledge gap and serve as an invaluable teaching and research tool for policy makers in the public and private sectors, teachers, researchers and students of African trade and beyond. The author argues that African Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) are best understood as flexible legal regimes particularly given their commitment to variable geometry and multiple memberships. He analyzes the progress made toward trade liberalization in each region, how the RTAs are financed, their trade remedy and judicial regimes, and how well they measure up to Article XXIV of GATT. The book also covers monetary unions as well as intra-African regional integration, and examines free trade agreements with non-African regions including the Economic Partnership Agreements with the European Union.
Author: Manuel De la Rocha
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category : Africa, Eastern
Languages : en
Pages : 32
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Book Description
Subregional trade arrangements (RTAs) in Eastern and Southern Africa have proliferated in the past 10 to 15 years. The small size of most of the countries in the region, some of which are landlocked, and the security needs in the post independence period largely explain the rapid expansion. These arrangements are characterized by multiple and overlapping memberships, complex structures, and eventually, conflicting and confusing commitments. The influence of RTAs has been limited to assisting the region in increasing trade, attracting foreign direct investment, enhancing growth, and achieving convergence among member countries. But despite their limitations, RTAs have the potential, if properly designed and effectively implemented, to be an important instrument in integrating member countries into global markets. In 1998 most of the Southern African countries, as members of the Africa Caribbean Pacific group (ACP), signed the Cotonou Agreement with the European Union, which includes the negotiation of economic partnership agreements (EPAs) between the EU and the ACP. The Cotonou Agreement explicitly leaves to the ACP countries to decide the level and procedures of the EPA trade negotiations, taking into account the regional integration process. This raises the question of how to decide on the groupings in the context of conflicting regional trade agendas. The author argues that the Cotonou Agreement and EPA negotiations could become the external driving force that will push the regional organizations to rationalize and harmonize their regional trade arrangements, thus strengthening the integration process and economies of the region, and assisting the Eastern and Southern Africa region in becoming a more active partner in the global economy.
Author: Pankhuri Gaur
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1040164498
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 201
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Book Description
The world has witnessed the proliferation of Mega-Regional Trade Agreements (MRTAs), and this book critically examines a range of issues with MRTAs starting from their genesis to their economic clout over the world, the likely implications for member countries’ integration, and the challenges they pose for non-member countries. Gaur focuses on concerns and challenges that non-member countries like India, South Africa, and Argentina, among others are facing with the World Trade Organization (WTO) standstill and how these MRTAs are becoming a cause of concern for the multilateral trade organization. The book also discusses the major reasons for India’s withdrawal from Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and tries to answer these questions – Should India join RCEP or the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP)? Taking into account India’s economic and strategic concerns, various models and indices are used to evaluate the effect on trade and investment. It also emphasizes the trade and investment linkages of India in these mega-regionals and the consequences for MRTA member countries. The consequences of India’s absence from the RCEP and mega-regionalism in general are also examined. This book is useful for research scholars working in the field of international economics as well as government aids and policymakers. It will also be valuable for classes in international trade and integration, international relations, international security and regional studies.
Author: Yongzheng Yang
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1451980388
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 56
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Book Description
In recent years, African policymakers have increasingly resorted to regional trade arrangements (RTAs) as a substitute for broad-based trade liberalization. This trend has long-term implications for the effectiveness of trade policy as a tool for poverty reduction and growth. This paper examines the record of RTAs in promoting trade and investment. It also explores policy measures that may help improve RTAs' performance.
