WTO Compatibility and the Legal Form of EPAs

WTO Compatibility and the Legal Form of EPAs PDF Author: Ruth Kelly
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This paper considers the compatibility of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the European Commission (EC) and African-Caribbean-Pacific (ACP) countries with the law of the World Trade Organisation. The Eastern and Southern African EPAs are used as a case study. Three possibilities for compatibility are examined. The waiver option is rejected as overly vulnerable to change. It is argued that it is probably possible to justify the agreements under the Enabling Clause, particularly for Eastern and Southern African EPAs. However, non-reciprocal arrangements were not politically acceptable to the EC or to the ACP countries. EPAs have been justified as Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs). As the services components of the Eastern and Southern African EPAs are not yet negotiated, the analysis focuses on the goods components. Although the data currently available is not extensive, preliminary problems for compatibility emerge, including the failure to notify the agreements, the length of the transition periods, compliance with the internal requirement and the safeguard provisions. The WTO compatibility of these EPAs will depend on the extent to which the development objective introduces flexibility into the interpretation of the GATT.

WTO Compatibility and the Legal Form of EPAs

WTO Compatibility and the Legal Form of EPAs PDF Author: Ruth Kelly
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This paper considers the compatibility of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the European Commission (EC) and African-Caribbean-Pacific (ACP) countries with the law of the World Trade Organisation. The Eastern and Southern African EPAs are used as a case study. Three possibilities for compatibility are examined. The waiver option is rejected as overly vulnerable to change. It is argued that it is probably possible to justify the agreements under the Enabling Clause, particularly for Eastern and Southern African EPAs. However, non-reciprocal arrangements were not politically acceptable to the EC or to the ACP countries. EPAs have been justified as Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs). As the services components of the Eastern and Southern African EPAs are not yet negotiated, the analysis focuses on the goods components. Although the data currently available is not extensive, preliminary problems for compatibility emerge, including the failure to notify the agreements, the length of the transition periods, compliance with the internal requirement and the safeguard provisions. The WTO compatibility of these EPAs will depend on the extent to which the development objective introduces flexibility into the interpretation of the GATT.

African Regional Trade Agreements as Legal Regimes

African Regional Trade Agreements as Legal Regimes PDF 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.

Asian Free Trade Agreements and WTO Compatibility

Asian Free Trade Agreements and WTO Compatibility PDF Author: Shintaro Hamanaka
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9814460419
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
This book investigates the appropriate relationship between regionalism and multilateralism, with a special reference to recent FTAs in Asia. It is undeniable that past trade multilateralism-regionalism debates centered on the trade-in-goods aspect.

Food Safety Standards in International Trade

Food Safety Standards in International Trade PDF Author: Onsando Osiemo
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 131552659X
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
Food safety has become a major concern for consumers in the developed world and Europe in particular. This has been highlighted by the recent spate of food scares ranging from the BSE (mad cow) crisis to Chinese melamine contamination of baby formula. To ensure food safety throughout Europe, stringent food safety standards have been put in place ‘from farm to fork’. At the same time, poor African countries in the COMESA rely on their food exports to the European market to achieve their development goals yet have difficulty meeting the EU food safety standards. This book examines the impact of EU food safety standards on food imports from COMESA countries. It also critically examines both EU and COMESA food safety standards in light of the WTO SPS Agreement and the jurisprudence of the WTO panels and Appellate Body. The book makes ground-breaking proposals on how the standards divide between the EU and the COMESA can be bridged and discusses the impact of EU food safety standards on food imports from poor African countries.

A Practical Guide to Trade Policy Analysis

A Practical Guide to Trade Policy Analysis PDF Author: Marc Bacchetta
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789287038128
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Trade flows and trade policies need to be properly quantified to describe, compare, or follow the evolution of policies between sectors or countries or over time. This is essential to ensure that policy choices are made with an appropriate knowledge of the real conditions. This practical guide introduces the main techniques of trade and trade policy data analysis. It shows how to develop the main indexes used to analyze trade flows, tariff structures, and non-tariff measures. It presents the databases needed to construct these indexes as well as the challenges faced in collecting and processing these data, such as measurement errors or aggregation bias. Written by experts with practical experience in the field, A Practical Guide to Trade Policy Analysis has been developed to contribute to enhance developing countries' capacity to analyze and implement trade policy. It offers a hands-on introduction on how to estimate the distributional effects of trade policies on welfare, in particular on inequality and poverty. The guide is aimed at government experts engaged in trade negotiations, as well as students and researchers involved in trade-related study or research. An accompanying DVD contains data sets and program command files required for the exercises. Copublished by the WTO and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development

WTO Law

WTO Law PDF Author: Birgitte Egelund Olsen
Publisher: Kluwer Law International B.V.
ISBN: 9041141952
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 515

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Book Description
The European Union (EU) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) share the distinction of having proven themselves as the two most successful large-scale international trade regulation regimes. This very useful book analyses the core legal concepts and rules that characterise the regulation of trade in the WTO. At the heart of the analysis is a comparison of WTO rules with parallel rules in the EU trade system, revealing how similar trade issues are dealt with in the two systems – a perspective that not only sheds light on how WTO law and EU law interact, but also greatly facilitates an understanding of the special features of WTO law for readers who are more familiar with EU law. Within this framework, the authors explore such key trade issues as the following: dispute settlement; implementation of judicial decisions and enforcement; principles of non-discrimination; trade in goods; non-discriminatory restrictions as barriers to trade; exceptions from trade-liberalisation obligations; trade and environmental protection;trade in agricultural products; conditions for applying safeguard and anti-dumping measures; prohibited and actionable subsidies; regulation of services; protection of intellectual property rights; regional trade agreements; special and differential treatments; government procurement; competition policy; and regulation of investment. As a timely and accessible analysis of the WTO and its interaction with the EU, this book is sure to be welcomed by international trade professionals, government officials, and interested academics, students, and researchers.

North-South Regional Trade Agreements as Legal Regimes

North-South Regional Trade Agreements as Legal Regimes PDF Author: Clair Gammage
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1784719625
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 405

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Book Description
This book offers a critical reflection of the North-South regional trade agreements (RTAs), known as the Economic Partnership Agreements, negotiated between the EU and the African, Caribbean, and Pacific countries. Conceiving of regions as legal regimes, Clair Gammage highlights the challenges facing developing countries when negotiating RTAs with developed countries and interrogates the assumption that these agreements will and can promote sustainable development through trade.

Fairness in International Trade

Fairness in International Trade PDF Author: Geoff Moore
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9048188407
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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Book Description
This book arises out of papers delivered at the World Congress of the International Society of Business, Economics and Ethics (ISBEE) held in Cape Town in 2008. There are two sections. First, a number of key papers provide an insight into global business, wealth creation and welfare issues with particular reference to the African continent - appropriate for a Congress that was based in South Africa and drew wide participation from African scholars. Second, it provides the output from a global research project on "Fairness in International Trade" which ran over the two years prior to the Congress. This project drew together the work of scholars in five regions across the globe and is the first time that such a global perspective has been attempted. This book is aimed at academics working in the area of international trade or development economics particularly those who have an interest in the ethical dimensions of trade. It will also be of interest to students of development economics and business ethics particularly at Masters and Doctoral level.

Development, Trade, and the WTO

Development, Trade, and the WTO PDF Author: Bernard M. Hoekman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : International economic relations
Languages : en
Pages : 682

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Book Description
Publisher's description: Developing countries are increasingly confronted with the need to address trade policy related issues in international agreements, most prominently the World Trade Organization (WTO). New WTO negotiations on a broad range of subjects were launched in November 2001. Determining whether and how international trade agreements can support economic development is a major challenge. Stakeholders in developing countries must be informed on the issues and understand how their interests can be pursued through international cooperation. This handbook offers guidance on the design of trade policy reform, surveys key disciplines and the functioning of the World Trade Organization (WTO), and discusses numerous issues and options that confront developing countries in using international cooperation to improve domestic policy and obtain access to export markets. Many of the issues discussed are also relevant in the context of regional integration agreements. Separate sections of the handbook summarize what constitutes sound trade policy; the major aspects of the WTO from a development perspective; policy issues in the area of merchandise trade and the liberalization of international transactions in services; protection of intellectual property rights and economic development; new regulatory subjects that are emerging in the agenda of trade talks; and enhancing participation of developing countries in the global trading system.

Domestic Regulation and Service Trade Liberalization

Domestic Regulation and Service Trade Liberalization PDF Author: Pierre Sauve
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 0821383434
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
Trade in services, far more than trade in goods, is affected by a variety of domestic regulations, ranging from qualification and licensing requirements in professional services to pro-competitive regulation in telecommunications services. Experience shows that the quality of regulation strongly influences the consequences of trade liberalization. WTO members have agreed that a central task in the ongoing services negotiations will be to develop a set of rules to ensure that domestic regulations support rather than impede trade liberalization. Since these rules are bound to have a profound impact on the evolution of policy, particularly in developing countries, it is important that they be conducive to economically rational policy-making. This book addresses two central questions: What impact can international trade rules on services have on the exercise of domestic regulatory sovereignty? And how can services negotiations be harnessed to promote and consolidate domestic policy reform across highly diverse sectors? The book, with contributions from several of the world's leading experts in the field, explores a range of rule-making challenges arising at this policy interface, in areas such as transparency, standards and the adoption of a necessity test for services trade. Contributions also provide an in-depth look at these issues in the key areas of accountancy, energy, finance, health, telecommunications and transportation services.