Latin America-European Union relations in the twenty-first century provides a valuable overview of transatlantic trade agreement negotiations and developments in the first decades of the twenty-first century. This edited collection examines key motivations behind trade agreements, traces the evolution of negotiations and explores some of the initial impacts of new generation trade agreements with the EU on South American countries. The book makes an important contribution to our understanding of relations between these regions by contextualising relations and trade agendas, both in terms of domestic political and economic policies and broader global trends. It demonstrates the importance of a shift toward mega-regional trade agreements in the 2010s, particularly under the Obama administration in the United States, in shaping South American and European agendas for trade agreement negotiations and their outcomes. Detailed case studies in the book investigate EU relations and negotiations with countries that have successfully negotiated new generation trade agreements with the EU: Mercosur, the Andean states, Chile and Mexico. Other contributions offer a wider overview of EU-Latin American relations, including parliamentary and civil society relations. The net result is a balanced analysis of contemporary EU relations with South America, useful for students and scholars of foreign policy and political economy in both regions. -- .

The rapid liberalization of international trade and investment, and the growing importance of environmental protection, are two key elements of international relations in the modern world. Yet the two regimes often clash, as recent disputes in the WTO and arguments over the OECD's proposed Multilateral Agreement on Investment, have shown. In this book, leading international authorities set out the trade, investment, and environment agenda as the Millennium Round of trade negotiations approaches. Topics covered include building markets for sustainable trade; environmental treaties and trade; environmental regulation, finance, and transnational corporations; environmental regulation and international investment (including an analysis of the collapse of the MAI talks); conflict resolution in the WTO (including the important implications of the shrimp-turtle dispute); and a wide-ranging discussion on the future of the trade/investment/environment debate. Not available through Brookings in the UK and Europe

This book presents a comprehensive view of recent developments in the theory of international trade agreements and political economy, by focusing on research by Raymond Riezman. This pioneering work introduced terms of trade effects and strategic behavior to the theory of international trade agreements. This is complemented by a careful analysis of how politics affects international trade agreements.The book brings together work which focuses on the question of why international trade agreements occur and what forms they take.

This volume provides a comprehensive assessment of the likely effects of the Uruguay Round agreements on the dynamic economies of East Asia. The rapid development of these countries owes much to the strong export performance and unilateral deregulation of their economies in recent years. Their major stake in maintaining the integrity of the global trading system was demonstrated by their active participation in the negotiations. The impact of the Uruguay Round liberalisation on East Asian economic development and policies is evaluated using sophisticated CGE models to estimate the effects on trade and income. The strengthening of trade rules and dispute settlement procedures are examined by a group of world trade experts. They establish that some gaps in the system remain to be tackled (anti-dumping, regional discrimination) and that some new problems are pending (competition policy, investment).

In Europe, Africa is often called the forgotten continent. The collapse of states, violent conflicts and natural disasters shape the public perception of Africa in Europe, while the political perspectives tend to be grossly neglected. This book wants to challenge this image in the eyes of many people through a profound analysis of main aspects of African-European relations.

Transforming NATO: New Allies, Missions, and Capabilities, by Ivan Dinev Ivanov, examines the three dimensions of NATO s transformation since the end of the Cold War: the addition of a dozen new allies; the undertaking of new missions such as peacekeeping, crisis response, and stabilization; and the development of new capabilities to implement these missions. The book explains these processes through two mutually reinforcing frameworks: club goods theory and the concept of complementarities. NATO can be viewed as a diverse, heterogeneous club of nations providing collective defense to its members, who, in turn, combine their military resources in a way that enables them to optimize the Alliance s capabilities needed for overseas operations. Transforming NATO makes a number of theoretical contributions. First, it offers new insights into understanding how heterogeneous clubs operate. Second, it introduces a novel concept, that of complementarities. Finally, it re-evaluates the relevance of club goods theory as a framework for studying contemporary international security. These conceptual foundations apply to areas well beyond NATO. They provide useful insights into understanding the operation of transatlantic relations, alliance politics, and a broader set of international coalitions and partnerships. This update in April 2013 covers new developments related to NATO s transformation after this book was originally published: http: //homepages.uc.edu/ ivanovid/pdfs/book_update.pdf"

Agriculture has been the unruly horse of the GATT/WTO system for a long time and efforts to halter it are still ongoing. This Research Handbook focuses on aspects of agricultural production and trade policy that are recognized for their importance but are often kept out of the limelight, such as the implication of national and international agricultural production and trade policies on national food security, global climate change, and biotechnology. It provides a summary of the state of the WTO agriculture negotiations as well as the relevant jurisprudence, but also, and uniquely, it focuses on the new and emerging issues of agricultural trade law and policy that are rarely addressed in the existing literature. With contributions from a multi-disciplinary team of leading analysts from around the world, this Research Handbook will appeal to trade negotiators, international trade law and policy academics as well as postgraduate students in the field. Contributors include: K. Anderson, D. Blandford, M. Cardwell, I. Carreno, M.G. Desta, G. Dutfield, C. Haberli, L.A. Jackson, T. Josling, E. Laurenza, A. Matthews, J.A. McMahon, F. Smith, S. Switzer

Contemporary trade policy is increasingly framed in geo-strategic terms. But how much of that rhetoric is reflected in actual policy choices by the EU or its trading partners? This book provides a first systematic study of the broader international context in which EU trade agreements are conceived, negotiated, and designed. Building on a refined conceptualisation of geo-economics, the book develops a cogent framework that combines insights from scholarship on the design of free trade agreements with ideas from foreign policy analysis. Empirically, the analysis focuses on the relations between the EU and the Asia-Pacific. Following the United States' pivot to Asia and the EU's Global Europe strategy, China's backyard has become the main arena in which global powers' geo-economic strategies overlap. Building on a series of case-studies, combining the perspectives from the EU and its trading partners, the book shows that the rhetoric of geo-economic competition is yet to catch up with the actual negotiation and design of free trade agreements. This volume will be of great interest to scholars, students and practitioners who want to gain a holistic understanding of contemporary trade negotiations.

How globalized information networks can be used for strategic advantage.Until recently, globalization was viewed, on balance, as an inherently good thing that would benefit people and societies nearly everywhere. Now there is growing concern that some countries will use their position in globalized networks to gain undue influence over other societies through their dominance of information and financial networks, a concept known as 'weaponized interdependence'. In exploring the conditions under which China, Russia, and the United States might be expected to weaponize control of information and manipulate the global economy, the contributors to this volume challenge scholars and practitioners to think differently about foreign economic policy, national security, and statecraft for the twenty-first century. The book addresses such questions as: What areas of the global economy are most vulnerable to unilateral control of information and financial networks? How sustainable is the use of weaponized interdependence? What are the possible responses from targeted actors? And how sustainable is the open global economy if weaponized interdependence becomes a default tool for managing international relations?

The Post-Uruguay Round era has seen a proliferation of regional preferential trade agreements (PTAs), as well as progressive multilateral trade liberalization initiatives. This has stimulated theoretical discussion on whether the policy of pursuing PTAs will have a malign or a benign impact on multilateralism. In the former case, proliferation of PTAs may increase protection in global trade due to trade diversion effects, thereby creating impediments to the multilateral freeing of global trade. In the latter case, the expansion of PTA membership could ultimately lead to non-discriminatory global free trade. At the core of this discussion two issues are at stage: what determines the expansion of PTA membership and how to bring order into the architecture of the world trading system. While those questions are mainly studied from a specialist perspective in the literature, this volume offers a comprehensive view on this topic. In Multilateralism and Regionalism in the Post-Uruguay Round Era: What Role for the EU? international experts: Explain the reasons for the concurrent appearance of regionalism and multilateralism in the Post-Uruguay Round era; Shed light on the motives of both the two economic superpowers (the United States and the EU) and the developing countries for pursuing PTAs; Confront growing preferential regionalism with the academic consensus on the superiority of multilateralism; Discuss the future of the PTAs; Assess the access of the EU market for the products of LDCs; Offer a better understanding of the experience of African, Latin American and Asian countries concerning access to the EU market for their products; and Discuss the possibilities of disciplining the PTAroute towards global free trade within the WTO framework.

After an exploration of the experience gained by former central and eastern European countries in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, Peter Naray gives an analysis of the Russian economic and social crisis and comes to the conclusion that this crisis is responsible for the delay of Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). The author criticizes the approach taken in Russian reforms because the country's historical legacy (weak legal system, underdeveloped political and economic institutions etc.) was neglected. The book describes the steps made by Russia towards WTO membership underlining the present and expected difficulties. It warns against a fundamentalist approach by the members of the WTO that may result in Russia's isolation in political and economic matters that would represent a danger to the whole world.

In this essential two-volume collection, the editors include key papers on the domestic and global challenges of WTO accession. The first volume explores the intertwined economic, legal, and political dimensions of the process. The second volume explores country case studies and sector-specific issues such as agriculture, services and intellectual property. This comprehensive anthology is an invaluable reference source for scholars and practitioners grappling with the increasing complexity of WTO accession.

All of the GCC countries-Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates-are undergoing historic socio-economic transitions. They are facing enormous strains on public finances and challenging economic outlooks, due to fluctuating oil prices, demographic pressures, high unemployment rates, and a lack of economic diversification. These countries also are likely to feel the rising impact of climate change, and global policies to deal with it, over the coming decades. In addition, seemingly unstoppable shifts in the long-standing international order, notably the rise of China and uncertainties about U.S. leadership, have potentially serious implications for the Middle East and beyond. This policy-oriented book of essays by noted scholars and experts considers the key trends shaping Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, ranging from the COVID-19 pandemic, to climate change, economic disruptions, demographics and other domestic concerns, and shifts in the global order. The book's chapters address such questions as: How will global megatrends impact the GCC? How can GCC states adjust and diversify their economies to meet the dual challenges of fluctuating oil prices and climate change? How can these states adjust their labor markets to absorb and support women and youth? How will inter GCC disagreements impact the region moving forward? And how will GCC relations with international actors shift in the coming years? This timely book, with its comprehensive analyses and policy recommendations, will be of interest to a wide range of readers interested in the GCC region, including policymakers, academics, and researchers at think tanks and nongovernmental organizations.

All is not well in the World Trade Organization. Does a global economy require global institutions? One possible alternative is interregionalism: economic integration between two distinct regions. This book explores the logic of interregionalism by focusing on the European Union, which has pursued agreements with Latin America, East Asia, and the Southern Mediterranean, among others. Why has the EU pursued this strategy? Based on a novel theoretical framework, the authors in this book explore EU interregionalism to provide us with insight into this new emerging face of the international political economy.

The steady progress of global economic integration and trade-policy liberalization facilitated by the GATT and WTO over the past half-century has been accompanied by persistent warnings of the consequences for wages, employment and working conditions. Indeed, over the last decade, labor interests in the west have sought to slow the pace of international trade negotiations, seeking some protections in the WTO Charter itself and in individual trade agreements. The central focus of this collection is to provide the reader access to the seminal papers analyzing the accommodation of labor interests within the WTO. This comprehensive volume establishes an understanding of the interaction between global goods, capital and labor markets and the national government institutions that regulate their function. In selecting papers for this volume, the editors have identified the most important contributions to the debate.

This book gathers a selection of peer-reviewed chapters reflecting on the Australia-European Union Free Trade Agreement (AEUFTA). Since 18 June 2018, ten rounds of negotiations for a AEUFTA have been held in a constructive atmosphere, showing a shared commitment to move forward with this ambitious and comprehensive agreement. After a lengthy and arduous process interrupted by the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union (EU), the United States' hesitations regarding the EU's global strategy and the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the negotiations between Australia and the European Union finally appear to be nearing completion. In challenging times, both parties share a commitment to a positive trade agenda, and to the idea that good trade agreements benefit both sides by boosting jobs, growth and investment. This book explores the challenges, achievements and missed opportunities in the AEUFTA negotiation process, and examines current legal and political relations between the EU, its Member States and Australia. Furthermore, it examines in detail a wide and diverse range of negotiated areas, including digital trade, services, intellectual property rules, trade remedies and investment screening, as well as dispute settlement mechanisms. Lastly, it sheds light on the likely nature of future commercial relations between Australia and the EU. Written by a team of respected authors from leading institutions in both Australia and Europe, the book provides a valuable, interdisciplinary analysis of the AEUFTA.

In late 2015, against a background of growing populist opposition to international trade agreements, the European Commission announced its willingness to negotiate a comprehensive bilateral investment agreement with Taiwan. While this should be relatively straightforward, this book warns that it is unlikely to be so. The major stumbling block is not Chinese opposition, as is so often assumed, or populist resistance but a lack of sufficient political will on both sides. This stems from a mutual lack of awareness which in turn is due to the relative stagnation of bilateral trade. A successful outcome would therefore act as a catalyst in developing relations further. The author examines the principal obstacles to reaching an agreement and the ways of overcoming them. The book should be of interest to policy makers, negotiators and advisors involved in the forthcoming negotiations but also to anyone with an interest in the EU's relations with Taiwan.

A Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is an agreement between two or more countries where the countries agree on certain terms and conditions that affect trade between them. There are more than 350 FTAs worldwide today. In the last two decades these agreements significantly expanded in scope, covering not only market access but also behind-the-border policy issues going far beyond WTO rules. Mega regional FTAs like Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) are coming into play. Developed countries are also establishing their own templates for FTA-making. This book is intended to bring about a greater level of understanding among readers in a systematic manner with respect to the vast changes taking place on the FTA scene worldwide and about India's own limited participation in this regard so far. FTAs are legal instruments, but they also substantially affect business, industry, and agriculture interests. There is a widely held perception in the country, not without some validity, that India's existing FTAs, even if limited, have benefitted the partner countries more than us. India has recently signed two FTAs- with the UAE and Australia. Discussions with the UK are at an advance stage and both the countries are expected to sign the FTA soon. This book tries to capture various aspects of these agreements keeping India's position in mind.

The newest volume in Kluwer's series of comparative analyses of Member State law and the Principles of European Contract Law (PECL), this book not only provides an introduction to German law for lawyers familiar with the PECL but also serves as a model for "reconnecting" the contract law of the European Union with that of the Member States. Although the Principles were by design distilled from the laws of the Member States, one of the arguments most frequently advanced for opposing the introduction of a EU contract law is that it would not be in line with national principles of contract law. The in-depth comparison presented here may help to refute or confirm such doubts and serve as a yardstick to measure how far EU law really has disconnected from the traditions of the Member States. Using a straightforward comparative method, the analysis not only reveals a significant area of convergence between the PECL and German contract law, but also highlights the main differences between the two bodies of rules. The reasons for these differences, both legal and non-legal (historical, social, economic), are clearly set forth. Aspects of the relevant laws covered include the following: scope of application, general duties, terminology; offer and acceptance, liability for negotiations; effects of assignment; remedies for non-performance (right to performance, withholding performance, termination of the contract, price reduction, damages and interest); representation by agents; plurality of debtors and/or creditors; order of priority among assignee and competing claimants; transfer of contract or contractual position; and periods of prescription.

The world's governing structures are higgledy-piggledy: disorderly, heads and tails in any or every direction. Such disorder fosters deficient governance. Decisions by noncooperating nations can generate damaging crossborder outcomes. Muddles destabilize mutual well-being.Public debate is often mired in superficial arguments about "globalization." This insightful book by economist Ralph C. Bryant instead emphasizes that the world's nations need to craft better middle-ground compromises to improve governance and manage increasing integration. Individual nations, Bryant argues, should fashion a balance between local autonomy and external openness, avoiding the extremes of rigid localism and unfettered openness. And nations need to act together collectively. Cooperative governance can encourage orderliness that mitigates disarray undermining mutual goals. The global challenge of the coronavirus pandemic is a vivid reminderthat international cooperation is becoming progressively more essential. Do nations and their leaders have sufficient foresight to use borders not as barriers but as catalysts for international cooperation? Could national migration policies find sustainable middle ground between the unrealistic extreme of unfettered freedom for people to cross borders and the inhumane exclusion of foreign refugees? Could augmented cross-border cooperation mitigate dangers from recurring financial instability? Could the world community foster collective actions to reduce the severe risks of global climate change? The answer to such questions can and should be yes. Wiser cross-border collective action nurtures a mutually supportive order offsetting the threats of disorder that may otherwise prevail. A healthy evolution of our planet requires requires! more orderly national governance and more ambitious cross-border cooperation.

The trading relationship between the United States and China, though now robust, was a recent and hardly inevitable development. Political animosity stemming from the Korean War and America's subsequent strategic embargo of China broke off economic and cultural ties. Following two decades of China's international isolation, as the United States sought to realign the geopolitical order in the 1970s, Washington began to engineer a restoration of its relationship with China. Diplomatic historians have carefully documented the formal and governmental intrigues of Nixon, Kissinger, Mao, and Zhou Enlai. As this book shows, a vigorous reconstruction of bilateral ties was unfolding simultaneously at the level of informal diplomacy, especially in the realm of US-China trade. Central to understanding the renewal of bilateral commerce is the National Council for United States-China Trade, an organization that, although nongovernmental, was established in 1973 with Washington's encouragement and oversight. The Council organized major American corporations not only to engage in commercial exchanges with China, but also to function as a diplomatic backchannel between Washington and Beijing before the two nations restored formal relations in 1979. Using the Council to historicize the entangling of the American and Chinese economies, Forgotten Vanguard not only reveals globalization's contingent path but also exposes the hidden importance of informal trade diplomacy in building the modern US-China relationship. This book will appeal to those with an interest in Cold War history, international relations, and the history of American diplomacy, with particular emphases on informal diplomacy and the modern history of the US-China economic relationship.

This book investigates the politics of transatlantic trade, specifically the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations. Using a novel approach, the authors analyze the rhetorical choices made by opponents and supporters of an agreement, and the logical behind their arguments. Opponents used emotive frames and strategically chosen issues to increase public opposition to the negotiations; supporters countered, but also accommodated, parts of opponents' rhetoric in hopes of quelling discontent. The study also highlights the resulting changes to EU trade policy, thus contributing to the literatures on trade policy, politicization, and rhetorical analysis.

This book presents an authoritative collection of the most important papers previously published by leading scholars in the field of trade policy and its reform.Included are sections on early contributions to the theory of reform, world welfare and trade reform, and reform with quotas and tariffs.

This book examines the causes and consequences of social standards in US and EU preferential trade agreements (PTAs). PTAs are the new reality of the global trading system. Pursued by both developed and developing countries, they increasingly incorporate labor and environmental issues to prevent a race to the bottom in social regulation and counter-protectionism. Using principal-agent theory to explore why US PTAs have stricter social standards than those signed by the EU, Postnikov argues that the level of institutional insulation of trade policy executives from interest groups and legislators determines the design of social standards. In the EU, where institutional insulation is high, social standards mirror the normative preferences of the European Commission leading to a softer approach. In the US, where such insulation is low, social standards are driven by interest groups and legislators they control, resulting in a stricter approach. This book shows that both approaches can be effective but work through different causal mechanisms. To test his argument, Postnikov draws on original data collected in Brussels, Washington, Santiago, Bogota, and Seoul. This book will be of interest to all scholars and students working in the fields of international political economy and EU and US trade policy.