Antoni Estevadeordal

The new regionalism in the Americas : the case of MERCOSUR (Working Paper ITD = Documento de Trabajo ITD; 5)

Kati Suominen

Drawing on a number of unique new datasets, the authors seek to explore in historical context the relationship between trade agreements and the flow of global trade, and to identify how governments and countries might unilaterally and collectively leverage trade agreements to increase trade and prosperity.

Trade Agreements in a Globalizing World

The Sovereign Remedy?

Thierry Verdier

Olivier Cadot

Akiko Suwa-Eisenmann

The dark side of preferential trade agreements, Rules of Origin (RoO) are used to determine the eligibility of goods to preferential treatment. Ostensibly meant to prevent the trans-shipment of imported products across Free Trade Agreement borders after superficial screwdriver assembly, they act in reality as complex and opaque trade barriers. This book provides evidence strongly suggesting that they do so by intent rather than accidentally---in other words, that RoOs are policy. Part one draws insights about the effects of RoOs on cross-border trade and outsourcing from recent economic theory. Part two reviews the evidence on RoOs in preferential agreements around the world, putting together the most comprehensive dataset on RoOs to date. Part three explores their "political economy"---how special interests have shaped them and continue to do so. Part four provides econometric evidence on their costs for exporters and consequent effects on trade flows. Finally, part five explores how they affect trade in the developing world where they spread rapidly and have the potential to do most harm. Beyond the collection of new evidence and its interpretation in light of recent theory, the book's overall message for the policy community is that RoOs are a potentially powerful and new barrier to trade. Rather than being relegated to closed-door technical meetings, their design should hold center-stage in trade negotiations.

Rules of Origin in Regional Trade Agreements

The Origin of Goods

J. Ernesto López Córdova

How do rules of origin affect investment flows ? : some hypotheses and the case of Mexico (Working Paper ITD = Documento de Trabajo ITD ; n. 22)

Louis W. Goodman

This edited volume explains the importance of regional public goods (RPGs) for sustainable development and shows why they are particularly important in the context of 21st-century international relations. By presenting a new and original data set and by presenting original essays by renowned scholars, this book lays the foundation for what will become an increasingly important focus for both economic development and international relations as well as for their intersection. The volume contains four parts. The first introduces the core issues and concepts that are explored throughout the book as well as a new and original data set on RPGs. The second part further develops specific concepts important for understanding 21st-century RPGs: regional leadership, alliances, networks, and outcomes. The third examines how cooperation takes place worldwide for a range of important RPGs. Finally, the fourth part discusses how public goods are produced in specific regions, stressing that each region has a distinct context and that these contexts overlap in a decentered "multiplex" manner. Global economic cooperation will be different in the 21st century, and this volume will be of interest to students and scholars of global governance, economic development, international political economy, sustainable development, and comparative regionalism.

Regional Public Goods, Global Governance, and Sustainable Development

21st Century Cooperation

International trade and the rapidly proliferating network of trade agreements have aroused passions for decades. While some blame trade agreements for exporting jobs, sowing poverty, furthering illegal migration, and robbing national sovereignty, others praise them as lynchpins of growth, pillars of peace, guarantors of security, and engines of globalization. Still others view them as useful instruments for fostering global trade and investment. This book examines whether trade agreements merit the blame levelled against them or the hopes pinned on them. It employs extensive new historical data on trade agreements to examine the features of the ongoing trade agreement wave; analyzes the future implications of trade agreements in the context of the multilateral trading system, world trade, and international politics; and puts forth novel policy proposals to make trade agreements a more constructive force in the global economy.

Brian Frantz

Tam Robert Nguyen

From Theory to Practice

Regional Public Goods

Antoni Estevadeordal

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