Synopses & Reviews
This book addresses legal aspects of GATT Article XXIV and its 'internal' trade requirements as they define the WTO gateway for regional trade agreements. The case for a narrow avenue is made by exploring historical foundations in the Havana ITO negotiations and later difficulties of applying provisions to developed-developing country free-trade areas. The external economic effects for the trade of non-members will remain of concern, but rules of origin and regional safeguard regimes can affect intra-regional trade between large and small members as well. The GATT-47 practice is contrasted with WTO developments as dispute settlement reports have established the conditional legal nature of the regional exception. A treaty law argument is made that GATT/WTO rules retain continuing validity for regional members. Implications for the WTO review process are considered.
Synopsis
The economic theory of Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs), or discriminatory trade liberalization for and among a subset ofnations, was first analyzed with fun damental and startling insight by Jacob Viner (1950). He destroyed the intuition that any move towards free trade was welfare-enhancing, for the country itself or for the world, or for both. He introduced us memorably to the notion of trade di verting -- and here, he meant not diversion in the old and approving sense of en tertainment but in the modern and castigating sense ofdistorting - Free Trade Ar eas (FTAs) and Customs Unions (CUs). In other words, in the economists'jargon, discriminatory approaches to freeing trade were not monotonically welfare-im proving. The legal scholars of GATT and trade law, chiefly the giants Robert Hudec, John Jackson and Kenneth Dam in the United States, were quick to follow suit. Their classic writings on Article XXIV ofthe GATT, which provides an exception to the MFN obligation for contracting parties provided they go all the way and cre ate FTAs and CUs which are supposed to reduce internal trade barriers fully rath er than settle for a lesser preferential arrangement, are still a pleasure to read. They are in the best tradition of a creative interaction between the economic and the le gal disciplines. Indeed, today, as my own work with Robert Hudec, resulting in a major two-volume publication by MIT Press underlines, that interaction has be come yet more profound."
Synopsis
The debate over regionalism and the multilateral trading system intensifies in the WTO as dozens of regional trade agreements are declared to be exceptions to GATT's most-favoured nation obligation. Commentators debate whether such agreements are 'stepping stones' to freer world trade, and WTO Members remain unsettled on criteria to determine the compatibility of agreements with the multilateral trading system. This book addresses legal aspects of GATT Article XXIV and its 'internal' trade requirements as they define the WTO gateway for regional trade agreements.
Synopsis
Includes bibliographical references (p. 311-318) and index.
Synopsis
Examines the legal aspects of GATT Article XXIV and its 'internal' trade requirements as they define the WTO gateway for regional trade agreements. Addressed to trade lawyers and academics, international economists and policy professionals working with non-discrimination issues and the question of legal compatibility of regional agreements in the WTO.
Synopsis
Examines GATT Article XXIV and its 'internal' trade requirements as they define the WTO gateway for regional trade agreements.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements; Note on terminology; Abbreviations; Introduction; Part I. Pre-Gatt Preference and the MFN Response: 1. Interwar preference and the case for MFN; 2. ITO negotiations for a regional exception; Part II. Regionalism in the GATT (1947): 3. Article XXIV in practice: the overseas association; 4. Systemic issues in GATT-47 reviews; 5. The GATT panel practice response (bananas I and II); 6. Economic (customs union) theory and article XXIV; 7. Modern regionalism; 8. The choice of framework: origin rules and internal trade; 9. Regional safeguards and restrictive measures; 10. Article XXIV panel and appellate body practice in the WTO; 11. Systemic issues in the CRTA; 12. A treaty law framework for the internal trade requirement; 13. Book conclusion: recent developments; Appendices; References; Index.