Mega Traders, the 21st Century Trade, and Global Trade Governance

Journal of Asian Economics, 1997

The purpose of the conference, we are told, was to analyze the complex array of issues confronting the WTO. I found the book relevant and timely, even though the papers were written before the Singapore Ministerial, because the focus is on how the WTO could or should evolve over the long haul in order to lubricate the wheels of world commerce. The contributors are a uniformly distinguished group, all expert on their Assigned topic areas, and there is a fair bit of insight and informed prescription. The papers are deep, with the exception of one or two, well written and accessible.

This chapter describes the evolution and structure of the international trading system, focusing on the tension between the fundamental GATT/WTO principle of most-favored-nation (MFN) treatment and the proliferation of discriminatory trading arrangements, including regional agreements as well as new versions of special and differential treatment of low-income countries. It also discusses the increasing pressure to use the enforcement power of the GATT/WTO system to achieve member compliance with social norms in the areas of labor and environment. The chapter concludes by considering some significant challenges that currently face the international trading system and possible directions of the system's evolution in response to these challenges.

ICTSD - Programme on Global Economic Policy and Institutions | China, Trade and Sustainable Development Series, 2011

China’s 10 years of membership in the WTO has taken place against a backdrop of dynamic change in the world economy. Indeed, China’s participation in the WTO and the implications of its membership have both been key factors in that change. China’s membership today is as essential for the WTO as it is for China. The difficulties in closing the Doha Round are related to the challenges of managing the tension brought about by change – including transitioning to a world regime on trade that fully involves China, other emerging economies and the underlying shifts in growth centres and new forms of organization of production. Moving onward at the WTO requires effective fine-tuning and resolution of the adjustment turbulence currently affecting the economic and social fabric in the United States of America and Europe. It will also require nimble but enabling responses from the international community to China’s efforts to juggle and rebalance development among regions and sectors, both rural and urban, and to consolidate social policies and institutions. The implementation of the 12th five-year plan may be a game-changer. Once the economic and developmental and environmental objectives set in the plan are achieved by 2016, the world may be in for yet more change in the global economy and China’s participation therein. The current economic governance system, with its trade policy tools, was conceived at a time when the problem to be solved was “poverty in the midst of potential plenty” to quote James Meade (Meade, J.E. 1937. Economic Analysis and Policy). Beyond the short term, looking at demographics and trends in consumption and demand, the world will be entering into unchartered waters. The hope is that the international community will act collectively, through cooperation, guided by a “command of conscience seasoned by a rational examination of consequences”, paraphrasing Professor Wilson at Harvard. A sustainable future will require robust and effective governance regimes. China’s participation in crafting the evolution of the trade regime in the next 10 years will be as critical as it has been over the past 10 years. It is in this context that the ICTSD China Programme took this initiative to invite key policymakers and researchers to prepare think-pieces on the implications of WTO membership for China and global trade governance. The authors participated in a dialogue entitled “A Decade in the WTO: Implications for China and Global Trade Governance” held on 29 June 2011 in Geneva, organized by the ICTSD in partnership with the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Geneva Office and the China Society for WTO Studies. ICTSD’s China Initiative is aimed at facilitating dialogue and research with a view to leveraging China’s constructive role in global economic governance for the purpose of sustainable development.

Transnational Corporations Review, 2012

We are witnessing an epoch characterized by the end of certainties and the change of paradigms. We may perceive the rearrangement of geopolitical centers and the rise of new economic players, such as China and the BRICS countries. It is fundamental that the economic, political, and social actions to be undertaken take into account the structural changes of this new cycle that is beginning. This paper analyses the current trade panorama, where we saw a huge gap between trade sectors. As well we think neo-liberalism has nothing left to offer. The economic road has to be reformulated in accordance with the nature that globalization itself imposes, which is the articulation of regions in a new supranational framework.

Cross--regional trade deals are a defining trend of the current international trade system. Within a few years, the world has witnessed the signature of the Transpacific Partnership (TPP) bringing together 12 countries in the Asia--Pacific and the Americas; contentious but resilient negotiations over the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP); the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) that would affect 3 billion people in Asia and 40% of world trade; the signature of the EU--Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) and an attempt to break new ground in services trade liberalization under the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA). Together, these separate free trade agreements (FTAs) constitute a new form of economic integration that we define as new cross--regionalism. This new trend of the international political economy differs from earlier cycles of integration in three regards: 1) the economic significance and large geographic scale of cross--regional free trade agreements as illustrated by the participation of one or several great powers or the share of world GDP they represent; 2) the unprecedented scope of trade--related issues that these agreements include, ranging from privacy protection in digital trade to the recognition of professional qualifications and geographical indications; 3) the malleability of new cross--regional trade partnerships that are designed as "living agreements" where regulatory cooperation takes place not only before and during trade negotiations but also ex post, i.e. after the deal has been signed. All three features of new cross--regionalism bear tremendous significance for the political and economic governance of the world economy, notwithstanding the uncertainty brought by Donald Trump's election. Not only does the transcontinental outreach of mega trade deals shed new light on the dynamics and stakes of economic globalization, but the intrusiveness of cross--regional FTAs has, to a broader extent, has renewed debates on the tensions between democracy and global capitalism. Despite the far--reaching implications that mega trade deals may have on the world economy and people's daily lives, scholars and policymakers have only begun to grasp the consequences of what could be interpreted as a new phase of economic globalization. As with previous trade agreements, the debates have been primarily framed through a twentieth--century prism characterized by deceivingly clear dichotomies such as regionalism vs. multilateralism, protectionism vs. free trade, trade creation vs. trade diversion, or South vs. North. Because of the prevalence of economic models of trade policy, the political economy of trade agreements has at best been simplified as two--level games; at worst, it has been reduced to mathematical equations in complex econometric models (computable general equilibrium or CGE). As a result, they fall short of capturing the governance of new cross--regionalism and more specifically the geostrategic, institutional and democratic implications of this new form of trade integration.

2019

The future of the world trading system depends critically on reinvigorating the WTO and policy change in the largest trading nations. To sustain multilateralism, urgent action is needed to avoid a disruption of global trade and its fragmentation into trading blocs where relations are based on relative power instead of rules. Smallest players whose trade is least covered by bilateral or regional agreements will be at the greatest disadvantage. All countries will incur enormous costs only to try and reinvent a system that is already in place today under the WTO.

ABSTRACT This final year research project seeks to thoroughly examine the emerging new economic order and its multilateral trade perspectives, the emerging new economics were characterized by their strong desire to maximize economic capacity and to translate economic might into political influence in global platforms, although on the side of global trading system and international political economy, the main driving force of new emerging economic order have been the accelerated trends of global integration through transnational production networks, and demanding flows of trade, finance, information and services. The perceptive change in the major parameters of the unipolar global political economy, these countries are emerging as a major stakeholder in the sectors like economic, culture, industrial, and commerce and so on. China is on the rise, Russia is remerging, Brazil has improved her economic, India has been managing with new capabilities and South Africa has been progressing on various fronts. This generates manifestation of Western anxiety concerning the future trajectory of transformation in the multilateral trading system. This study is aimed at presenting a critical account of the BRICS as an analytical category within the context of ongoing debates of multipolarity in the global trading system, it also analyze the role and impact of BRICS at the World Trade Organization (WTO), a core institution in global economic governance. The research propositions also confirmed that new emerging economic powers are challenging the hegemony of the US rather than the neoliberal paradigm of the WTO.

2016

Regional trade agreements (RTAs) proliferate as the WTO loses its centricity. Moreover, mega-deals like TTP, TTIP and RCEP initiated among larger economies become discernable in trade governance. Despite an essential role the RTAs can play in liberalising trade and developing trade rules, it is proposed in all G20 documents that they need to ensure their consistentency with the multilateral trading system, and that they must be open and inclusive. Terms like consistency or inclusiveness can be vague. G20 is an important platform to develop tangible and meaningful deliverables to bring complementarity of the RTAs with the WTO. The article briefly discusses what should be the responses to mega-regionals, and how their challenges could be minimised to provide an accord, under the G20 platform. The article recalls that the issue was profoundly relevant to China and Turkey, two preceeding Presidents of G20.

Some theories consider the possibility to multilateralize regional approaches and to establish global system of rules based on regionalism. These tendencies are also tailored on international trade. Nevertheless, the fundamental problem of the multilateral trading system in the framework of the World Trade Organization is the extent of policy space, which states´ governments do not want to give in favor of global trade governance. Although the multilateral trading system and further multilateral trade liberalization face many challenges, regionalism is not an alternative that could help government to pursue their trade interests. On the contrary, bilateral Preferential Trade Agreements harm competition, distort business environment and undermine the multilateral trading system.

1989

2009

International Business And Global Economy

This paper aims at presenting an overview of the six most important trends in the world trade of our times: (1) a continuing expansion of world trade volume-but with declining dynamism, (2) new relations between the old and the new world-trade powers, and (3) further shifts in the sectoral composition of trade flows (commodities, manufactures, and services). In addition, there is the influence of (4) new players in the commodity trade (i.e., the 'financialisation' of commodity trade), (5) new forms of enterprise cooperation in manufacturing (production networks, strategic alliances, global value chains), and (6) new tradables in the service sector.

2023

Critical Debates in Social Sciences, 2018

Mega-regional trade agreements (MRTAs), namely Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), Transpacific Partnership (TPP) and Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), are new generation trade agreements that could, when and if realised, create the world’s most important trading blocs. After the Doha Round collapsed, in order to get past the deadlock at the WTO and achieve more trade liberalisation, countries started to focus on bilateral trade agreements with deeper and more comprehensive provisions than the WTO’s multilateral rules. A mixture of global commercial ambitions, geopolitical concerns and pressures from certain subnational actors motivated the biggest trading countries to negotiate mega-regional trade agreements. MRTA negotiations were launched with great expectations. Yet because of the developments like Donald Trump’s election and rise of anti-free trade movements in various parts of Europe, TTIP negotiations effectively stopped and TPP lost the US leadership. RCEP negotiations, on the other hand, have been going slowly due to the complexity of South East Asian politics. This chapter aims to explore whether MRTAs are still relevant policy tools by examining the drivers for MRTAs and the impediments against them, as well as the regional and global trade politics behind them. To that end, a two-tier analysis will be presented. The first tier is the drivers and impediments stemming from the non-state actors. The second is the trade politics at the international level (state actors). Most of the drivers are still at play today yet it is hard to foresee how lasting some of the impediments will be. This chapter argues that despite these impediments, MRTAs will continue to be relevant. Because drivers weigh more in terms of national interests and countries have a lot to gain from such arrangements. Also, these agreements represent a new level that liberalisation and cooperation efforts on trade reached. Even if they do not come into life, they will serve as sources of content for the future commercial deals. For reference: Ali KINCAL and Utku UTKULU, 'The Political Economy of the Mega-Regional Trade Agreements and the Future of the Global Trading System', in Bedriye TUNÇSİPER and Ferhan SAYIN (eds), Critical Debates in Social Sciences, pp. 305-326.