Publication: A Negotiator's Guide to Regional Trade Agreements : Considerations from an East Asian Perspective
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2008-02
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2012-06-14
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This report maps out the evolving architecture of regional trade agreements concluded by the major trading countries and the countries of East Asia. The report first looks at a group of systemic issues - preferential rules of origin, dispute settlement and trade remedies - and subsequently turns to substantial provisions on market access, intellectual property rights, and competition policy. It also briefly examines the nascent stage of environment and labor clauses. As most favored nations (MFN) tariffs continue to fall, tariff reductions are starting to play a less important role in negotiations with the focus increasingly shifting to regulatory issues. Another notable feature of regional trade agreements (RTAs) negotiated today is that their geographical reach has begun to extend far beyond the traditional close proximity of AFTA, EU, or NAFTA - often making the term "RTA" a misnomer. The goal of this report is to establish patterns and directions across a range of issues covered in RTAs today which are relevant for East Asian policy makers. The report hence looks at pertinent systemic and substantial provisions currently included in RTAs: the first half includes chapters on rules of origin, dispute settlement, and trade remedies (all of these are systemic and pin down the credibility of the concessions made: the extent of enforcement, requirements for qualification, and the ease by which a party may opt out); the second half of this report investigates market access provisions and different sets of rules concerning regulatory issues related to intellectual property rights, competition policy, the environment, and labor. Individual provisions from prominent RTAs concluded between East Asian countries and across the rest of the world will be used throughout for illustrative purposes.
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“World Bank. 2008. A Negotiator's Guide to Regional Trade Agreements : Considerations from an East Asian Perspective. Trade issues in East Asia. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/8034 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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Publication A Negotiator's Guide to Regional Trade Agreements : Considerations from an East Asian Perspective(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-02)This report maps out the evolving architecture of regional trade agreements concluded by the major trading countries and the countries of East Asia. The report first looks at a group of systemic issues - preferential rules of origin, dispute settlement and trade remedies - and subsequently turns to substantial provisions on market access, intellectual property rights, and competition policy. It also briefly examines the nascent stage of environment and labor clauses. As most favored nations (MFN) tariffs continue to fall, tariff reductions are starting to play a less important role in negotiations with the focus increasingly shifting to regulatory issues. Another notable feature of regional trade agreements (RTAs) negotiated today is that their geographical reach has begun to extend far beyond the traditional close proximity of AFTA, EU, or NAFTA - often making the term "RTA" a misnomer. The goal of this report is to establish patterns and directions across a range of issues covered in RTAs today which are relevant for East Asian policy makers. The report hence looks at pertinent systemic and substantial provisions currently included in RTAs: the first half includes chapters on rules of origin, dispute settlement, and trade remedies (all of these are systemic and pin down the credibility of the concessions made: the extent of enforcement, requirements for qualification, and the ease by which a party may opt out); the second half of this report investigates market access provisions and different sets of rules concerning regulatory issues related to intellectual property rights, competition policy, the environment, and labor. Individual provisions from prominent RTAs concluded between East Asian countries and across the rest of the world will be used throughout for illustrative purposes.Publication Rules of Origin and the Web of East Asian Free Trade Agreements(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-07)The authors provide an overview of the preferential rules of origin in East Asia, highlighting the aspects that might possibly generate some trade-chilling effects. They review characteristics of existing preferential trade agreements with special emphasis on lessons from the European experience, and analyze some important features of the existing rules of origin in East and South-East Asian regional integration agreements. The empirical analysis of the effectiveness of preferentialism on intra-regional trade flows focuses on the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), with the aim of providing a rough estimate of the costs of requesting preferences. The results suggest that preferential tariffs favorably affect intra-regional imports only at very high margins (around 25 percentage points). This points to the likelihood of high administrative costs attached to the exploitation of preferences, particularly with regard to the compliance with AFTA's rules of origin.Publication East Asian Preferential Trade Agreements in Services : Liberalization Content and WTO Rules(2008)The past seven years have seen a rapid proliferation of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) in the East Asian region. Many of the recently concluded PTAs are comprehensive in their coverage, seeking not only the dismantling of barriers to trade in goods but also the liberalization of trade in services. This paper offers an assessment of this recent wave of services agreements in East Asia, focusing on their liberalization content and their compliance with WTO rules on regional integration. It draws on a database in which the authors recorded the value added of PTA liberalization undertakings relative to pre-existing multilateral services commitments. Among other things, this database is used to empirically assess the effect of the scheduling approach on the depth and breadth of liberalization undertakings.Publication East Asian Free Trade Agreements in Services : Key Architectural Elements(2008)Since the mid-1990s East Asian countries have negotiated 25 free trade agreements (FTAs) with a services component. There are important architectural differences in these agreements, which ultimately affect their value in promoting transparency, fostering the credibility of trade policies, and advancing market opening in services. This article reviews key architectural choices, focusing on the approach towards scheduling commitments, the treatment of investment and the movement of natural persons, rules of origin, provisions for the settlement of trade dispute, and selected deeper integration issues. In doing so, it assesses the advantages and drawbacks of different architectural approaches and discusses a number of lessons learned.Publication Trends in Trade and Logistics : An East Asian Perspective(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2002-06)There are five sections in this report. The first section analysis growth, poverty reduction, trade and logistics. The study indicates that a stimulus in economic growth tends to reduce poverty. Section two analysis global trends in transport and logistics that determine the competitive advantage and growth performance of trading in global economy. Transport and logistics have benefited from technological and institutional changes, and has developed the maritime transport, warehousing facilities, and communication. The net result has been to facilitate globalization. Section three analysis trade led growth in East Asia. The sustained growth performance is usually attributed to the region's global integration. Section four: Logistics in East Asia - the single most important impact of globalization in East Asian countries has been the integration of local production and supply. Section five - a strategy to stimulate trade-led poverty reduction. This analysis has demonstrated the significance of the role of trade in accelerating economic growth and reducing poverty. In addition, the trade pattern of the region is focused in terms of final market destination.
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