Author : Pankhuri Gaur 1
Date of Publication :15th October 2020
Abstract: The rise of Mega-Regionals has been prominent since the global financial crisis in 2008, where the countries opted for regionalism to spur growth in the domestic economy. Further, the need for these Mega Regional Trade Agreements (MRTAs) was amplified by the failure of the Doha Development Round and WTO’s incompetence in regulating 21st-century trade issues like global value chains, competition policy, e-commerce, etc. The economic clout these MRTAs have on the world is hefty with engagement in WTO-Plus and WTO-Extra issues, and therefore, have been debated for replacing the existing multilateral trading system. However, withdrawal of the United States from the Tran-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and India from the Regional Com-prehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) has raised a question on these agreements. The divergent interests of member econo-mies of the agreements make it difficult to achieve the targets with the initial set of countries. The shift of countries to more pro-tected trade policy may affect the future of MRTAs in replacing the WTO. The paper concludes that at present, these MRTAs in the Asia Pacific region would not be able to replace the WTO as it would require concordance between them including all the major trade players of the region.
Reference :
-
- C. P. Bown andD. A.Irwin, “The GATT’s Starting Point: Tariff Levels circa 1947”,National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper 21782, December2015.
- UNCTAD, “Global Value Chains: Investment and Trade for Development” World Investment Report 2013, pp.135. United Nations, 2013.
- World Bank, “Measuring and Analysing the Impact of GVC’s on Economic Development” Global Value Chain Development Report, World Bank Group, 2017.
- R. Baldwin, “Multilateralising 21st century regionalism”, In OECD Conference on Global Forum on Trade: Reconciling Regionalism and Multilateralism in a Post-Bali World. OECD Conference Centre, February, 2014.
- RIS, “World Trade and Development Report: MegaRegionals, WTO and New Issues”, Research and Information System for Developing Economies, December 2015.
- World Economic Forum, “Mega-regional Trade Agreements: Game Changers or Costly Distractions for the World Trading System”, A report from Global Agenda Council on Trade and Foreign Direct Invest., 2014.
- P. Draper, S. Lacey and Y. Ramkolowan, “MegaRegional Trade Agreements: Implications for the Africa. Caribbean and Pacific Countries”, ECIPE Occasional Paper, No. 2/2014, Belgium, 2014.
- World Bank, “World Development Indicator Database”, [online], 2020. Available at: https://databank.worldbank.org/source/worl d-development-indicators
- United Nations, “International Trade After the Economic Crisis: Challenges and New Opportunities”, United Nations Publication, UNCTAD/DITC/TAB/2010/2, 2010.
- P. Gaur, “India’s Withdrawal from RCEP: Neutralising National Trade Concerns”, Journal of Asia Pacific Economy, 1-19, August 2020.
- World Bank, “Trade Analysis Information System (TRAINS) Database”, [online], World Integrated Trade Solution (WITS), 2020. Available at: https://wits.worldbank.org
- C. Constantinescu, A. Mattoo, M. Ruta, M. Maliszewska and I. O. Rodarte, “Rising trade barriers are taking toll”, World Bank Blog, June 2019. Available at: https://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalk/risingtrade-barriers-are-taking-toll
- C. Hofmann, A. Osnago and M. Ruta, “Horizontal depth: a new database on the content of preferential trade agreements”, Policy Research Working Paper No. WPS 7981, World Bank Group, February 2017.
- World Trade Organisation (WTO), Dispute Settlement Database, 2020. Available on: https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu _e/find_dispu_cases_e.htm
- A. Reich, “The Effectiveness of the WTO Dispute Settlement System: A Statistical Analysis”, European University Institute Working Paper, November 2017.
- T. Payosova, G. C. Hufbauer and J. J. Schott, “The Dispute Settlement Crisis in the World Trade Organization: Causes and Cures”, Peterson Institute for International Economies, Policy Brief 18-5, 2018.
- C. P. Bown, “Mega-Regional Trade Agreement and the Future of the WTO”, Global Policy, 8(1), 107- 112, February 2017.
- B. Desker, “Global Risk from Trade Wars: Time to Return to WTO”, Geopolitical, History and International Relations, Volume 5(1), pp. 39-43, 2013.
- J. N. Bhagwati, “US Trade Policy: The infatuation with FTAs”, Columbia University Discussion Paper Series No. 726, April, 1995.
- R. Baldwin, “The World Trade Organisation and the Future of Multilateralism”, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 30(1), 95-116, 2016.