We calculate how much of world trade is preferential, and at which margin. We are using a detailed dataset based on tariff-line import and tariff data of the 20 largest importers, covering almost 90% of world imports in 2008. We show that while around 50% of world trade is between countries that apply preferences to each other and could therefore be considered “preferential”, only 16% of world trade is eligible for preferences and preferential margins are often very small. Our results show that less than 2% of world imports - excluding intra-EU trade - are eligible for preferences with a margin of 10 percentage points or more and less than 0.5% of trade has preferences above 20 percentage points. Assuming static trade flows and full utilization of preferences, all preferences together reduce the global trade-weighted tariff from 3% to 2%, which means that the global trade-weighted preference margin is 1.0%. Around 90% of this reduction is due to reciprocal preference regimes (PTAs, customs unions) with the remainder due to non-reciprocal regimes such as the GSP.
This study analyzes how and to what extent South Korea has embedded developmental liberalism into its FTA initiative, departing from its traditional focus on developmental mercantilism. In the wake of the global economic crisis of 2008-10 and the subsequent expansion of government interventionism across the world, the developmental state model has attracted renewed scholarly attention. The developmental state approach offers a useful conceptual framework to examine how a particular set of arrangements between the tradable and non-tradable sectors in South Korea has shifted from "developmental mercantilism" to "developmental liberalism." The significance of South Korea's FTA initiative is three-fold. First, it constitutes a notable policy shift to liberalism, departing from a mercantilist approach with a policy mix of import protection and export promotion. Second, the embrace of FTAs has been shaped by a top-down political initiative rather than a bottom-up demand from business groups and the general public. And third, despite its liberal but state-centric nature, South Korea's FTAs are closely embedded in the country's social fabric, both competitive and uncompetitive.
How do states design dispute settlement mechanisms in preferential trade agreements? And why do they choose the design features they eventually decide upon? This study proposes to test established theories of institutional design with a new dataset, and explores the possibility of an alternative explanation: institutionalist theory considers acts of design to be unique and idiosyncratic acts. Yet, instances of institutional design may be related to other, previous instances of institutional design. Drawing on diffusion theory, this paper proposes a new set of hypotheses which allows to address the interrelatedness among individual acts of institutional design.
Three methodologies are used to enforce labour and environmental commitments in the US and EU trade agreements: cooperative, sanctions and composite. In-depth analysis of the scope of commitments, level of protection, institutional framework as well as types of informal and formal dispute processes elucidates the pros and cons of such methodologies. Sanctions approach weakens cooperation by misjudging the complexity of domestic policy adjustments through transnational governance. Cooperative mechanism within the NAAEC's composite design emerges as the best approach: Submission on Enforcement Matters (SEM). As it provides for an independent secretariat supported by civil society group and factual records as a sunshine remedy to review citizen submissions. However, the process is constrained by political clout, lack of managerial capacity and legal dilemmas around informal lawmaking (IN-LAW) procedures.
United Nations' 2030 Sustainable Development Goals' SDG 5 places gender equality front and centre for sustainable development. The Joint Declaration on Trade and Women's Economic Empowerment on the Occasion of the WTO Ministerial Conference in Buenos Aires in December 2017 brings gender equality to the forefront of trade policy. In the intersection of trade policy and digital technologies, this paper examines how electronic commerce can work towards gender equality, filling a knowledge gap about gender-inclusive governance. Legal-empirical analysis of key regulatory and policy challenges facing women in e-commerce, and identification of vehicles for gender equality at the regional and multilateral level are followed by policy options for promoting women participation in e-commerce. The paper presents a framework for understanding the multiplicity of gender gaps as they manifest themselves in e-commerce models, suggesting potential but also concerns, and advances a multi-level approach to incorporating gender-inclusive e-commerce regulation into trade policy.
This paper uses the World Bank's Enterprise Surveys as a sample of 18 developing and emerging economies to investigate the causal relationship between global value chains and the transfer of technology to manufacturing firms in developing nations. It focuses on one specific channel for technology transfer, namely the licensing of foreign technology. By using a propensity score matching difference-in-differences technique, I show that there is a positive and causal impact of being involved in complex international activities (i.e. being a two-way trader) on the licensing of technology. Importantly, domestic firms becoming two-way traders are more likely to acquire foreign-licensed technology than domestic firms starting to either export or import. These findings suggest that the complexity associated with the trading activity determines whether or not foreign technology is licensed.
