Abstract
After a recent and important increase, to date around 300 preferential trade agreements (PTAs) exist and have been, thus far, regarded with quite some caution by Geneva. But could they be of help in a scenario, where the WTO becomes less relevant or indeed, is left out of the picture entirely? Some earlier voices do, in fact, suggest that PTAs could and should become more “multilateralized” and that they produce positive spillover effects for a wider trade community. Moreover, emerging large agreements may be capable of bridging trade regions and of encompassing important parts of world trade. When scrutinised, however, such agreements are far from capable of providing market access for everyone everywhere, to the same extent the WTO does. And while PTAs promote and advance coherence in regulatory policies, it is the WTO that sets the ultimate limits to their right to regulate. Beyond these substantial functions, world trade is in need of governance. If developed further, PTAs dispute settlement system could be of help in this regard. PTAs can and already do contribute to rule innovation and facilitate related negotiations. Nevertheless, it is almost inconceivable that they could ever act as a world trade forum, where everyone has a say on issues concerning global trade at large.
Professor of Law and Jean-Monnet Chair, Director at the Institute for International Law and European Law, Head of the Department for International Economic and Environmental Law at the Georg-August-University Göttingen.
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Notes
- 1.
See: WTO, Regional Trade Agreements Database at https://rtais.wto.org/UI/publicsummarytable.aspx, last updated 12 December 2019. A comprehensive overview and analysis is provided in: WTO (2011) World Trade Report 2011. The WTO and Preferential Trade Agreements: From Co-Existence to Coherence, Geneva.
- 2.
- 3.
For a reference to and the text of agreements referred to in this paper see generally the WTO Regional Trade Agreements Database at https://rtais.wto.org/UI/PublicMaintainRTAHome.aspx.
- 4.
COM (2006) Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions Global Europe: Competing in the World a Contribution to the Eu’s Growth and Jobs Strategy. COM (2006) 567 final of 4.10.2006.
- 5.
See ASEAN and EEC (2018) Memorandum of Understanding between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the Eurasian Economic Commission on Economic Cooperation https://asean.org/storage/2018/11/MOU-between-ASEAN-and-the-EEC_Signed-English.pdf.
- 6.
See European Commission (2019) New EU-Mercosur trade agreement. The agreement in principle, Brussels, 1 July 2019, https://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2019/june/tradoc_157964.pdf.
- 7.
See European Commission (2019) Countries and Regions, Andean Community https://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/countries-and-regions/regions/andean-community/.
- 8.
See, however, the caution warranted by the Nairobi Ministerial Declaration: “We reaffirm the need to ensure that Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) remain complementary to, not a substitute for, the multilateral trading system.”, WT/MIN(15)/DEC 19 December 2015 para 28.
- 9.
Crawford JA (2012) Market Access Provisions on Trade in Goods in Regional Trade Agreements. WTO Staff Working Paper ERSD-2012-20, pp. 28–44.
- 10.
For example, the 2012 EU-Colombia-Peru FTA was acceded to by Ecuador in 2016.
- 11.
European Commission (2019) EU-Mercosur Association Agreement, Trade Part of the Agreement. Following the Agreement in Principle announced on 28 June 2019, https://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2019/july/tradoc_158143.%20Regional%20Integration%20Clause.pdf.
- 12.
Schill (2009).
- 13.
Crawford (2012).
- 14.
Kim (2014), p. 443.
- 15.
Baldwin and Low (2009).
- 16.
Mathis (2016), pp. 142–168.
- 17.
See generally Pauwelyn (2017), pp. 61–74.
- 18.
In detail, however, some restrictions may apply as mutual recognition may be confined to trade in products originating in one of the PTA members. For instance, Art. 4 of an MRA between New Zealand and Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway from 19.4.1999 states: “1. This Agreement shall apply to products originating in the Parties to the Agreement according to the non-preferential rules of origin.”. https://lovdata.no/dokument/TRAKTATEN/traktat/1999-04-29-1.
- 19.
Stoll (2019b), pp. 229–244.
- 20.
Stoll (2019a), p. 74.
- 21.
See CETA, Art. 7.4 (1)(a): agricultural trade, (b): fisheries subsidies, Art. 23.7 (1)(b): labour standards; Art. 24.12 (1)(b): multilateral environmental agreements; EU-Japan, Art. 4.12: customs cooperation, Art. 18.3: regulatory cooperation.
- 22.
See Bown (2017), p. 109.
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Stoll, PT. (2020). Saving the World Trade Order from the Bottom Up: A Role for Preferential Trade Agreements. In: Lewis, M.K., Nakagawa, J., Neuwirth, R.J., Picker, C.B., Stoll, PT. (eds) A Post-WTO International Legal Order. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45428-9_15
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