Full Description
Trade liberalization has shaped international economic relations since the conclusion of the GATT 1947. The last few decades have seen a significant shift in the focus of this process: multilateralism seems to have reached its limits, giving way to regionalism, and the focus of trade liberalization has shifted to non-tariff barriers. While these developments have attracted considerable attention, exploring them from comparative perspectives has been largely neglected. Trading systems - the WTO, regional economic integrations and federal systems - are all based on the same dichotomy of free trade and local public interest: they generally prohibit the constituent parties (states) from restricting trade, but exempt them from this limitation if the restriction is warranted by a legitimate local end.
The purpose of this volume is to contribute to filling the above-mentioned research gap by exploring central issues in regional economic integrations from a comparativeperspective. It provides a general economic analysis of the costs and benefits of trade liberalization and the role and function of normative values in commercial policy. This is followed by a comparative analysis of the approaches used in various regional economic integrations (in North America, Europe and Latin America) and federal markets (the United States, Australia and India) regarding the balance between free trade and local public interest. Key issues in investment law, one of the most contentious elements of next-generation free trade agreements, are also addressed.
Contents
Editorial.- Part I: World Trade: global issues and regional challenges. 1. World trade, national interests and international governance.- 2. International economic order after Trump.- 3. Value standards and free trade.- Part II: Regional economic integrations in the 21st century: FTAs and customs unions. 4. Renegotiating NAFTA: risks and rewards of reopening the North American Trade Relationship.- 5. How Member State interests are allowed to shape the EU Single Market?.- 6. Latin American trade policies reconsidered: the "convergence while diversity" mantra.- Part III: Regional Economic Integrations: Federal Markets. 7. The Supreme Court's Changing Efforts Via Its Dormant Commerce Clause Jurisprudence to Navigate State Police Power and National Free Trade.- 8. The construction of a "federal market" for Australia.- 9. India's tryst with free trade: overcoming the inherent challenges of protectionism.- Part IV: International investment protection. 10. Lex mercatoria publica: constitutional law and constitutional limits in private-public arbitration.- 11. Constitutional standards of developed democracies and the requirements embedded in the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights: do foreign investors need special protection?.- 12. Investor-state arbitration between developed democracies: a NAFTA perspective.- 13. Third party participation by non-government organizations in international investment arbitration: transparency as a tool for protecting marginalized interests.- 14. Investment protection under the CETA: pouring old wine into new bottles?.
