Asymmetric Trade Negotiations

by Sanoussi Bilal, Diana Tussie, Philippe De Lombaerde, Timothy M Shaw

Overview

The slow pace of the Doha Round has boosted the proliferation of regional and bilateral trade agreements. Paradoxically, the more powerful actors, the US and the European Union, who at the same time have benefited the most from the multilateral system, have also been engaged in bilateral and regional negotiations in order to sign WTO-plus agreements with developing countries. Combining a clear theoretical exposition with systematic cross-regional analysis, 'Asymmetric Trade Negotiations' offers a coherent picture of strategic, design and political economy aspects of North-South trade negotiation processes, from African, Asian and Latin American perspectives. Skilled area specialists gather to provide negotiators and policy makers in the South with recommendations, best practices, and benchmarks and contribute to the understanding of these recent processes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781409476467
Publisher:	Ashgate Publishing Ltd
Publication date:	04/28/2013
Series:	The International Political Economy of New Regionalisms Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	19 MB
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About the Author

Philippe De Lombaerde is Associate Director at United Nations University Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies (UNU-CRIS) (Bruges, Belgium). Sanoussi Bilal is the Head of the Economic and Trade Cooperation Programme at the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM) (Maastricht, The Netherlands). Diana Tussie directs the Department of International Relations at the Argentine campus of the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO), and is founding director of the Latin American Trade Network.

Table of Contents

Contents: The sweep of asymmetric trade negotiations: introduction and overview, Diana Tussie and Marcelo Saguier; The scope for asymmetry in the World Trade Organisation, Steve Woolcock. Case Studies: Asymmetric trade negotiations for development: what does the experience from the ACP-EU economic partnership agreements tell us?, Sanoussi Bilal; Comparative asymmetric trade negotiations in the southern cone: FTAA and EU-MERCOSUR, Mercedes Botto and Andrea C. Bianculli; Venezuela in asymmetric trade negotiations: the cases of negotiations in the FTAA and with the EU, Rita Giacolone; Negotiating the Colombia-US FTA: a Colombian perspective, Luis Jorge Garay, Philippe De Lombaerde and Fernando Barberi; Negotiating the Thailand-US free trade agreement, Wisarn Pupphavesa, Ludo Cuyvers, Santi Chaisrisawatsuk and Philippe De Lombaerde; Postscript: asymmetric trade negotiations: after the turn-of-the-decade 'global' financial crisis?, Timothy M. Shaw; Index.

Editorial Reviews

'Power dynamics and competing interests in international trade negotiations are a vexing problem at the heart of global and regional trade agendas. The multi-regional and comparative cases in the volume allow a nuanced understanding of the intricacies of negotiations among asymmetrical trade partners. It is an important contribution to the debate on the architecture of global economic institutions, as well as the future of the global trade agenda.' José Raúl Perales, The George Washington University, USA 'Given that almost all of New Zealand’s trade negotiations are with larger partners (only Brunei is smaller), this book on asymmetry and how to cope with it is timely... it offers credible examples from the 21st century... A timely reminder of enduring global political-economic imbalances.' New Zealand International Review 'The international political economy framework employed in this book is paired with a trade policy practitioner’s level of detailed knowledge of the world trading regime, making for a book that is both theoretically interesting and empirically satisfying. ... This book is a good contribution to international political economy analyses of the world trade regime.' Political Studies Review

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