Regional Trade Agreements and the WTO Legal System

by Lorand Bartels, Federico Ortino

Overview

The proliferation of regional trade agreements, including both free trade agreements and customs unions, over the past decade has provoked many new legal issues in WTO law, public international law, and an emerging law of regional trade agreements. The various parts of this book chart this development from a number of perspectives. Part 1 introduces the economic and political underpinnings of regional trade agreements, their constitutional functions, and their role as a locus for integrating trade and human rights. Part 2 examines the WTO rules governing regional trade agreements, focusing on a number of areas in which regional trade agreements prove problematic, such as trade remedies, regulatory standards and rules of origin. Part 3 investigates areas in which regional trade agreements go beyond WTO rules, in areas such as intellectual property, investment, competition, services, sustainable development and mutual recognition, while Part 4 is devoted to the dispute settlement mechanisms of regional trade agreements, and includes illuminating case studies. Part 5 explores the interrelationship between regional trade agreements and the WTO system from the perspective of public international law.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199206995
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	02/08/2007
Series:	International Economic Law Series
Pages:	640
Product dimensions:	9.36(w) x 6.50(h) x 1.58(d)

About the Author

Dr Lorand Bartels is Lecturer in International Economic Law at the University of Edinburgh. He completed his undergraduate studies in law and English literature in Australia, and a doctorate at the European University Institute. Dr Federico Ortino is Fellow in International Economic Law and Director of the Investment Treaty Forum at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law in London. He is Adjunct Professor at the University of Trento. He was Emile Noël Fellow and Fulbright Scholar at the NYU Jean Monnet Center in New York and Legal Officer at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in Geneva. He holds a doctorate from the European University Institute in Florence.

Table of Contents

Preface, John Jackson1. Introduction, Lorand Bartels and Federico OrtinoPart I Framework Issues2. The Economic Dimension of Regional Trade Agreements and their Relation to the Multilateral Trading System: A Survey of the Literature, William Watson and Viet Dung Do3. The Political Economy of Regional Trade Agreements, Chad Damro4. Constitutional Functions of the WTO and Regional Trade Agreements, Professor Thomas Cottier and Marina FolteaPart 2 WTO Regulation of Regional Trade Agreements5. Regional Trade Agreements and Domestic Regulation: What Reach for 'Other Restrictive Regulations of Commerce', James Mathis6. Mandatory Abolition of Antidumping, Counterveiling Duties and Safeguards in Customs Unions and Free-Trade Areas Constituted Between WTO Members: Revisiting a Long Standing Discussion in Light of the Appellate Body's Turkey - Textiles Ruling, Angela Gobbi Estrella and Gary Horlick7. How Free Trade Areas and their Rules of Origin Comply with GATT Article XXIV, Jose Antonio RivasPart III WTO-plus Issues in Regional Trade Agreements8. Services Liberalisation in Regional Trade Agreements: Lessons for GATS 'Unfinished Business'?, Markus Krajewski9. Bilateral, Regional and Multilateral Agreements Covering Foreign Investment in Services: Patterns and Linkage, Federico Ortino and Audley Sheppard10. TRIPS-Plus Provisions in Regional Trade Agreements, Bryan Mercurio11. Competition Law and Regional Trade Agreements, Melaku Desta and Naomi Barnes12. Is Mutual Recognition an Alternative to Harmonisation? Lesson on Trade and Tolerance of Diversity from the EU, Gareth Davies13. The WTO, Regional Trade Agreements and Human Rights, Ernst-Ulrich Petersmann14. Sustainable Development in Regional Trade Agreements, Marie-Claire Cordonier SeggerPart IV Dispute Settlement in Regional Trade Agreements15. Dispute Settlement in Regional Trade Agreements and the WTO: An Introduction, Bill Davey16. NAFTA Dispute Settlement: Creative Experiment or Confusion?, Armand de Mestral17. Bilateral Dispute Settlement in EU Free Trade Agreements: Lessons Learned?, Ignacio Garcia Bercero18. Dispute Settlement in Bilateral Free Trade Agreements: The EFTA Experience, Andreas Ziegler19. Dispute Settlement in the Proposed East Asia Regional Trade Agreements: What Can We Learn From the EU and NAFTA?, Yan LuoPart V Interfaces Between the WTO and Regional Trade Agreements20. The EU and its Member States in the WTO: Issues of Responsibility, Piet Eeckhout21. Overlaps and Conflicts of Jurisdiction Between the WTO and RTA's, Kyung Kwak and Gabrielle Marceau22. Applicability of WTO Law in Regional Trade Agreements: Identifying the Links, Locknie Hsu23. What Role is there for Regional International Law in the Interpretation of the WTO Agreements?, Isabelle Van Damme

Editorial Reviews

"The 2006 collection of papers edited by Lorand Bartels and Federico Ortino is to be welcomed as an overdue contribution to the field. For those interested in the topical and consequential issue of the fragmentation of international trade law, this is a collection that should be drawn upon."
--Global Law Books

From the Publisher