Centre for Trade and Economic Integration

Formal international law is stagnating in terms both of quantity and quality. It is increasingly superseded by ‘informal international lawmaking’ involving new actors, new processes, and new outputs, in fields ranging from finance and health to internet regulation and the environment. On many occasions, the traditional structures of formal lawmaking have become shackles. Drawing on a two-year research project involving over 40 scholars and 30 case studies, this article offers evidence in support of the stagnation hypothesis, evaluates the likely reasons for it in relation to a ‘turn to informality’, and weighs possible options in response. But informal structures can also become shackles and limit freedom. From practice, we deduce procedural meta-norms against which informal cooperation is increasingly checked (‘thick stakeholder consensus’). Intriguingly, this benchmark may be normatively superior (rather than inferior) to the validation requirements of traditional international law (‘thin state consent’).

Initiated in 2002, the International Environmental Agreements Data Base (IEADB) catalogs the texts, memberships, and design features of over 3,000 multilateral and bilateral environmental agreements. Using IEADB data, we create a comprehensive review of the evolution of international environmental law, including how the number, subjects, and state memberships in IEAs have changed over time. By providing IEA texts, the IEADB helps scholars identify and systematically code IEA design features. We review scholarship derived from the IEADB on international environmental governance, including insights into IEA membership, formation, and design as well as the deeper structure of international environmental law. We note the IEADB’s value as a teaching tool to promote undergraduate and graduate teaching and research. The IEADB’s structure and content opens up both broad research realms and specific research questions, and facilitates the ability of scholars to use the IEADB to answer those questions of greatest interest to them.

ABSTRACT The factors responsible for the spatial reorganization of contemporary manufacturing are presented here and the predictive power of long‐standing notions of comparative advantage revisited. While a growing number of commercial tasks and technologies are in principle mobile internationally, giving rise to the perception of evermore footloose manufacturing firms and greater job insecurity, there is much in the modern organization of manufacturing that is both viscid and involves location‐specific competitive advantages. This calls for a more nuanced assessment of the impact of an open world trading system on the spatial division of labor and on living standards.

Abstract For all the attention paid to the panelists and Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Secretariat plays an overlooked and increasingly important role in the dispute settlement mechanism (DSM), including in selecting panelists, writing “issue papers” for adjudicators, providing economic expert advice, participating in internal deliberations, and drafting actual rulings. This Article argues that, given these functions, the DSM is better understood to be a sui generis administrative review process than it is a “World Trade Court.”

. This paper uses firm-level data to study the pricing-behavior of Tanzanian exporters. The important question of how exporting firms make pricing decisions has not received significant attention in the trade literature, which is more focused on factors that determine export flows. The results of the paper show that the free on board price of Tanzanian exports is differentiated both across exporters -- within product-destination pairs -- and across markets -- within firm-product pairs. Moreover, contrasting with existing evidence, price differentiation across destinations seems to be mainly relevant for homogenous goods. This result could indicate either that goods classified as homogeneous can potentially be differentiated by their intrinsic quality (such as coffee), or that firms charge different mark-ups in different markets. Although further work is needed to confirm what leads to price dispersion, allowing for the possibility that food products can be vertically differentiable amplifies the spectrum of existing opportunities for developing countries to exploit product differentiation and market niches. The study also discusses the implications of the empirical findings in light of the predictions of price and quality competition models, but finds that the results cannot be explained by a single trade model of quality or price competition.

Abstract With 146 decisions delivered since 1995, the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization (WTO) stands as one of the world's most prolific and accomplished international courts. However, the Appellate Body finds itself currently embroiled in a crisis that has crippled it. This article delves into the reasons that may account for this state of affairs. We examine a sample of Appellate Body decisions, that, on the one hand, had significant policy and systemic implications for WTO dispute settlement, but on the other hand, are beset with notable flaws. While it is human to err, and there is no reason why this old adage should not be applicable to international tribunals, by developing an overly dogmatic jurisprudential tradition that has the potential to perpetuate even the most deficient rationale, the Appellate Body invited at least some of the criticism that escalated into political maneuvering that rendered it inoperative. Our aspiration is that this crisis can serve as a source of valuable lessons regarding how to mitigate the risks that international adjudicators must inevitably bear when interpreting international treaties. In an effort to trigger a scholarly discussion on how to make the work of the Appellate Body more sustainable, we outline a possible blueprint to resolve the current deadlock.

. This paper uses firm-level data to \n study the pricing-behavior of Tanzanian exporters. The \n important question of how exporting firms make pricing \n decisions has not received significant attention in the \n trade literature, which is more focused on factors that \n determine export flows. The results of the paper show that \n the free on board price of Tanzanian exports is \n differentiated both across exporters -- within \n product-destination pairs -- and across markets -- within \n firm-product pairs. Moreover, contrasting with existing \n evidence, price differentiation across destinations seems to \n be mainly relevant for homogenous goods. This result could \n indicate either that goods classified as homogeneous can \n potentially be differentiated by their intrinsic quality \n (such as coffee), or that firms charge different mark-ups in \n different markets. Although further work is needed to \n confirm what leads to price dispersion, allowing for the \n possibility that food products can be vertically \n differentiable amplifies the spectrum of existing \n opportunities for developing countries to exploit product \n differentiation and market niches. The study also discusses \n the implications of the empirical findings in light of the \n predictions of price and quality competition models, but \n finds that the results cannot be explained by a single trade \n model of quality or price competition.

Services trade liberalisation could play an important role in sustainable development, were its potential properly recognised. Currently, however, services trade appears to be mostly de-linked from efforts in sustainable development. This chapter outlines the role of services trade liberalisation in inclusive economic growth, in health and well-being, in education, and in greening the economy. Based on these findings, the chapter proposes an integrated approach to services trade liberalisation through scheduling commitments in services trade agreements, unilateral liberalisation in key sectors and plurilateral negotiations on environmental and environmentally related services.

Abstract This paper examines refugee hubs that attract heightened scrutiny and opportunities for integration. Focusing on Turkey, we argue these hubs offer a sense of protection and expose refugees to increased control by authorities. Thus, we introduce the concept of collective hypervisibility to analyse how Syrian refugees in two Turkish hubs articulate and perceive their lived experiences through both positive and negative perspectives as a group. Refugees often view these neighbourhoods as shields from typical integration challenges faced by newcomers. However, living in such spaces also renders them targets, as all refugees are perceived as a homogeneous group, ignoring individual differences. By exploring refugee perceptions, we reveal shared dynamics across refugee hubs and offer insights relevant to similar contexts globally.

Abstract The conventional approach to trade liberalization has been to liberalize trade through international agreement and address subsequent domestic fallout and spillovers through domestic policies. In consequence, international obligations in trade liberalization are not legally connected with ‘flanking’ measures to address their negative effects. We discuss the shortcomings of this conventional approach with respect to labor adjustment and environmental protection: for political reasons, trade liberalization requires today the simultaneous regulation of labor and environmental spillovers. We suggest a novel approach to trade liberalization that includes the necessary flanking policies as part of, or linked to, the international agreement itself. This novel approach seeks to achieve the best of both worlds: reaping the benefits of international trade while making sure that negative spillovers are effectively addressed. To illustrate the intricacies of this approach, we introduce a new conceptual framework covering the negative effects of trade liberalization and flanking or mitigating policies, and a proposed novel approach in the form of trade liberalization packages and package treaties. Trade liberalization packages and package treaties are currently emerging around the world (e.g. sustainable palm oil in EFTA–Indonesia) and deserve our close attention.

Globalization generates benefits for nations around the world, but it also creates winners and losers within nations. As former WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy puts it: ‘Globalization works because it is painful, and it is painful because it works’.1 This is why international economic integration inevitably creates a collective action problem; opposition by losers may thwart policies that would benefit nations overall.

What is TradeLab?TradeLab is a global network of universities and training centers, founded in 2013, that conducts pro bono projects for developing countries and other stakeholders such as Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) (hereafter: "beneficiaries").TradeLab's overall goal is "to empower countries and smaller stakeholders to reap the full development benefits of institutions and rules that govern our global economy".4 TradeLab's contribution to capacity building centers on "legal clinics": small teams of students work from their respective places of study with and for specific beneficiaries on semestrial basis.Student teams are closely supervised by experienced academics and mentored by expert practitioners in the field.Using internet tools, students, experts, and beneficiaries on a given project are virtually connected across the globe, from centers of expertise in Geneva or Washington, DC, to remote places in Africa or Latin America.Research memoranda and other non-confidential output are posted on the TradeLab website for all interested parties to access.TradeLab thereby seeks to achieve three objectives: (i) help beneficiaries build capacity; (ii) train students; and (iii) inform and create awareness within the wider public.Inspired by crowdsourcing and the sharing-economy, TradeLab functions as a global innovation and learning network.No one pays (all contributions are made pro bono), but all participants gain: direct beneficiaries enjoy free help and on-the-job training; students "learn by doing" and receive university 1 This chapter was made possible thanks to the NPRP grant # [NPRP 7-1815-5-272] from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of Qatar Foundation).The statements made herein are solely the responsibility of the authors.

Asian countries. The US has signed FTAs with Singapore, Australia, and Korea, and started negotiations with Malaysia and Thailand (the fate of US-Korea is unclear under the Obama administration). The EU is negotiating an FTA with ASEAN, India, and Korea. This paper explores some of the novel political economy forces that may be generated by these new cross-regional trade initiatives by the two existing trade 'hubs' - the EU and US. The paper starts by reviewing some background facts that illustrate the importance of Asia as a trade block. It then goes on to consider the current state of trade agreements in Asia and then the arrangements between the US and the EU on the one hand and Asian nations on the other. The paper moves from fact to conjectures with some discussion of various medium run scenarios and their implications for the world trade system. The paper concludes by suggesting that the 3-bloc dance may force the US to push for a global free trade agreement in industrial goods - something like the Information Technology Agreement but covering most industrial sectors.

Argentinean export growth was impressive during the recent economic boom (2003-2007). However, decomposing export growth reveals that the extensive margin (increases in exports of existing products to existing markets) dominates, while the intensive margin (increases in exports of new products or new markets) contributes little to export growth. Argentina's trade product concentration has increased in the past 10 years, and the main export products remain overwhelmingly natural-resource intensive. The little diversification of non-primary exports limits the country’s ability to weather a decline in export commodity prices. The country has had some success finding new export markets, especially in Latin America, but should seek to develop deeper trade relationships with high GDP export destinations such as the European Union and the United States. Another challenge going forward is the relatively low sophistication of exports and limited integration into the global production chains, falling behind regional competitors such as Brazil. This calls for policy measures to improve the ability of existing firms to innovate and compete successfully in global markets.