With growing US protectionism and uncertainties in the transatlantic relationship it is time for the EU to consider diversifying its external ties and look for other allies that support the idea of free trade gains and have a common interest in maintaining the international rules based trading...

Are trade facilitation measures under free trade agreements (FTAs) discriminatory? This important question has yet to be sufficiently explored by the existing literature on trade facilitation. Despite the multilateral scope and non-discriminatory objectives of trade facilitation measures, some...

The paper argues that United States (US) participation in the East Asia Summit (EAS) - regional integration architecture led by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) - was motivated by four changes in the regional economic landscape: (i) the Asian financial crisis of 1997 and...

The paper explores the role of the gravity variables in explaining the FTA-s formation. We develop a new theoretical benchmark for the use of the gravity equation modeling them as fixed resources in the budget constraint of the Nash equilibrium definition of an FTA. We show the existence of an...

In the race for establishing trading architecture consistent with new landscape of the global economy, the US is ahead of the game by concluding the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement with 11 countries. To make it reality, the ratification is essential. In the battle for ratification in the US,...

Purpose – This study analyzes the characteristics of preferential rules of origin in terms of restrictiveness, complexity, and uncertainty, and empirically analyzes the effects of these characteristics on the implementation of preferential tariffs for FTAs, and the effects of these on the...

Global institutions are understood as one of the best means of achieving inter-state cooperation. Yet this perspective omits the effects of institutional creation on non-members. We know that exclusion from trade agreements affects countries' economic cooperation. I show here that exclusion also...

While the pathway to the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) has been intensely discussed with a focus on its architecture, something has been missing: how to link trade and investment liberalization with inclusive growth of the APEC economies. The APEC economies have been increasingly...

In the race for establishing trading architecture consistent with new landscape of the global economy, the US is ahead of the game by concluding the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement with 11 countries. To make it reality, the ratification is essential. In the battle for ratification in the US,...

Cross-border investment disputes have supplanted trade disputes as the main focus of legal actions under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), according to this study. The author finds a growing number of these investment disputes entail challenges by American investors against...