The role and shape of international trade agreements is changing. No longer simple devices for easing the movement of goods across borders, it is becoming both an instrument of integrated economic regulation at the supra national level and a tool of international relations within the emerging...

What kind of technical assistance and capacity building benefits do developing countries enjoy if they sign a free trade agreement (FTA) with developed countries? This is a frequently asked question among developing country officials involved in FTA policymaking. While we tend to normatively...

From 1948 to 1994, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) Secretariat received 124 indications of Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) relating to the trade in goods, and since the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995, more than 240 additional RTAs (covering trade in...

The purpose of this paper is to show how the pattern of trade relations between the United States and African countries is gradually moving from unilateralism towards reciprocity. It therefore demonstrates that the AGOA was conceived to be a building block toward future bilateral trade...

This book chapter offers a comprehensive review of the free trade agreement between China and ASEAN ("ACFTA"), focusing on the rules concerning tariff reduction (including the Early Harvest Programme), trade in services, dispute resolution, as well as the progress on the negotiations on...

This paper argues that China’s attitude to multilateral trade is unclear. Moreover, China assumes little responsibility to maintain international order in global economic governance. Furthermore, this paper argues that China should hide less behind the status of a developing country and stand...

While some commentators credit bilateral and regional free trade agreements (RTAs) for increasing regional trade and per capita GDP in Asia, this chapter contends that the role of RTAs in expanding regional trade in Asia has been overstated and exaggerated. Put simply, this chapter demonstrates...

This paper examines the legal status of a treaty after the termination of diplomatic relations between two countries by using Taiwan-Panama FTA as a case study. This paper argues that the severance of diplomatic relations does not affect the legal relations of Taiwan-related FTAs. This paper...

With the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995, the pyramidal design of the international trading system placed multilateralism at the top of the pyramid, regionalism/bilateralism in the middle, and the domestic trade and economic policies of WTO Member States at the bottom of...

The paper observes that the fragmented international investment law regime is moving toward harmonisation. In the near future, five major agreements could govern a very substantial share of global investment: a United States-China bilateral investment treaty (BIT), a European Union-China BIT,...