The Status of African Regional Trade Agreements

Abstract

Sixteen papers consider nontariff barriers (NTBs) to trade and the world trade order. Papers discuss nontariff barriers and climate policy--border-adjusted taxes and regulatory measures as World Trade Organization (WTO)-compliant climate mitigation strategies; the interaction of customs and NTBs; nontariff barriers to trade--quality and quantity from an economic perspective; the horizontal mechanism initiative in the WTO--the proceduralist turn and its discontents; NTBs and the WTO agreement on technical barriers to trade--the case of processes and production methods-based measures following US-Tuna II (2012) and EC-Seal Products (2014); NTBs and private conduct--the case of labeling; transatlantic trade and investment partnership agreement and the development of international standards; economic partnership agreements concluded by Japan; aggressive regionalism with the first partner in the Far East--the Republic of Korea-EU free trade agreement and its implications for the future; EU-Association of Southeast Asian Nations trade and investment relations with a special focus on Singapore; a mismatch between ambition and reality--the European Union's efforts to counterbalance China and the United States in East Asia; the European Union's normative power in Asia--endogenous and exogenous factors of the nascent investment policy; institutional developments in investor-state dispute settlement and arbitration under the auspices of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes; an overview of WTO jurisprudence in 2013; institutional developments in the WTO--recent trends and the challenge going forward; and the World Intellectual Property Organization's global copyright policy priorities--the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled. Herrmann is in the Faculty of Law at the University of Passau. Krajewski is in the Faculty of Law at the University of Erlangen-Nurnberg. Terhechte is with the Competition and Regulation Institute at Leuphana University of Luneburg. No index.