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32
The second provision stipulates that trade barriers must eventually be
eliminated on substantially all goods. This provision is stated in Paragraphs 8(a) and
8(b) for customs unions and free trade areas, respectively:
(a) A customs union shall be understood to mean the substitution of a single
customs territory for two or more customs territories, so that
(i) duties and other restrictive regulations of commerce (except, where
necessary, those permitted under Articles XI, XII, XIII, XIV, XV and
XX) are eliminated with respect to substantially all the trade between
the constituent territories of the union or at least with respect to
substantially all the trade in products originating in such territories,
and,
(ii) subject to the provisions of paragraph 9, substantially the same duties
and other regulations of commerce are applied by each of the
members of the union to the trade of territories not included in the
union;
(b) A free-trade area shall be understood to mean a group of two or more
customs territories in which the duties and other restrictive regulations of
commerce (except, where necessary, those permitted under Articles XI, XII,
XIII, XIV, XV and XX) are eliminated on substantially all the trade between
the constituent territories in products originating in such territories.
The spirit and intent seems clear enough; if states wish to pursue RTAs, it is
permitted to the extent that no other state is harmed and trade liberalization exceeds
the GATT/WTO. Spirit and intent have little bite in an international legal document
like the GATT. The language of paragraph 8 referring to “substantially all the
trade” is sufficiently vague to make enforcement difficult, if not impossible; or
potentially worse, arbitrary.
The Enabling Clause and the General Agreement on Trade in Services
Seeking to encourage participation of developing countries in international
trade, contracting parties to the Tokyo Round of multilateral trade negotiations
Object Description
| Title | Riding the wave: an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the popularity of RTA notifications to the GATT/WTO |
| Author | McClough, David Andrew |
| Author email | mcclough@usc.edu; dmcclou@bgsu.edu |
| Degree | Doctor of Philosophy |
| Document type | Dissertation |
| Degree program | Political Economy & Public Policy |
| School | College of Letters, Arts and Sciences |
| Date defended/completed | 2008-08-07 |
| Date submitted | 2008 |
| Restricted until | Unrestricted |
| Date published | 2008-10-18 |
| Advisor (committee chair) | Katada, Saori N. |
| Advisor (committee member) |
Nugent, Jeffrey B. Cartier, Carolyn |
| Abstract | The proliferation of Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) notified to the GATT/WTO since the early 1980s deviates from the long-term trend and reflects participation of nearly every member of the United Nations. This dissertation seeks to explain the current wave of RTA notifications by supplementing the economic model of supply and demand with diffusion theory. Application of the supply and demand model is useful in distinguishing between changes in demand and changes insupply of RTAs. This distinction is seldom emphasized in the current literature examining RTAs. Recent applications of diffusion theory in the discipline of international relations offer a unique opportunity to include a dynamic force in the static analysis of the supply and demand model. Empirical analysis assesses the fit of the RTA diffusion pattern by comparing the RTA diffusion pattern to a cumulative standard normal distribution. The analysis indicates that the diffusion pattern of RTAs resembles the diffusion of an innovation through a social system.; The implication of this finding is that the adoption of an RTA as trade policy is not made independently of the decision by other states. Indeed, the analysis suggests interdependency between states. Further empirical analysis explores economic and political variables that may explain the decision to adopt the RTA as trade policy. The empirical analysis is unique in that survival analysis is utilized to assess the variation in duration to adopt an initial RTA since the early 1980s. A central discovery is that regional designation explains the variation in duration to adopt an initial RTA. Multiple regression analysis confirms the results generated using survival analysis and support the assertion that the proliferation of RTAs likely reflects changes in both the demand for RTAs and the supply of RTAs. This dissertation concludes by considering implications for the WTO resulting from the increase in RTA notifications. |
| Keyword | trade agreements |
| Coverage date | after 1980 |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Provenance | Electronically uploaded by the author |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m1675 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Rights | McClough, David Andrew |
| Repository name | Libraries, University of Southern California |
| Repository address | Los Angeles, California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Filename | etd-McClough-2338 |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume32/etd-McClough-2338.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 41 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 32 The second provision stipulates that trade barriers must eventually be eliminated on substantially all goods. This provision is stated in Paragraphs 8(a) and 8(b) for customs unions and free trade areas, respectively: (a) A customs union shall be understood to mean the substitution of a single customs territory for two or more customs territories, so that (i) duties and other restrictive regulations of commerce (except, where necessary, those permitted under Articles XI, XII, XIII, XIV, XV and XX) are eliminated with respect to substantially all the trade between the constituent territories of the union or at least with respect to substantially all the trade in products originating in such territories, and, (ii) subject to the provisions of paragraph 9, substantially the same duties and other regulations of commerce are applied by each of the members of the union to the trade of territories not included in the union; (b) A free-trade area shall be understood to mean a group of two or more customs territories in which the duties and other restrictive regulations of commerce (except, where necessary, those permitted under Articles XI, XII, XIII, XIV, XV and XX) are eliminated on substantially all the trade between the constituent territories in products originating in such territories. The spirit and intent seems clear enough; if states wish to pursue RTAs, it is permitted to the extent that no other state is harmed and trade liberalization exceeds the GATT/WTO. Spirit and intent have little bite in an international legal document like the GATT. The language of paragraph 8 referring to “substantially all the trade” is sufficiently vague to make enforcement difficult, if not impossible; or potentially worse, arbitrary. The Enabling Clause and the General Agreement on Trade in Services Seeking to encourage participation of developing countries in international trade, contracting parties to the Tokyo Round of multilateral trade negotiations |
