Whither US trade policy?

Bernard Gordon:

From a US government perspective, the Trans Pacific Partnership is the only game in town. Three main reasons explain why: the state of the WTO’s Doha Round; China’s role in Asia; and America’s self-image of its place in the Pacific. A possible fourth reason is that Washington regards the TPP is the only doable multilateral trade initiative…

For a United States that almost singlehandedly launched both the global GATT and then the WTO, a ‘Trans-Pacific Partnership’ is quite a comedown. All the more so when, if the WTO’s Doha Round were completed, its ‘most favoured nation’ clause would render moot most of the preferential trade agreements now cluttering world trade, and simultaneously kick-start global trade growth. And yet only the unlikely goal of a TPP, so 20th century, will be pressed by the US because that’s all the President is prepared to undertake at this point.

Read the whole thing. (HT: Larry.)

Schumer attacks international phone calls

Would a 25-cent specific tariff on importing customer service phone calls violate US WTO obligations?

Reuters: In a bid to reduce outsourcing of U.S. jobs, a Democratic senator said on Sunday he will push legislation to make companies inform customers when their calls were being transferred outside the United States and charge companies for those transferred calls…

Schumer’s bill would also impose a $0.25 excise tax on any customer service call placed inside the United States which is transferred to an agent in a foreign location. The fee would be assessed on the company that transferred the call.

Why might you want oligopolistic models of trade?

Why might you want oligopolstic models of trade?
“In 2004 Nokia’s share of Finnish GDP was 3.5 per cent and in 2003 it accounted for almost a quarter of Finland’s exports” (Neary, 2010).

“In 2004 Nokia’s share of Finnish GDP was 3.5 per cent and in 2003 it accounted for almost a quarter of Finland’s exports” (Neary, 2010).

Who receives US farm subsidies?

The US Department of Agriculture is no longer centralizing data that made it easier to pinpoint individuals who receive farm payments, which total about $15 billion annually. The Environmental Working Group has long been publicizing the individuals who receive subsidy payments, such as members of Congress, Scottie Pippen, and Ted Turner. Now EWG’s job is more difficult due to less transparent government.

Via Wilkinson.

Nsour: Establish an agreement on PTAs

Mohammad Nsour, who was involved in McGill Law’s PTAs database that I’ve mentioned before, has published his doctoral thesis as Rethinking the World Trade Order: Towards a Better Legal Understanding of the Role of Regionalism in the Multilateral Trade Regime. The publisher’s summary:

Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) have proliferated at an unprecedented pace since the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Although the WTO legally recognizes countries’ entitlement to form RTAs, neither the WTO nor parties to RTAs have an unequivocal understanding of the relationship between the WTO and RTAs. In other words, the legal controversies, the result of uncertainty regarding the application of the WTO/GATT laws, risk undermining the objectives of the multilateral trade system. This research tackles a phenomenon that is widely believed to be heavily economic and political. It highlights the economic and political aspects of regionalism, but largely concentrates on the legal dimension of regionalism. The main argument of the book is that the first step to achieving harmony between multilateralism and regionalism is the identification of the legal uncertainties that regionalism produces when countries form RTAs without taking into account the substantive and procedural aspect of the applicable WTO/ GATT laws. The book calls for the creation of a legal instrument (i.e. agreement on RTAs) that combines all of the applicable laws on RTAs, and simultaneously clarifies the legal language used therein. Likewise, the WTO should have a proactive role, not merely as a coordinator of RTAs, but as a watchdog for the multilateral system that has the power to prosecute violating RTAs. The author is aware that political concerns are top priorities for governments and policy makers when dealing with regionalism. Hence, legal solutions or proposals are not sufficient to create a better international trade system without the good will of the WTO Members who are, in fact, the players who are striving to craft more regional trade arrangements.