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This paper argues that President Morales' re-founding of Bolivia as an Indigenous Nation can be seen as the beginning of the shift towards a more humane World Order. At the national scale, the President's creation of a pluri-national state puts emphasis on the dialogue among all ethnic groups in the country and respect for natural resources; at the regional scale, by joining ALBA, The Peoples' Trade Treaty and UNASUR, ties of solidarity, fair trade and reciprocity replace the greed of free-trade markets and "strategic regionalism" and; at the global scale his call for a global counter-Copenhagen Climate Change Summit that focuses on collective human rights and the respect for Pachamama or "Mother Earth," rather than the dominant economic and technical approach to climate change shows an authentic interest in modifying the relation to the natural environment. This multi-scalar struggle for Life "from below" is the strongest opposition the current neo-liberal hegemonic project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In attempting to explain Britain's movement toward free trade in the nineteenth century, much academic work has centered on the 1846 repeal of the Corn Laws. (Irwin 1989; Schonhardt-Bailey 2006) This focus is understandable given the symbolic importance of the Corn Laws to both protectionists and free-traders alike. British policymakers, however, first began their march toward free trade more than half a century earlier, in the midst of the "colonial crises" that tore the British Empire asunder. This paper argues that these innovations followed directly from the efforts of Adam Smith to respond to these crises with an alternative bundle of foreign economic policies. Rather than integrating the colonies within the empire and fostering security for Britain, Smith argued that the mercantilists' attempts to direct trade had driven the American and Irish colonies into open rebellion and exacerbated Anglo-French tensions. Smith convinced key policymakers-- including several Prime Ministers--that such crises could be averted by liberalizing commerce with both its colonies and its traditional rival, France. The success of these experiments in the 1780s inspired the subsequent movements towards free trade in the nineteenth century. This paper makes three distinct contributions. First, it challenges one of the most influential theories of IPE by demonstrating that openness can come before hegemony, not just during and after (Kindleberger 1973; Krasner 1976; Keohane 1984). Second, it reveals that crises may often lead to shifts from closure toward openness, rather than just toward closure (Schattschneider 1935; Eichengreen 1983). Finally, it advances our understanding of the crucial role intellectuals play in shaping policymakers' responses to crisis (Hall 1989; Goldstein and Keohane 1993; Legro 2000; Blyth 2002; Bleich 2003). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The financial crisis of 2008-09 has cast palpable doubt on the relevance of the current legal framework governing trade in services for financial crisis prevention and management. The crisis revealed the limited utility and effectiveness of services trade law in dealing adequately with the trade-related regulatory fallout from the financial upheaval and the potentially distortive measures taken to mitigate its effects. Even as the crisis had little to do with trade policy as a contributing factor, such a statement still leaves unanswered the question of whether services trade law can or should play a more critical role in shaping the post-crisis financial architecture. The paper posits a number of trade-related policy and legal ramifications flowing from the financial crisis and its resolution. The post-crisis period affords a unique opportunity to clarify the scope of GATS law in financial services, establish with greater precision the remit of the prudential carve-out, and complete long stalled rule-making journeys on the key outstanding GATS disciplines of necessity and subsidies without which the law of services trade runs the very genuine risk of remaining a construct more theoretical than real. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies on terrorism have traditionally focused on non-state actors who direct violence against liberal states. Such studies have also tended to focus on political motivations and, therefore, have neglected the economic functions of terrorism. This article challenges the divorce of the political and economic spheres by highlighting how states can use terrorism to realise interconnected political and economic goals. To demonstrate this, we take the case of the paramilitary demobilisation process in Colombia and show how it relates to the USColombian free trade agreement (FTA). We argue that the demobilisation process fulfils a dual role. Firstly, the process aims to improve the image of the Colombian government required to pass the controversial FTA through US Congress in order to protect large amounts of US investment in the country. Secondly, the demobilisation process serves to mask clear continuities in paramilitary terror which serve mutually supportive political and economic functions for US investment in Colombia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does the national environment shape individual trade preferences? This paper moves away from individual-level covariates in its search of an explanation for individual trade preferences, and examines the argument that individuals evaluate globalization not based on distributional outcomes, but whether they believe trade liberalization to be good economic policy. An HLM model is used to estimate trade preferences using the 1995-97 World Values Survey. Analysis indicates that individuals that perceive an increase in the national level of poverty are also more likely to favor increased restrictions on free trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since October 2008, when the economic crisis hit with full force, Statistics Canada has been reporting alarming rates of unemployment. Indeed, the loss of good jobs has been significant since the Canadian manufacturing crisis began in 2002, but as the "Great Recession" gathered force, workers witnessed the unfolding of an utter catastrophe across the country. Now, the recession has been declared over, but unemployment remains high in Canada and workers and their unions continue to be disciplined by factory and mill closures, internal migration, international free trade and investment agreements, ongoing corporate tax cuts, an inadequate social safety net, increased income inequality, the re-emergence of debt and deficits, and state alliances with international capital bent on wresting deep concessions from labour. Despite all evidence to the contrary, labour is now being scapegoated in the wake of a crisis that it did not create, and neoliberal solutions are being sought as a solution to a massive crisis caused by neo-liberal capitalism itself. These disciplines did not emerge as a result of the 'Great Recession' but ahead of it with the result that the 'Great Repression' continues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the role Japanese comprehensive economic partnership agreements (EPAs) play within the accelerating process of regional integration throughout East Asia, which had been a comparatively white spot on the map of bilateral trade liberalization until the late 1990s. The accompanying "noodle bowl" phenomenon of individual agreements with exclusive character and various rules poses one of the central future challenges for Japan, whose economy is heavily dependent on intra-regional trade. Japanese EPAs go substantially beyond liberalization of trade in goods and services, including further so-called "WTO plus" or "deeper integration" issues, e.g. measures for promoting investment and competition or protection of intellectual property rights. However, there are also some critical points to raise, such as the low basic trade liberalization rate or the special treatment of agricultural products. The respective contract partners often make much wider concessions due to their unfavourable bargaining position. Drawing especially on these imbalances in trade liberalization, the underlying paper compares the existing Japanese trade agreements within East Asia in respect to their scope and tries to shed some light on how "comprehensive" Japanese EPAs actually are. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of increased trade on wage inequality in developing countries, and whether a higher human capital stock moderates this effect. We look at the skilled-unskilled wage differential. High initial endowments of human capital impl ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically evaluates the prevalent view that a free trade agreement (FTA) between Seoul and Washington would markedly strengthen their security alliance. For that purpose, we examine the impact of economic ties on U.S. alliances with Australia, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, as well as South Korea, over the past quarter-century, while drawing relevant insights from the theoretical literature on international commerce and alliance cohesion. The research finds that the conventional wisdom has questionable theoretical and empirical foundations. There are several logical reasons for rejecting the prevalent view. First, the FTA would not markedly increase mutual dependence between the U.S. and Korean economies. Second, expanding economic ties with potential adversaries such as North Korea and China may cancel out any marginal alliance-enhancing effect of the agreement. Third, the FTA could adversely affect the vested interests of influential societal actors, which might blame their economic losses on the alliance and turn against it. Fourth, the alliance could become more asymmetrical and further lose its public appeal. Also, the empirical analysis shows no clear positive association between the level of economic interdependence and the strength of alliances. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent changes in investment regulations presents a conceptual and analytical challenge to current theorizing in international political economy (IPE). Freedom of investment is one of the key tenets of neoliberal economic theory. In a system governed by the logic of comparative advantage and free trade, the existence of international consensus on the integration of financial markets is not surprising. However, the last two decades have been characterized by a rapid increase in a regulatory oversight. A number of countries have reexamined their policies towards the inflow of foreign capital. This paper seeks to account for the growth in investment regulations among major financial powers by bridging the theoretical divide between rationalist and constructivist approaches to IPE. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The desire for regional integration in East Asia has seen increased intra-regional trade, on-going negotiations regarding the expansion of free trade, as well as a growing consensus among ASEAN+3 nations that increased monetary and financial cooperation ( ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the creation of the World Trade Organization there has been a proliferation of Preferential Trade Agreements and much debate about the dynamic between PTAs and Multilateral Trade Negotiations. I adopt a new approach to this question, based on an idea developed by a biologist in a different context. I analyze the question through the perspective of non- overlapping magisteria (or teaching authorities) of lawyers and economists. Legalization has increased within the WTO and legal representatives are dominating trade institutions. However, the basic rational of global free trade is economic and economists played an important role in shaping the initial free trade agenda. I argue that these two magisteria are kept sepa- rated by politics. Like a floodgate, politics allow for one of the magisteria to keep the upper hand in specific areas or for specific parts of the pro- cess. This is neither a conscious nor a directed dynamic but a consequence of standardized procedures, political and judicial structures. This missing overlap creates a shift in preferences from multilateral trade structures to- wards PTAs. However, if this is indeed the underlying dynamic, we should in the future expect a movement back towards multilateral trade rounds and a strengthening of the WTO vis--a-vis PTAs. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most important lessons in life is looking to the past, to anticipate the future. Past lessons are by their impact deemed insignificant to life altering. As globalisation progresses it changes our perspective on every aspect of life, it carries ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the central issues plaguing international commercial relations is that the private interests at the heart of international flows of goods, services, and capital have traditionally lacked any “personality” within customary international law. Without ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of the literature on international policy diffusion emphasizes the effect of conjunctural features of policy choice such as cross-border information flows, characteristics of the innovation itself, or of the international social system in which the p ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the past few years, public opinion polls have shown that a majority of people in the United States are skeptical of the benefits of free trade, foreign investment, and globalization in general. Much of the 2008 Presidential campaign has revolved arou ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

East Asia has experienced various institution building initiatives ranging from the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) boom to regional currency initiatives since the late 1990s, all of which are rapidly redefining the regional institutional map. What is puzzlin ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-regionalism is a new fashion in preferential trading whereby countries, large or small, participate simultaneously in various Free Trade Areas. They seem mostly to be a reflection of the increasing rivalry of the United States and the European Union for drawing the attention by emerging middle-sized and small economies. This trend is profited then by the latter to diversify their previous (almost) exclusive economic relations with a given "hub". A strategy consisting in multiplying the number of Free Trade Areas is perfectly suited both to "hubs" and "spokes". According to the old North-South pattern, economic powers concluding preferential deals sought mainly to reap the political benefit of extending their sphere of influence and small countries the economic benefit of market access to a large market. Now new pattern is emerging whereby the two partners are motivated both by economic and political reasons. One clear result is that spheres of influence are on the wane. But this is of no help to least developed countries. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's grand strategy, reflected in recent years by its "New Security Concept", is becoming more dependent on governmental and sub-governmental institutional cooperation. The development of sub-governmental dialogues (Track II) on regional security issues in the Pacific Rim has accelerated since the 1990s and is now widely seen as an optimal method of promoting both discourse and confidence-building in the region. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chapter 6 of North American Free Trade Agreements (NAFTA) deals with Energy. It is a peculiar chapter because in fact it only replicates a similar chapter of FTA negotiated a few years earlier between the US and Canada. The chapter retains the Can-US FTA ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By including labour rights in free trade agreements (FTAs) but largely excluding them in bilateral investment treaties (BITs), almost all EU member states are pursuing incoherent foreign economic policies, which add further complexity to an already unclear and overlapping set of international rules on trade and investment. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By and large it is presumed that globalization has opened up several new opportunities to the developing nations through trade liberalization, expansion of foreign direct investment (FDIs) and providing wider avenues to the young educated citizens. But ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across various regions and international regimes, what can be conceptualized as multilevel political opportunity structures have emerged, with non-state actors finding new opportunities to engage in collective action and make claims against elites and ins ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While economic effects of bilateral Free Trade Agreements (FTA) in the economic theory have remained ambiguous since the Vinerian concepts of trade creation and trade diversion, Free Trade Agreements in world trade relations have been proliferating especially over the last 10 years. Influenced by this intensifying process the European Union (EU) and the Republic of Korea (Korea) have currently started to approach a more forceful bilateral trade policy strategy. Within their bilateral approach, the EU and Korea, meanwhile mutually important trading partners, recognized each other as a preferential FTA partner, and negotiations about a common agreement have started in May 2007. Within the consideration and evaluation phase, a European and a Korean study on economic effects of a potential EU-Korea FTA were conducted separately. Both studies applied Computerable Generalized Equilibrium (CGE) models, which are computer based simulations based on a microeconomic framework. CGE models are a common instrument of trade policy analysis and provide herewith some ground for policy evaluation and decision. On closer examination and comparison of the CGE models implemented by the European and Korean study, it shows that the conducted results representing the economic effects of a FTA have to be interpreted cautiously. First, the reality of comprehensive FTAs, their special features and the complex system of overlapping FTAs is barely or not incorporated in the model structure. Second, different model structures and different key parameters implemented in the model, lead to different or even contradictory outcomes among both studies. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though a free trade area in the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) is now being advocated, the prospects are doubtful. In fact, the region-wide FTA-buildings which were proposed twice in the past were at a standstill. Why is the region-wide FTA-building so difficult in the Asia Pacific? This paper addresses this question from the variables that have contributed to APEC’s evolution. Briefly speaking, “consensus” that has kept APEC stable and developed can be explained as an obstruction simultaneously. In order to explain why consensus may boost up and impede the regional governance, this paper deploys two factors that can make the opposite effects on consensus. One is the pending decision and another is the information gap. It will argue that consensus can impede the FTA-building through the examination of the past experiences. It will also suggest that the negative sites of consensus encourage creating bilateral FTAs. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the nature and character of international economic institutions by focusing on the World Trade Organization (WTO) within the context of the proposal for a multilateral competition policy at the WTO. Given the fact that the European Union and, to a lesser extent, the United States, are the principal supporters of this proposal and that the developing countries have displayed a near-unanimous opposition to it, the paper asks whether the WTO (a) displays the status of an autonomous entity, (b) merely reflects the interests of a hegemon, or (c) follows a logic of collective action among the member-states for providing a public good. To answer these questions, the paper combines theoretical insights from neoliberal institutionalism, public goods theory, international trade theory, and competition theory. After examining these three questions separately, the paper employs a combined multidisciplinary approach that produces an integrated understanding of international economic institutions and cooperation. The paper argues that a combination of historical factors, policy imperatives, interest-group politics, and economic policy linkages explains the developments surrounding the proposed multilateral competition policy at the WTO. Methodologically, the research combines historical analysis with a utility-maximizing model based on the assumption of rational agents. In adopting a multidisciplinary theoretical approach, this paper attempts to bridge existing divides in the international political economy literature relating to international economic institutions and their operations. The findings of this paper aim to advance existing institutionalist theories in the field of international relations while informing us of the political economy of international cooperation at international economic institutions. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effects that U.S. and Jordanian bilateral trade policies have had on facilitating trade between the two states since 2000 and how private actors have helped transform bilateral trade relations. The basic premise of this paper is that in light of contemporary relations between the United States and the MENA region it is increasingly important to understand the effects of trade liberalisation and bilateral trade agreements on both economic development and integration. A liberal institutionalist approach is used to answer three core questions. Firstly, what the effect of the Jordan-U.S. Free Trade Agreement has been after six years? Secondly, what has been the role of non-state actors? And finally, how can economic reform and liberal trade lead to greater growth in economic integration between states? An analysis is presented of the growth of the Textiles and Clothing (T&C) sector in the Jordanian economy and the growing importance of this sector in U.S.-Jordan trade. Based on field research conducted in Jordan and the United States, the T&C sector is reviewed to illustrate how a number of private economic actors coupled with public-private partnerships have taken advantage of trade liberalisation between the United States and Jordan to transform bilateral trade relations. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001 significantly altered the debate over economic integration in North America by shifting what were largely academic discussions about next-steps in government-led economic integration projects, such as the NAFTA, toward initiatives explicitly linking economics with security, such as the North American Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP). The linkage of security to economics in North America has arguably accentuated existing asymmetries between the United States and its NAFTA partners along several dimensions of power. Social science literature on power acknowledges the challenges researchers confront in operationalizing and measuring diverse conceptions of power (Doran, 1991; Hoppman, 1998; Nye, 1990; Keohane and Nye, 1989; Waltz, 1964). Power is a highly fungible entity, and subject to the vagaries of inter-temporal augmentation, diminution, aggregation and diffusion. It also comes in several different forms and can be exercised in many different ways. Scholars of conflict management, for example, have pointed repeatedly to a structuralist paradox wherein ostensibly weaker parties to negotiations are successful at wresting significant concessions from ostensibly more powerful counterparts.Following Dahl (1957), this paper proposes to identify and operationalize elements of power (base, means, amount, and scope) within contemporary North American political economy. Further, this paper will adopt a two-period, case-study approach to the use of American power in economic relations with its NAFTA partners prior to and after September 11, 2001. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tension between preferential trade agreements, such as FTAs, and the unconditional MFN clause that underpins the WTO, has been addressed by many authors. What has been given little attention is how the US pursuit of FTAs became to be understood by foreign policy makers as beneficial to the GATT/WTO. In the paper I will explore the process by which foreign policy officials came to view this understanding as true and were able to convince Congress. The paper focuses on the time period beginning with the US Trade Act of 1974 and ends with the US-Israel FTA of 1985. I will argue that the understanding by US trade policy officials of the benefit of FTAs to the multilateral trade regime was developed during this period. First, I engage in a process of textual ethnography of the particular legitimation struggle to identify the shared understandings that are rhetorically employed. Second, I look to the specific histories of these shared understandings to understand the potential for action that can be drawn upon. Third, I return to the legitimation struggle to look at the tactics by which these understandings are put to use. This paper will focus on the interactions of the executive administration and Congress over the issue of FTAs and GATT. The paper is part of a larger project that includes the development of the knowledge claim, and includes a study of the time period 1985 to 2007. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of globalization with attendant advancement in technology, communication and transportation has occasioned corresponding changes in the approach to domestic and global issues and in the methodologies employed to address problems inherent in the attempt to provide some amount of direction and regulation at the global level. To this extent domestic policies are influenced by decisions made in the global arena. While there are major areas in which the impact of globalization is readily felt; for example financial services and telecommunications, there are others governed by the Agreement on Trade in Services, which may not on the surface appear to be considered trade issues in the truest sense, and within developing countries these could easily be viewed as the prerogative of the respective governments. The Health-related and Social Services and the Professional Services that address health professionals are examples of this. The laws of supply and demand have also managed to penetrate this sector.It could be argued that within the context of the trade in services agreement, differences among countries on regulatory measures on professional services and licensing could render it difficult for service providers to supply their service in another country via the movement of natural persons. Additionally the Agreement indicates that most countries will continue to apply their existing regulations to this area. This means that degrees and other professional qualifications obtained in other countries are not recognized as equivalent. The implication is that foreigners holding such qualifications are not permitted to work in hospitals as nurses, doctors or midwives, or to provide other health or social services. The situation within the Caribbean as regards the exodus of nurses from individual countries negates this point. This barrier has been transcended. The Caribbean region has virtually transformed itself into an exporter of services through the movement of technically qualified persons â€" nurses. While benefits may accrue to the individuals, the economic impact on the exporting countries is vast, as the gaps left by those who migrate have to be filled. In addition nursing education is greatly subsidized by the government.This paper examines the impact of migration of nurses on the health sector in the CARICOM region and implications for policy making. It also examines the extent to which domestic regulation in the health sector can be used as a tool for policy making ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The old debate of whether regional trade agreements are a stepping stone or a stumbling block for global trade liberalisation has become particularly pertinent today with East Asia's largest economies joining the rush to preferential trade. China is currently studying, negotiating or implementing FTAs with over 20 countries or regions. This notable development in China's economic diplomacy has caused other countries, especially those in the Asia Pacific, to embark on preferential trade agreements as well, causing concern from the WTO over the proliferation of discriminatory FTAs. This paper analyzes China's bilateral free trade agreements (FTA) and discusses their implications for the WTO. The focus will be on Chinese perspectives on the relationship between FTAs and the WTO, Beijing's motivations behind its activism in FTAs, China's approach to FTA negotiations, and the domestic roots of China's FTA policies. The implications of China's FTAs for the WTO include whether China has abandoned multilateralism for bilateralism for its international trade cooperation, whether Beijing hopes to facilitate trade liberalization under the WTO through the FTAs, and whether Beijing has tried to keep its FTAs compliant with WTO rules. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature on trade policymaking is divided between studies emphasizing conflicts of interest among different business groups, and studies arguing that business groups are largely unified in support of liberalization. This paper reconciles this debate by showing how states construct near-unanimous private sector support for liberalization, despite the threat of opposition from business actors vulnerable to increased import competition. Conventional measures of support or opposition overlook that, as a given negotiation proceeds, many industry associations that are initially critical change their positions and become supportive. These changes occur because states involve businesspeople in the negotiations and provide them with preferential--sometimes trade-restrictive--content. Empirically, the paper illustrates and defends these arguments by reference to the NAFTA negotiations in the early 1990s. Drawing on semi-structured interviews and a range of documentary evidence, I identify a number of industries--in finance, agriculture, and manufacturing--that endorsed NAFTA only because their negotiators delivered them favorable terms in the text of the agreement. By building private sector unity, these measures therefore contributed to the political feasibility of regional trade integration. This process unfolded very similarly across the three countries involved, despite their major political, institutional, and economic differences. This commonality belies suggestions in the literature--from Schattschneider onward--that the mercantilist quality of U.S. trade policy is a function of the formal authority of the federal legislative branch and the incentives for its members to vote on trade bills according to the preferences of the industries concentrated in their districts. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following paper examines the position of small states in the global politics of trade and development. It does so by focusing specifically on the issue of multilateral trade liberalisation and the attendant distributional consequences that this process is said to herald for small states. Drawing on historical intuitionalist insights, but couched in the specific empirical setting of the recent liberalisation of the textiles and clothing (T&C) sector, the paper eschews the naturalistic and economically determinist language that often accompanies discussions of small states, and instead seeks to draw attention to the role of policy regimes in shaping the timing, form and the economic consequences of trade reform. Although it is often asserted that the problems of free trade for smaller, developing countries are a result of 'natural' variables such as small population size, poor factor endowments and weak infrastructural capacities, what the paper shows is that some of the underlying factors shaping vulnerability - such as dependence on preferential trade and the lack of export diversification - may be more amiable to political and institutional influence than is commonly assumed. Hence, the nature and severity of the impact of economic liberalisation on small, preference-dependent, developing countries should be understood as a contingent, rather than an inevitable, outcome of global economic change. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union (EU) started to promote a defensive trade strategy at the global level to secure its economic interests. The case of the EU-Mexico agreement is one of the first emblematic cases since the partnership was launched in order to avoid the trade diversion effect that the entry into force of the North America Free Trade Area (NAFTA) would entail. Why then the EU insisted for the inclusion of the Democratic and Suspension Clauses in the EU-Mexico Global Agreement as a precondition for the trade negotiations and as a condition for the validity of the agreement as a whole if its main objective was to achieve NAFTA parity treatment? I argue that even when EU trade policy activity is spurred by economic interests, as in the case of Mexico, the Union inevitably projects itself with its structural, institutional and ideational power, not focusing exclusively on the commercial dimension of the agreement. In other words, the features of the EU as an international trade actor are reflected in its policy action. Accordingly, the complex negotiations that brought to the inclusion of the Democratic Clause in the Global Agreement help to outline the nature of the Union as an international trade actor that projects abroad both its interests and values. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The EU Mediterranean Partnership (EMP), operating nowadays under the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), is one of the major policies which organises the relation between the EU and its bordering countries. The economic chapter of this partnership, which aims to create a free trade area in the Euro-Mediterranean region by 2010, has generated an interesting debate in relation to the nature and implementation of various economic reforms that ought to be pursued by Mediterranean partners. One position in this debate links the neo liberal nature of these reforms to the slow progress of implementation due to the anticipated high social cost associated with these policies (Mahjoub 2001 and Zaafaraneh 2002).Another position, however, questions this ‘neo liberal’ branding of these policies and insists on the essentiality of the social component which characterises their design (EU, Philippart 2003). This clearly reflects an ongoing debate in International Political economy (IPE) literature which asses the extent to which the Post Washington Consensus is fundamentally different from its predecessor in relation to social policy. This article seeks to further explore this debate by shifting the level of analysis from policy description to policy prescription. In so doing, it argues that the economic welfarism approach embedded in the EU policy seriously weakens its claims of attributing a considerable importance for social policy in its policy design ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA) has become a major institutional linkage within the ASEAN Plus Three framework. This paper will employ an historical institutional approach to examine the development of the ASEAN-China linkage. The origins of the ACFTA and the sequence of events that has promoted the linkage will be analysed. The extent to which the positive economic and political feedback process as well as the timing and sequence of events have helped to reinforce the relationship will be assessed. It is argued that the resulting trajectory of the ACFTA underscores the political nature of the emerging association and makes it difficult, although not impossible, for other relationships to supersede the ASEAN-China linkage at the centre of the APT framework. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of regionalism have traditionally tried to understand how member state governments have influenced the regional process. The inversed analytical relationship has seldom been examined in detail. Insights from the constructivist research program reveal however that international (and regional) institutions do have an impact on the behavior of state governements. Using the NAFTA as a case study, the paper summarizes some of the main findings of a recently published volume. Centered around the « convergence hypothesis », the study examines how an integration process with weak institutions is able or not to influence the foreign policy behavior of the member states. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International trade has changed dramatically in character, scope, and intensity since the conclusion of the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations in 1995. These developments are accompanied by the emergence of new actors who are mobilizing, not to ensure particular sectors are protected or insulated from the costs of trade liberalization, but to demand that trade-related decisions-making processes involve broader civil society. Their arguments tap into widely held beliefs that more open trade policy-making processes that include non-governmental entities will, by virtue of the divergence of interests represented, lead to a stronger, more legitimate and qualitatively enhanced international trade system. In this paper, I unpack and challenge this assumption through an examination of external trade policy making in the EU. The EU stands out among major trading powers for its significant and dramatic response to new demands for access and participation, especially in the area of external trade policy-making. By tracing the role of both economic and non-economic stakeholders in the formulation of the EC's requests for third country market access for Environmental Services in the context of GATS 2000 negotiations, I will show that improvements on the input side of policy-making have not trickled down to policy outputs. Although NGOs have been instrumental in providing education and raising awareness about the social, health-related and environmental aspects of trade deals but they have been unable to reaffirm social prerequisites over the dominant liberal paradigm. Instead, I argue the deepest level of the ideational world, epistemes, conflicts with attempts to build democratic and moral post-national governance. This case suggests that greater involvement of civil society is thus far not a panacea for legitimizing international trade rules. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I will use Colombia as a case in point. I selected Colombia based on its outward-orientation in terms of trade liberalization and because of its large and growing informal economy. Colombia has made substantial efforts in recent years to liberalize its economy and open its borders to international trade. Aggregate income in Colombia has grown in conjunction with its trade expansion, yet this growth is not associated with an equivalent reduction in poverty. The regional director of the United Nations Development Programme found that existing inequality is one of the reasons that increasing wealth is becoming less effective in fighting poverty in the region. Poverty is associated with unemployment as well as with underemployment, which is primarily employment in the informal economy.This is a qualitative study of the working conditions and income of informal workers in Colombia, examined through the lens of legal change in the area of trade liberalization. I will begin by describing the informal economy in general, and its makeup in Colombia in particular, showing the importance of this portion of the economy in fostering economic growth and development. I will go on to describe the changes in Colombian laws that led to further trade liberalization and its opening to international commerce. Finally, I will describe the relationship between the opening of the Colombian economy to external trade and the size and income of the informal sector in Colombia. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years there has been a growing interest in negotiating bilateral free trade agreements in the Asia-Pacific. Many agreements have already been reached, and a growing number of states are in the process of negotiating bilateral agreements; examples include the United States and Korea, the US and Malaysia, China and New Zealand, and Japan and Indonesia. This trend represents something of a reversal since the Cold War period, when regional trade was generally conducted in the absence of active state efforts to construct international institutions to govern cross-border commerce. Existing studies of free trade agreements have identified a number of political and economic factors that determine why states, in general, choose to enter into such agreements. Important political factors include democratic governance, similarity of political interests, alliance, and colonial history. We propose to investigate the extent to which a similar set of factors helps to explain the recent move toward bilateral free trade agreements in the Asia-Pacific, a region marked by great diversity in regime type, level of development, and history of political hostilities. To do so, we will use existing databases and online media to identify cases in the region where bilateral free trade agreements have been reached, as well as cases where such agreements are being negotiated. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

FTA in Asia has wider perspectives than defined in article 24 of GATT, which are usually called as EPA (Economic Partnership Agreement) and include mobility of service activities. FTA thus causes active mobility of human resources particularly in service sector. Based upon the serious experience of Asian Financial Crisis in 1997, several ideas on foreign currency pool and cooperative management which are towards establishing common currency in Asia have discussed among retired politicians (including some active politicians) at their symposia etc. There might be possible to realize common currency in Asia after much less time negotiations than in Europe which reached after 40 years negotiations. However, there are lots of barriers to be overcome which are political willingness, political hegemony etc. In this paper the details of such conditions towards common currency are examined. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the recent passage of the US-South Korea Free Trade Agreement, protest emerged in both normalized places of public political activity (parks, streets and government buildings) and in smaller, local community-based efforts (such as rural organizing and non-profit local markets). The disparate spatial and tactical differences of these efforts speak to the uneven, overlapping and gendered performances of contemporary manifestations of anti-capitalist resistance. Through the combination of ethnographic research with Lacanian psychoanalysis, this paper will develop an account of the importance of re-presenting the varied places of contemporary Korean protest, and the deployments of masculinities embodied in alternative tactics and strategies. Focusing on protests by farmers on Jeju Island, local non-profit markets in Hongdae and worker mobilization in Dondaemun, this paper will develop the links between local protest and global capitalist forces. As such, the protest site becomes a situated deployment of capitalism and its immediate resistances, international relations as local manifestation, and a space of political action that constitutes subjectivity through refigurations of gender. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the unresolved conflict between the Liberal economic ideals of free trade and Keynesian economic management built into many post-World War II international economic institutions. It explores the basic nature of the trade remedy processes used by the U.S. government and many others. It mentions that both Canada and the U.S. government have developed bureaucratic regulatory mechanisms for handling complaints of unfair trade practices.

At the turn of the new millennium, the traditional institutional equilibrium in East Asia-the embrace of the WTO at the multilateral level and a focus on market-driven, informal integration at the submultilateral level-is under heavy strain. A growing number of East Asian countries are pursuing greater institutionalization at the sub-multilateral level, actively weaving a web of preferential arrangements. This article examines the likely path of trading arrangements in Northeast Asia, and explores its implications for East Asia and the future of APEC and ASEM. In an effort to understand the diversity of accords, we propose an institutional bargaining game approach, which focuses on goods, countries' individual bargaining situations, and the fit with existing arrangements. The institutional bargaining approach allows us to explore how trading arrangements have evolved in East Asia. As our scenario analysis indicates, an East Asian trading bloc has both benign and pernicious elements, depending on the ideas and beliefs held by regional actors. The possible contribution of a prospective East Asian bloc to APEC and ASEM primarily depends on the balance of interests between the U.S. and the E.U. concerning East Asia. In view of the tremendous political and economic uncertainty in the global economy, the path to freer trade in Northeast Asia, East Asia, and the world system is likely to be a bumpy one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While a strong empirical consensus has emerged in international relations that commerce and democracy promote peace, this literature still faces an important historical challenge. Dramatic economic integration in the previous half century failed to prevent increasing interstate hostilities that culminated with outbreak of war in 1914. We respond to this criticism with a theoretical revision grounded in standard trade theory that leads us to reexamine commonly offered causal mechanisms explaining a liberal peace among states. In our sample dating from 1865 to 1950, we find that lower regulatory barriers to commerce, and not larger aggregate trade flows, decrease the willingness of governments to initiate military conflict. This empirical conclusion holds during the fifty-year period prior to the Great War and across the entire sample. Contradicting the conventional wisdom, we find that the basic logic of commercial liberalism holds during the first era of globalization: free trade promotes peace. Previous versions of this paper have been delivered at the 2004 annual meetings of the Southern Political Science Association, New Orleans and the Peace Science Society in Houston, Texas. We would like to thank David Bearce, Tom Flores, Avery Goldstein, Ed Mansfield, and David Rousseau for helpful comments and Jeffrey Williamson for sharing his data with us. All errors herein remain our responsibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the different scenarios for the future of East Asian economic regionalism. It states that the most desirable but challenging scenario is building a regionwide East Asian Free Trade Agreement (FTA). It predicts that the competition for FTA among East Asian countries will produce a densely populated network of FTA in the region. It concludes that the interdependence of East Asian countries with one another can hardly cost the reversal of the ongoing integration process.

The article examines several human security issues and regionalism in Northeast Asia. The level of economic success achieved under the government of Japan has prevented it to reconsider the transition in the nature of national sovereignty. It mentions that prospects of European-type integration and free trade agreement affect the region's economy and politics. It notes that human security and regionalism can provide a more friendly way to better address the new threats to civil society.