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AbstractNegotiations on ‘deeper’ trade agreements and estimates of tariff equivalents have increased the awareness that regulatory trade costs are (too) high. This paper discusses ways to effectively lower such costs, reviewing the potential role of trade agreements and international regulatory cooperation, and the approaches that have been taken in different world regions. Attention is also paid to cost reduction via global technical standardization. Key issues are how to reduce the prevalence of national standards setting and how to best promote international standards. In both dimensions, Europe is argued to play a frontrunner role.

The European Economic Area (EEA) is a well-established element in the complex institutional landscape of European economic integration. Two decades of effective functioning, despite its complexity and its ambition of [...]

Notwithstanding the undeniable success of telecoms liberalisation in terms of price reduction, new services and technologies as well as consumer satisfaction, EU telecoms policy is at least a half failure. This might seem hard to believe, but we show in this paper that there is no such thing as an EU telecoms (or eComms) single market. We provide ample empirical economic and regulatory evidence of profound and lingering fragmentation as well as a brief assessment of the flaws of the eComms package as amended in 2009, and recently entered into force. Overcoming the fragmentation cannot but yield a considerable welfare improvement for the Union, which is exactly what a single market should be expected to deliver. Doing away with the flaws in the EU system requires a better institutional design. We wonder whether the regulatory (and competition policy) approach is really suitable for the Union and whether the fundamental conflict between the EU constitutional doctrine and the building of the single market (just as much a constitutional duty!) should not be resolved in novel ways. Key words: electronic communications, Internal Market, liberalisation, spectrum, regulatory authorities, price differentials., The liberalisation of telecoms (or eCommunications) in the EU is widely regarded as a great success. Tariffs and prices have decreased radically, new entrants have come in from all corners, [...]