Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-skm99 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T16:04:01.140Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

7 - Reconceiving Trade Agreements for Social Inclusion

from Part II - Trade Policy and Trade-Related Concerns

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2019

Manfred Elsig
Affiliation:
Universität Bern, Switzerland
Michael Hahn
Affiliation:
Universität Bern, Switzerland
Gabriele Spilker
Affiliation:
Universität Salzburg
Get access

Summary

This chapter first characterizes the fundamental purposes of the WTO and trade agreements, which should be viewed as much broader than trade liberalization. It then presents the major challenges that the trade system now faces. Special emphasis is paid to technological change since the WTO was created in 1995, namely, the development of global value chains. Finally, the author contends that trade agreements, in response, must be designed and conditioned upon social policy commitments. They should include, or be conditioned upon, agreements that cover: coordinated tax policy to combat harmful tax competition, tax avoidance, and tax evasion; domestic social security and job retraining, supported by trade adjustment commitments; labor protection; protections against social dumping; and accommodation of industrial policy experimentation for development. It will not be an easy process to reconceive trade agreements to better ensure social inclusion through these means, but the current system otherwise could unravel.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alstadsæter, A., Johannesen, N., and Zucman, G.. 2017. “Tax Evasion and Inequality, No. w23772,” National Bureau of Economic Research, www.nber.org/papers/w23772, accessed April 1, 2018.Google Scholar
Autor, D., Dorn, D., and Hanson, G.. 2013. “The China Syndrome: Local Labor Market Effects of Import Competition in the United States,” American Economic Review 103(6):2121–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Avi-Yonah, R. S. 2016Constructive Unilateralism: U.S. Leadership and International Taxation,” International Tax Journal 42(2):17–24.Google Scholar
Baldwin, R. 2016. The Great Convergence: Information Technology and the New Globalization. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brauner, Y. 2016. “Treaties in the Aftermath of BEPS,” Brooklyn Journal of International Law 41(3):973–1041.Google Scholar
CAFTA. 2017 . “In the Matter of Guatemala – Issues Relating to Obligations under Article 16.2.1(a) of CAFTA-DR (Final Panel Report),” www.trade.gov/industry/tas/Guatemala%20%20%E2%80%93%20Obligations%20Under%20Article%2016-2-1(a)%20of%20the%20CAFTA-DR%20%20June%2014%202017.pdf, accessed on April 1, 2018.Google Scholar
Chang, H. J. 2002. Kicking Away the Ladder. London: Anthem Press.Google Scholar
Cimino-Isaacs, C. 2016. “Labor Standards in the TPP.” Assessing the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Peterson Institute for International Economics 41–65.Google Scholar
Cobham, A. and Jansky, P.. 2017. “Global Distribution of Revenue Loss from Tax Avoidance: Re-estimation and Country Results,” WIDER Working Paper 2017/55, www.wider.unu.edu/publication/global-distribution-revenue-loss-tax-avoidance, accessed April 1, 2018.Google Scholar
Council Secretariat of the European Union. 2008. “Implementation of the Common Principles of Flexicurity within the Framework of the 2008–2010 Round of the Lisbon Strategy,” http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=102/, accessed April 1, 2018.Google Scholar
European Commission. 2017. “European Commission Fact Sheet: The EU Is Changing Its Anti-dumping Anti-Subsidy Legislation to Address State Induced Market Distortions,” October 4, http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-17-3703_en.htm, accessed January 12, 2018.Google Scholar
European Trade Union Confederation. 2017. “ETUC Resolution for an EU Progressive Trade and Investment Policy,” June 16, www.etuc.org/documents/etuc-resolution-eu-progressive-trade-and-investment-policy-adopted-executive-committee#, accessed April 1, 2018.Google Scholar
European Union Council Directive 2016/1164. 2016. “Laying Down Rules against Tax Avoidance Practices That Directly Affect the Functioning of the Internal Market,” Official Journal of the European Union, L 193.Google Scholar
Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), 26 U.S.C. §§ 1471-1474.Google Scholar
Garcia, F. and Meyer, T.. 2017. “Restoring Trade’s Social Contract,” Michigan Law Review Online 116(78):78–100.Google Scholar
Grossman, G. and Rossi-Hansberg, E.. 2008. “Trading Tasks: A Simple Theory of Offshoring,” American Economic Review 98(5):1978–97.Google Scholar
Haussman, R. et al. 2008. “Reconfiguring Industrial Policy: A Framework with an Application to South Africa,” HKS Working Paper No. RWP08-031.Google Scholar
Irwin, D. 2011. Peddling Protectionism: Smoot-Hawley and the Great Depression. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Meyer, T. 2017. “Saving the Political Consensus in Favor of Free Trade,” Vanderbilt Law Review 70(3):985–1026.Google Scholar
Milanović, B. 2016. Inequality: A New Approach for the Age of Globalization. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
OECD. 2017. Background Brief – Inclusive Framework on BEPS, Paris, France: OECD Publishing.Google Scholar
OECD. 2013. Action Plan on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting. Paris, France: OECD Publishing.Google Scholar
Pauwelyn, J. H. B. et al. 2016. International Trade Law. New York: Wolters Kluwer.Google Scholar
Picciotto, S. 2017. “The Deconstruction of Offshore,” In: Klug, H. and Engle Merry, S. (Eds.), The New Legal Realism: Studying Law Globally. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Piketty, T. 2014. Capital in the Twenty-First Century. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Rodrik, D. 1997. Has Globalization Gone Too Far. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Rodrik, D. 2011. The Globalization Paradox: Democracy and the Future of the World Economy. New York: W. W. Norton and Company.Google Scholar
Rodrik, D. 2017. Straight Talk on Trade: Ideas for a Sane World Economy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Saez, E. and Zucman, G.. 2014. “Wealth Inequality in the United States since 1913: Evidence from Capitalized Income Tax Data,” National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper 20625.Google Scholar
Shaffer, G., Elsig, M., and Puig, S.. 2017. “The Law and Politics of WTO Dispute Settlement,” In: Sandholtz, W. and Whytock, C. (Eds.), The Research Handbook on The Politics of International Law. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 269–306.Google Scholar
Shaffer, G. et al. 2015. “Can Informal Law Discipline Subsidies,” International Economics and Law Journal 18(2):711–41.Google Scholar
Sykes, A. O. and Cooper, R. N.. 1998. “Anti-dumping and Antitrust: What Problems Does Each Address,” In: Collins, S. M. and Lawrence, R. Z (Eds.), Brookings Trade Forum. Washington, DC: Brooking Institution Press.Google Scholar
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. 2016. “GSP Handbook on the Scheme of the European Union UNCTAD/ITCD/TSB/MISC.25/Rev.4,” http://unctad.org/en/pages/PublicationWebflyer.aspx?publicationid=1470, accessed April 1, 2018.Google Scholar
Wilthagen, T. and Tros, F. H.. 2004The Concept of Flexicurity: A New Approach to Regulation Employment and Labour Market,” European Review of Labour and Research 10(2):166–86.Google Scholar
WTO Agreement on Safeguards, Article 8, April 15, 1994, Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization, Annex 1A, 1869 U.N.T.S. 154.Google Scholar
WTO Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, Article 8.2, April 15, 1994, Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization, Annex 1A, 1869 U.N.T.S. 14.Google Scholar
WTO Appellate Body Report. 2014. “European Communities – Measures Prohibiting the Importation and Marketing of Seal Products,” WTO Doc. WT/DS400/AB/R, WT/DS401/AB/R, adopted June 18, 2014.Google Scholar
WTO Council for Trade in Goods. 2017. “Procedures to Enhance Transparency and Strengthen Notification Requirements Under WTO Agreements,” World Trade Organization JOB/GC/148, October 30, 2017.Google Scholar
WTO International Labor Office. 2017. “Investing in Skills for Inclusive Trade,” www.wto.org/english/res_e/booksp_e/investinsskills_e.pdf, accessed October 13, 2017.Google Scholar
World Trade Organization. 2016. “WTO Public Forum 2016,” www.wto.org/english/forums_e/publicforum16_e/public_forum16_e.html, accessed October 13, 2017.Google Scholar
Zucman, G. 2013The Missing Wealth of Nations: Are Europe and the US Net Debtors or Net Creditors?The Quarterly Journal of Economics 128(3):1321–64.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×