How does the regular work of WTO influence regional trade agreements?

Devin McDaniels, Ana Cristina Molina and Erik Wijkström

No ERSD-2018-06, WTO Staff Working Papers from World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division

Abstract: This paper illustrates how the work of the WTO's standing committees is fuelling regulatory cooperation between WTO members, and inspiring RTA negotiators. We explore, as a case study, how the WTO TBT Committee has shaped provisions on international standards in RTAs, and focus on the extent to which RTAs have assimilated the WTO TBT principles for development of international standards (the Six Principles), arguably the most important decision taken by the TBT Committee over last 20-plus years. Our analysis covers 260 RTAs, and shows that while most RTAs are silent on the matter, one quarter have provisions where the Parties commit to implement WTO TBT principles, and, among these, a few go further still - for example by naming specific international standardizing bodies which are relevant in certain sectors. In addition, the RTAs sharpen and harden the Six Principles by making them directly applicable to the parties.

Keywords: regional Trade Agreements; international standards; international cooperation; coherence; non-tariff barriers; technical barriers to trade; regulation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F13 F15 F53 F55 K33 L15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-int, nep-knm and nep-law
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:wtowps:ersd201806

DOI: 10.30875/10cbd249-en

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