Negotiating Mega-Agreements: Lessons from the EU

Patrick Messerlin

EUI-RSCAS Working Papers from European University Institute (EUI), Robert Schuman Centre of Advanced Studies (RSCAS)

Abstract: One of the stated objectives of recent ‘mega’ preferential trade agreements (PTAs) being negotiated by large trading powers is to address the trade-impeding effects of differences in national regulation. Past experience demonstrates there are serious limitations in what can be achieved in PTAs even in instances where there is a high level of trust among the countries involved. The disappointing results of the European Union’s Internal Market illustrate the challenge of using PTAs to integrate markets. This paper argues that some systemic errors were made in the way the EU Internal Market was negotiated. The two main instruments used to build the EU Internal Market—harmonization and mutual recognition—are of limited usefulness for integrating modern economies. An alternative instrument—mutual equivalence—is a much more promising instrument not only for the EU but also for the mega-PTAs currently under negotiation.

Keywords: regulation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-12-01
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/1814/33776 Full text (text/html)
http://cadmus.eui.eu/bitstream/handle/1814/33776/RSCAS_2014_112.pdf?sequence=1 Full text (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:erp:euirsc:p0411

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in EUI-RSCAS Working Papers from European University Institute (EUI), Robert Schuman Centre of Advanced Studies (RSCAS) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Valerio PAPPALARDO ().