IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/glopol/v12y2021is3p49-60.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Plurilateral Cooperation as an Alternative to Trade Agreements: Innovating One Domain at a Time

Author

Listed:
  • Bernard Hoekman
  • Charles Sabel

Abstract

At the end of 2017 different groups of WTO members decided to launch talks on four subjects, setting aside the WTO consensus working practice. This paper argues that these ‘joint statement initiatives’ (JSIs) should seek to establish open plurilateral agreements (OPAs) even in instances where the outcome can be incorporated into existing schedules of commitments of participating WTO members. Designing agreements as OPAs provides an institutional framework for collaboration among the responsible national authorities, transparency, mutual review and learning, as well as alternatives to default WTO dispute settlement procedures which may not be appropriate for supporting cooperation on the matters addressed by the JSIs. In parallel, WTO members should establish enforceable multilateral principles to ensure OPAs are compatible with an open global trade regime.

Suggested Citation

  • Bernard Hoekman & Charles Sabel, 2021. "Plurilateral Cooperation as an Alternative to Trade Agreements: Innovating One Domain at a Time," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 12(S3), pages 49-60, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:glopol:v:12:y:2021:i:s3:p:49-60
    DOI: 10.1111/1758-5899.12923
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.12923
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1758-5899.12923?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Petros C Mavroidis & Damien J Neven, 2019. "Greening the WTO Environmental Goods Agreement, Tariff Concessions, and Policy Likeness," Journal of International Economic Law, Oxford University Press, vol. 22(3), pages 373-388.
    2. Borchert, Ingo & Conconi, Paola & Di Ubaldo, Mattia & Herghelegiu, Cristina, 2021. "The Pursuit of Non-Trade Policy Objectives in EU Trade Policy," World Trade Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(5), pages 623-647, December.
    3. Nuno Limão, 2018. "Trade policy, cross-border externalities and lobbies: do linked agreements enforce more cooperative outcomes?," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Policy Externalities and International Trade Agreements, chapter 9, pages 257-281, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    4. Bernard Hoekman & Douglas Nelson, 2020. "Rethinking international subsidy rules," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(12), pages 3104-3132, December.
    5. Robert Z. Lawrence, 2006. "Rulemaking Amidst Growing Diversity: A Club-of-Clubs Approach to WTO Reform and New Issue Selection," Journal of International Economic Law, Oxford University Press, vol. 9(4), pages 823-835, December.
    6. Andreas Dür & Leonardo Baccini & Manfred Elsig, 2014. "The design of international trade agreements: Introducing a new dataset," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 9(3), pages 353-375, September.
    7. Susan Ariel Aaronson & Patrick Leblond, 2020. "A Plurilateral “Single Data Area†Is the Solution to Canada’s Data Trilemma," Working Papers 2020-8, The George Washington University, Institute for International Economic Policy.
    8. Robert Wolfe, 2021. "Informal Learning and WTO Renewal: Using Thematic Sessions to Create More Opportunities for Dialogue," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 12(S3), pages 30-40, April.
    9. Hoekman, Bernard M. & Mavroidis, Petros C., 2015. "Embracing Diversity: Plurilateral Agreements and the Trading System," World Trade Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(1), pages 101-116, January.
    10. Bernard Hoekman & Charles Sabel, 2019. "Open Plurilateral Agreements, International Regulatory Cooperation and the WTO," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 10(3), pages 297-312, September.
    11. de Melo, Jaime & Solleder, Jean-Marc, 2020. "Barriers to trade in environmental goods: How important they are and what should developing countries expect from their removal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    12. Mattoo,Aaditya, 2018. "Services Globalization in an Age of Insecurity : Rethinking Trade Cooperation," Policy Research Working Paper Series 8579, The World Bank.
    13. Robert Wolfe, 2020. "Reforming WTO Conflict Management. Why and How to Improve the Use of “Specific Trade Concerns”," RSCAS Working Papers 2020/53, European University Institute.
    14. Dür, Andreas & Baccini, Leonardo & Elsig, Manfred, 2014. "The design of international trade agreements: introducing a new dataset," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 59179, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    15. Haas, Peter M., 1992. "Introduction: epistemic communities and international policy coordination," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 46(1), pages 1-35, January.
    16. Sebenius, James K., 1983. "Negotiation arithmetic: adding and subtracting issues and parties," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 37(2), pages 281-316, April.
    17. Mira Burri & Rodrigo Polanco, 2020. "Digital Trade Provisions in Preferential Trade Agreements: Introducing a New Dataset," Journal of International Economic Law, Oxford University Press, vol. 23(1), pages 187-220.
    18. Arevik Gnutzmann-Mkrtchyan & Christian Henn, 2018. "Peeling Away the Layers: Impacts of Durable Tariff Elimination," IMF Working Papers 2018/109, International Monetary Fund.
    19. O’Leary, Nigel & Li, Ian W. & Gupta, Prashant & Blackaby, David, 2020. "Wellbeing trajectories around life events in Australia," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 499-509.
    20. Hoekman, Bernard M. & Kostecki, Michel M., 2009. "The Political Economy of the World Trading System," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, edition 3, number 9780199553778.
    21. Gnutzmann-Mkrtchyan, Arevik & Henn, Christian, 2018. "Peeling away the layers: Impacts of durable tariff elimination," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 259-276.
    22. Karttunen,Marianna B., 2020. "Transparency in the WTO SPS and TBT Agreements," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781108486453, October.
    23. Charles F. Sabel & David G. Victor, 2017. "Governing global problems under uncertainty: making bottom-up climate policy work," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 144(1), pages 15-27, September.
    24. Sebenius, James K., 1992. "Challenging conventional explanations of international cooperation: negotiation analysis and the case of epistemic communities," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 46(1), pages 323-365, January.
    25. Ang (Chewie), Tze Chuan & Hayat, Aziz & Li, Bob, 2020. "Short-selling risk in Australia," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    26. William Nordhaus, 2015. "Climate Clubs: Overcoming Free-Riding in International Climate Policy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(4), pages 1339-1370, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sjöholm, Fredrik, 2023. "The Return of Borders in the World Economy: An EU-Perspective," Working Paper Series 1469, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    2. Bernard M. Hoekman & Petros C. Mavroidis & Douglas R. Nelson, 2023. "Geopolitical competition, globalisation and WTO reform," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(5), pages 1163-1188, May.
    3. Kym Anderson, 2022. "Agriculture in a more uncertain global trade environment," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 53(4), pages 563-579, July.
    4. Bernard Hoekman & Robert Wolfe, 2021. "Reforming the World Trade Organization: Practitioner Perspectives from China, the EU, and the US," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 29(4), pages 1-34, July.
    5. Shamel Azmeh, 2024. "Developing Countries and Joint Statement Initiatives at the WTO: Damned if You Join, Damned if You Don't?," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 55(3), pages 375-397, May.
    6. Kent Jones, 2023. "Populism, Globalization, and the Prospects for Restoring the WTO," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 11(1), pages 181-192.
    7. Bernard Hoekman & Robert Wolfe, 2021. "WTO Reform As a Triangular Problem among China, the EU and the US," CESifo Forum, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 22(02), pages 12-16, March.
    8. Robert Wolfe, 2022. "Is using trade policy for foreign policy a “SNO job”? On linkage, friend-shoring and the challenges for multilateralism," RSCAS Working Papers 2022/74, European University Institute.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bernard Hoekman & Charles Sabel, 2019. "Open Plurilateral Agreements, International Regulatory Cooperation and the WTO," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 10(3), pages 297-312, September.
    2. Bernard M. Hoekman & Petros C. Mavroidis & Douglas R. Nelson, 2023. "Geopolitical competition, globalisation and WTO reform," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(5), pages 1163-1188, May.
    3. Manfred Elsig & Sebastian Klotz, 2021. "Digital Trade Rules in Preferential Trade Agreements: Is There a WTO Impact?," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 12(S4), pages 25-36, May.
    4. Bernard Hoekman, 2020. "Trade Wars and the World Trade Organization: Causes, Consequences, and Change," Asian Economic Policy Review, Japan Center for Economic Research, vol. 15(1), pages 98-114, January.
    5. Nelson, Douglas, 2021. "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? US – Countervailing Measures (China) (21.5)," World Trade Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(4), pages 556-565, October.
    6. Kyle Bagwell & Chad P. Bown & Robert W. Staiger, 2016. "Is the WTO Passé?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 54(4), pages 1125-1231, December.
    7. Staiger, Robert & Bagwell, Kyle & Bown, Chad, 2015. "Is the WTO Passé?," CEPR Discussion Papers 10672, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    8. Bernard Hoekman & Petros C. Mavroidis, 2021. "WTO Reform: Back to the Past to Build for the Future," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 12(S3), pages 5-12, April.
    9. Matteo Fiorini & Bernard Hoekman & Petros C. Mavroidis & Douglas Nelson & Robert Wolfe, 2021. "Stakeholder Preferences and Priorities for the Next WTO Director General," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 12(S3), pages 13-22, April.
    10. Bernard M Hoekman & Petros C Mavroidis & Sunayana Sasmal, 2023. "Managing Externalities in the WTO: The Agreement On Fisheries Subsidies," Journal of International Economic Law, Oxford University Press, vol. 26(2), pages 266-284.
    11. Bernard Hoekman & Douglas Nelson, 2020. "Rethinking international subsidy rules," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(12), pages 3104-3132, December.
    12. Bernard Hoekman, 2014. "Sustaining multilateral trade cooperation in a multipolar world economy," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 9(2), pages 241-260, June.
    13. Di Ubaldo, Mattia & Gasiorek, Michael, 2022. "Non-trade provisions in trade agreements and FDI," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    14. Thomas Kuhn & Radomir Pestow & Anja Zenker, 2018. "Endogenous Climate Coalitions and Free Trade - Building the Missing Link," Chemnitz Economic Papers 018, Department of Economics, Chemnitz University of Technology.
    15. Jappe Eckhardt & Hongyu Wang, 2021. "China's new generation trade agreements: Importing rules to lock in domestic reform?," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(3), pages 581-597, July.
    16. Bernard Hoekman & Robert Wolfe, 2021. "Reforming the World Trade Organization: Practitioner Perspectives from China, the EU, and the US," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 29(4), pages 1-34, July.
    17. Nuno Limão, 2016. "Preferential Trade Agreements," NBER Working Papers 22138, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Christopher Findlay & Bernard Hoekman, 2021. "Value chain approaches to reducing policy spillovers on international business," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 4(3), pages 390-409, September.
    19. Bernard Hoekman, 2014. "The Bali Trade Facilitation Agreement and Rulemaking in the WTO: Milestone, Mistake or Mirage?," RSCAS Working Papers 2014/102, European University Institute.
    20. Mattia Ubaldo & Steven McGuire & Vikrant Shirodkar, 2022. "Voluntary programs and emissions revisited: What is the effect of EU trade agreements with environmental provisions?," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 5(4), pages 467-489, December.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • F02 - International Economics - - General - - - International Economic Order and Integration
    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • F55 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - International Institutional Arrangements

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:glopol:v:12:y:2021:i:s3:p:49-60. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.