IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/oruesi/2020_001.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The WTO Reference Paper meets EU common regulatory policy in CETA

Author

Listed:

Abstract

International trade and investment in telecommunications are governed by the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and its Annex and Reference Paper (RP) on telecommunications. This paper discusses whether the 25-year old WTO framework is still fit for purpose. It makes two contributions to the literature. First, it offers a systematic comparison between the provisions in the RP, the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) and EU common regulatory framework. GATS builds on an outdated classification of telecommunications which is repeated in the CETA. The RP obliges countries to regulate interconnection, which is also largely repeated in CETA, although regulatory forbearance is permitted. CETA does not offer new market access in telecommunications to either party. Second, the paper investigates empirically whether binding regulation in trade agreements strengthen market openness, measured by imports of telecommunications services, and finds that it does not. The paper concludes that trade agreements may not be suitable for international cooperation on telecommunications regulation. Trade agreements run the risk of making regulation hostage to unrelated trade policy issues while adopting the RP runs a risk of legal obligations to over-regulate telecommunications.

Suggested Citation

  • Kyvik Nordås, Hildegunn, 2020. "The WTO Reference Paper meets EU common regulatory policy in CETA," Working Papers 2020:1, Örebro University, School of Business.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:oruesi:2020_001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.oru.se/globalassets/oru-sv/institutioner/hh/workingpapers/workingpapers2020/wp-1-2020.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eleanor M. Fox, 2006. "The WTO's First Antitrust Case -- Mexican Telecom: A Sleeping Victory for Trade and Competition," Journal of International Economic Law, Oxford University Press, vol. 9(2), pages 271-292, June.
    2. Hank Intven, 2000. "Telecommunications Regulation Handbook," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 15249.
    3. Roy, Martin, 2019. "Elevating services: Services trade policy, WTO commitments, and their role in economic development and trade integration," WTO Staff Working Papers ERSD-2019-01, World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division.
    4. Drake, William J & Noam, Eli M, 0. "The WTO deal on basic telecommunications : Big bang or little whimper?," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 21(9-10), pages 799-818, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/8529 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Gary Madden & Scott J. Savage & Jason Ng, 2003. "Asia–Pacific Telecommunications Liberalisation and Productivity Performance," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(1), pages 91-102, March.
    3. Woll, Cornelia, 2005. "Learning to Act on World Trade: Preference Formation of Large Firms in the United States and the European Union," MPIfG Discussion Paper 05/1, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    4. Fritsch Stefan, 2015. "Technological innovation, globalization, and varieties of capitalism: the case of Siemens AG as example for contingent institutional adaptation," Business and Politics, De Gruyter, vol. 17(1), pages 125-159, April.
    5. Monasso, Ton & van Leijden, Fabian, 2007. "Telecommunication regulation as a game: deepening theoretical understanding," MPRA Paper 7625, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Cetin, Tamer & Oguz, Fuat, 2007. "The reform in the Turkish natural gas market: A critical evaluation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 3856-3867, July.
    7. Carlo Maria Rossotto & Bjorn Wellenius & Anat Lewin & Carlos R. Gomez, 2004. "Competition in International Voice Communications," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 14855.
    8. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/8529 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. de Bijl, P.W.J. & Brunekreeft, G. & van Damme, E.E.C. & Larouche, P. & Shelkoplyas, N. & Sorana, V., 2004. "Interconnected Networks," Other publications TiSEM 10a647e2-6c24-4b98-8005-e, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
      • de Bijl, P.W.J. & Brunekreeft, G. & van Damme, E.E.C. & Larouche, P. & Shelkoplyas, N. & Sorana, V., 2005. "Interconnected Networks," Other publications TiSEM 2fe44772-cc8d-4be2-aff4-3, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
      • de Bijl, P.W.J. & Brunekreeft, G. & van Damme, E.E.C. & Larouche, P. & Shelkoplyas, N. & Sorana, V., 2005. "Interconnected Networks," Discussion Paper 2005-007, Tilburg University, Tilburg Law and Economic Center.
    10. Mohamad, Noorihsan, 2014. "Telecommunications reform and efficiency performance: Do good institutions matter?," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 49-65.
    11. Anne-Marie Mohammed & Eric Strobl, 2011. "Good Governance and Growth in Developing Countries: A Case Study of Regulatory Reforms in the Telecommunications Industry," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 11(1), pages 91-107, March.
    12. Echandi,Roberto & Sauve,Pierre, 2020. "Investment Facilitation and Mode 3 Trade in Services : Are Current Discussions Addressing the Key Issues ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9229, The World Bank.
    13. Gnangnon, Sèna Kimm, 2020. "Effect of Poverty on Services Export Concentration in Developing Countries," EconStor Preprints 223178, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    14. Cornelia Woll, 2005. "Learning to Act on World Trade. Preference Formation of Large Firms in the United States and the European Union," Working Papers hal-01065571, HAL.
    15. Gnangnon, Sèna Kimm, 2022. "Effect of the Duration of the Membership in GATT/WTO on Commercial Services Exports in Developing Countries," EconStor Preprints 262167, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    16. Clarke, George R.G. & Wallsten, Scott J., 2002. "Universal(ly bad) service - providing infrastructure services to rural and poor urban consumers," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2868, The World Bank.
    17. Werle, Raymund, 2001. "Standards in the International Telecommunications Regime," Discussion Paper Series 26265, Hamburg Institute of International Economics.
    18. Roy Chun Lee & Christopher Findlay, 2005. "Telecommunications reform in Indonesia: Achievements and challenges," Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(3), pages 341-365.
    19. Fredebeul-Krein, Markus, 2019. "The CETA-agreement on telecommunication services – A blueprint for a future WTO accord in multilateral trade liberalisation?," 30th European Regional ITS Conference, Helsinki 2019 224114, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    20. Galbi, Douglas A., 1998. "Cross-border rent shifting in international telecommunications1," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 515-536, December.
    21. Alina HAGIU & Marinela BARBULESCU, 2019. "The Role Of Wto And International Cooperation On Services Trade Policy," Scientific Bulletin - Economic Sciences, University of Pitesti, vol. 18(3), pages 83-90.
    22. David Sappington & Dennis Weisman, 2010. "Price cap regulation: what have we learned from 25 years of experience in the telecommunications industry?," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 38(3), pages 227-257, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Telecommunications; International trade; WTO reference paper; EU; CETA;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • L86 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Information and Internet Services; Computer Software

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:hhs:oruesi:2020_001. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ieoruse.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.