IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/wtowps/tisd9802.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Regulatory autonomy and multilateral disciplines: The dilemma and a possible resolution

Author

Listed:
  • Mattoo, Aaditya
  • Subramanian, Arvind

Abstract

A major challenge for the multilateral trading system is to secure the benefits of trade liberalization without infringing on the freedom of governments to pursue legitimate domestic objectives. The difficulty lies in distinguishing between two types of situations. In one, a non-protectionist government cannot prevent certain domestic policies from incidentally discriminating against foreign competitors. In the other, a protectionist government uses a legitimate objective as an excuse to design domestic policies which inhibit foreign competition. The challenge is to devise rules which are sensitive to the difference between these two situations, exonerating the former while preventing the latter. The approach suggested in this paper is to create a presumption in favour of the economically efficient policy measure, with departures inviting justification.

Suggested Citation

  • Mattoo, Aaditya & Subramanian, Arvind, 1998. "Regulatory autonomy and multilateral disciplines: The dilemma and a possible resolution," WTO Staff Working Papers TISD-98-02, World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:wtowps:tisd9802
    DOI: 10.30875/58942cae-en
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/90662/1/775928712.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.30875/58942cae-en?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. Daniel Esty, 1994. "Greening the GATT: Trade, Environment, and the Future," Peterson Institute Press: All Books, Peterson Institute for International Economics, number 40, April.
    2. Arvind Subramanian, 1992. "Trade Measures for Environment: A Nearly Empty Box?," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(1), pages 135-152, January.
    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. Aaditya Mattoo & Robert M. Stern, 2003. "India and the WTO," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 15082.
    2. Jansen, Marion & Keck, Alexander, 2004. "National environmental policies and multilateral trade rules," WTO Staff Working Papers ERSD-2004-01, World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division.
    3. Bernard Hoekman, 2002. "Developing Countries and the Political Economy of the Trading System," WIDER Working Paper Series DP2002-126, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    4. Bernard Hoekman & Aaditya Mattoo, 2000. "Services, economic development and the next round of negotiations on services," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 12(2), pages 283-296.
    5. Lawton, Thomas C. & McGuire, Steven M., 2001. "Supranational governance and corporate strategy: the emerging role of the World Trade Organization," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 217-233, April.
    6. Neven, Damien J., 2001. "How should "protection" be evaluated in Article III GATT disputes?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 421-444, June.

    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. Theodore Panayotou, 2000. "Globalization and Environment," CID Working Papers 53A, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    2. Theodore Panayotou, 2000. "Globalization and Environment," CID Working Papers 53, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    3. Daniel C. Esty, 2001. "Bridging the Trade-Environment Divide," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 15(3), pages 113-130, Summer.
    4. Jha, Raghbendra & Murthy, K. V. Bhanu, 2003. "An inverse global environmental Kuznets curve," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 352-368, June.
    5. Sturm, Daniel & Ulph, Alistair, 2002. "Environment, trade, political economy and imperfect information: a survey," Discussion Paper Series In Economics And Econometrics 0204, Economics Division, School of Social Sciences, University of Southampton.
    6. Josh Ederington & Jenny Minier, 2003. "Is environmental policy a secondary trade barrier? An empirical analysis," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 36(1), pages 137-154, March.
    7. Colyer, Dale, 2004. "Environmental Regulations And Competitiveness," Working Papers 19100, West Virginia University, Department of Agricultural Resource Economics.
    8. Patrick Messerlin, 2010. "Climate change and trade policy: From mutual destruction to mutual support," Working Papers hal-00972994, HAL.
    9. Udo E. Simonis, 2002. "Advancing the debate on a world environment organization," Environment Systems and Decisions, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 29-42, March.
    10. Burmeister, Larry L., 2000. "Dismantling Statist East Asian Agricultures? Global Pressures and National Responses," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 443-455, March.
    11. Unknown, 1998. "Economic Harmonization in the Canadian/ U.S./ Mexican Grain-Livestock Subsector," Proceedings of the 4th Agricultural and Food Policy Systems Information Workshop 1998: Economic Harmonization in the Canadian\U.S.\Mexican Grain-Livestock Subsector; 252441, Farm Foundation, Agricultural and Food Policy Systems Information Workshops.
    12. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/5l6uh8ogmqildh09h2q83h42k is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Jeffrey J. Schott, 2011. "The Future of the Multilateral Trading System in a Multi-polar World," Chapters, in: Ulrich Volz (ed.), Regional Integration, Economic Development and Global Governance, chapter 5, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    14. Conconi, Paola & Perroni, Carlo, 2002. "Issue linkage and issue tie-in in multilateral negotiations," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(2), pages 423-447, August.
    15. 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).
    16. Ervin, David E. & Fox, Glenn, 1998. "Environmental Policy Considerations In The Grain-Livestock Subsectors In Canada, Mexico And The United States," Proceedings of the 4th Agricultural and Food Policy Systems Information Workshop 1998: Economic Harmonization in the Canadian\U.S.\Mexican Grain-Livestock Subsector; 16754, Farm Foundation, Agricultural and Food Policy Systems Information Workshops.
    17. Chenaz B. Seelarbokus, 2014. "Assessing the Effectiveness of International Environmental Agreements (IEAs)," SAGE Open, , vol. 4(1), pages 21582440145, February.
    18. Paul Pichler & Gerhard Sorger, 2016. "The value of commitment and delegation for the control of greenhouse gas emissions," Vienna Economics Papers 1604, University of Vienna, Department of Economics.
    19. Joyeeta Gupta, 2002. "Global Sustainable Development Governance: Institutional Challenges from a Theoretical Perspective," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 2(4), pages 361-388, December.
    20. Langhammer, Rolf J., 1999. "The WTO and the millennium round: between standstill and leapfrog," Kiel Discussion Papers 352, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    21. 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..

    More about this item

    Keywords

    international trade; regulation; national treatment; protection;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • K20 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - General
    • K33 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - International Law

    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:zbw:wtowps:tisd9802. 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/wtoerch.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.