Mega-FTAs and the EU
16 May 2013 4:00 pm CEST
Joseph Francois, Johannes Kepler University (JKU), CEPR
In cooperation with:
Venue
wiiw, Rahlgasse 3, 1060 Vienna, lecture hall (entrance from the ground floor)
Description
Recent years have seen the emergence of mega-regionalism, meaning large scale, ambitious agreements involving large high and middle income countries. This contrasts with the earlier wave of regionalism in the 1990s, which was more focused on narrow North-South trade agreements. These new agreements, involving the full OECD as well as middle income countries, have gained attention even as multilateral negotiations in Geneva have ground to a halt. This study examines recent regional initiatives from an EU perspective. This includes not only the EUs position as an insider (EU-US) but also as an outsider, as in the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Potential economic effects of the reduction of barriers to trade and investment between the EU and the US are discussed in the context of a multi-region, multi-sector global CGE model.
Keywords: mega-regionalism, RTAs, EU, US, CGE-modeling
JEL classification: F15, F17, F20, C68