ECONOMIC RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS: 4 NOVEMBER 2010, GENEVA

  

Workshop on New Era Preferential Trade Agreements

A one day workshop that brings together leading experts from the fields of economics, law and political science to discuss their research on preferential trade agreements (PTAs) was held at the WTO on 4 November 2010.

The contributions and discussions are designed to provide intellectual inputs to next year’s World Trade Report which will be on the subject of preferential trade agreements.

See also:
> More on  economic research and analysis

  

Note:
Downloadable files in Powerpoint, MS Word, zip or pdf (portable document format). 

> Guide to downloading files.

N.B. You should download these
documents rather than calling them into view through the browser since the formatting may change (eg. paragraph numbering) when viewed through the browser.


 

 

The programme of the workshop focused on three key areas where understanding of PTAs needs to be improved. The first session examines the economic and political motives behind the agreements. It examines in particular the idea that recent agreements are driven by “global supply chains” or production networks. Session two then discusses what is known about the contents of these agreements. One presentation looks in particular at services provisions in PTAs. In the third session, academics and WTO Secretariat staff discuss the databases that are being developed to more systematically analyze PTAs.
  

Programme

4 November 2010

08:30-09:00

Welcome and introduction

  • Director General Pascal Lamy
    Audio   > help
      

  

Session I: The Economics and the Politics of PTAs


09:00-10:00

21st Century Regionalism

  • Moderator: Robert Teh
  • Speaker: Richard Baldwin
    > Presentation
  • Discussant: Trudi Hartzenberg
  • Questions and answers
      

    Audio: Listen to Session 1, Part 1   > help
    Richard Baldwin: Start time: 01:29 End time: 44:02
    Trudi Hartzenberg: Start time: 45:01 End time: 54:18
      

10:15-11:15

Economic determinants of PTAs

  • Moderator: Nadia Rocha
  • Speaker: Caroline Freund
    > Presentation
  • Discussant: Fukunari Kimura
    > Presentation
  • Questions and answers
      

11:15-12:15

Interdependence of Preferential Economic Policies across Subjects

  • Moderator: Alexander Keck
  • Speaker: Peter Egger
    > Presentation
  • Discussant: Petros Mavroidis
  • Questions and answers
      
    Audio: Listen to Session 1, Part 2   > help
    Caroline Freund: Start time: 00:35 End time: 36:14
    Fukunari Kimura: Start time: 36:37 End time: 51:39
    Peter Egger: Start time: 1:02:30 End time: 1:33:47
    Petros Mavroidis: Start time: 1:34:31 End time: 1:40:42
      

13:30-14:30

The politics of PTAs

  • Moderator: Michele Ruta
  • Speaker: Helen Milner
    > Presentation
  • Discussant: Henrik Horn
  • Questions and answers
      

    Audio: Listen to Session 1, Part 3   > help
    Helen Milner: Start time: 00:30 End time: 28:41
    Henrik Horn: Start time: 29:13 End time: 46:26
      

  

Session II: Content of PTAs


14:30-15:30

Beyond the WTO? An Anatomy of EU and US Preferential Trade Agreements

  • Moderator: Roberta Piermartini
  • Speaker: Andre Sapir
    > Presentation
  • Discussant: Antoni Estevadeordal
  • Questions and answers
      

15:30-16:30

Content of PTAs: the case of services

  • Moderator: Marc Bacchetta
  • Speaker: Pierre Sauvé
    > Presentation
  • Discussant: Osvaldo Rosales and Sebastien Miroudot
    > Presentation
  • Questions and answers
      

    Audio: Listen to Session 2   > help
    Andre Sapir: Start time: 00:32 End time: 33:32
    Antoni Estevadeordal: Start time: 33:58 End time: 47:15
      

  

Session III: Databases on PTAs


16:50-18:30

Introduction and technical information on available databases and indicators on PTAs

  • Moderator: Coleman Nee
  • Presentation of the WTO dataset on PTAs (Rohini Acharya)
    > Presentation
  • Presentation of a Latin-American dataset on PTAs from the IADB (Antoni Estevadeordal)
  • Presentation of a PTA database (Manfred Elsig)
    > Presentation
  • Presentation of a database on services commitments in PTAs (Juan Marchetti / Martin Roy)
    > Presentation
      
18:30-19:00

Close of the conference: Synergies and coherence between PTAs and the WTO in a new era of regionalism

  • Speaker: Patrick Low
      
    Audio: Listen to Session 3   > help
    Pierre Sauvé: Start time: 02:10 End time: 32:10
    Osvaldo Rosales: Start time: 32:48 End time: 43:05
    Sebastien Miroudot: Start time: 43:44 End time: 52:37