O debate atual sobre as consequências da proliferação de Acordos Comerciais Regionais surge no meio de uma crise de governança no comércio internacional, o qual também questiona o papel da OMC como Organização Internacional que governa este cenário através de princípios e normas multilaterais. No entanto, cientes desta situação, os Estados parecem manter esforços para lidar com tais problemas através da negociação de mecanismos multilaterais para melhorar a governança do sistema multilateral. O Comitê de Acordos Comerciais Regionais (CRTA) que existe há mais de duas décadas é uma peça-chave para compreender as razões pelas quais tais esforços parecem infrutíferos, considerando o fato de que se trata do órgão multilateral encarregado do controle de Acordos Regionais. Assim, a presente pesquisa procura analisar o trabalho e evoluções desse Comitê, considerando diferentes fatores que incidem em seu desempenho, e determinar se um trabalho como o feito pelo CRTA poderia ser uma eficiente forma de governar as relações que surgem da atual organização da produção internacional. / The current debate about the consequences of the proliferation of Regional Trade Agreements arises in the middle of a governance crisis in international trade, which has also put into question the role of the WTO as an International Organization governing this scenario through multilateral principles and rules. However, aware of this situation, States seem to keep making efforts to deal with these problems through the negotiation of multilateral mechanisms to enhance the governance of the international trade system. The Committee on Regional Trade Agreements (CRTA), existing for more than two decades, is a key piece to understand why these efforts seem fruitless. This research attempts to analyze its work and evolutions, considering different factors that have incidence in its performance, and to determine if it is possible that a work such as the performed by the CRTA could be an efficient way to govern the relations arising from the current organization of international production.

Dans le contexte de l’intégration internationale, les indicateurs économiques montrentd’importants changements de structure et de spécialisation du Maroc qui tend vers desproduits de manufactures intensifs en recherche et développement (r&d) et des secteursde moyenne haute intensité technologique. De plus, la croissance du commerce intraindustriedans les produits manufacturés témoigne du développement de l’industrieet d’un processus de rattrapage du Maroc. Pour ces raisons, l’objectif de cette thèse estd’examiner l’impact des accords de libre-échange (ale) sur la qualité de la spécialisationet l’intégration internationale du Maroc.L’impact des ale est analysé à partir du modèle de gravité dans deux études distinctes.Le premier modèle de gravité mesure l’évolution du potentiel des exportations du Marocentre 1998 et 2013 à partir d’un échantillon de 172 pays. Cette étude conclut à un impactpositif des accords sur les exportations marocaines. Parmi les partenaires commerciaux,l’Union européenne reste le principal partenaire avec un taux d’exportation de 98,83%par rapport aux exportations estimées. Les exportations dans le cadre des accordsbilatéraux avec les États-Unis, les Émirats arabes unis, la Turquie, l’Égypte et la Jordaniesont aux alentours de 91%. Cependant, il existe un potentiel d’échange inexploité avecles pays de l’Union du Maghreb arabe (uma).Dans la deuxième étude, le modèle de gravité est appliqué pour examiner le rôle del’ouverture commerciale sur les produits technologiques en utilisant des données depanel des exportations du Maroc vers 82 pays de 1967 à 2014. Les résultats confirmentun impact positif des ale sur les produits de moyenne haute technologie et de faibletechnologie et même pour les produits non manufacturés.Enfin, l’analyse de l’impact des ale au niveau des entreprises hétérogènes marocainesest réalisée dans la dernière étude. Les résultats du modèle de sélection de Heckman(1979) montrent que les entreprises créées après l’année 2000 et celles qui utilisent lesintrants importés, augmentent la probabilité d’exportation. Cependant, les contraintesnotamment douanières et fiscales réduisent l’intensité d’exportation des entreprises.Pour sa part, le modèle Tobit donne un résultat positif de l’effet de la technologie surl’intensité des exportations en utilisant la même base de données. / In the context of international integration, the trade indicators show the significantchanges in Morocco’s trade structure and specialization, which tend to intensive manufacturedproducts in r&d and medium high technological intensity. Moreover, thegrowth of intra-industry trade in manufactured products reflects the development ofthe industry and Morocco’s convergence. For this reasons, the aim of this thesis is toexamine the impact of free trade agreements (fta) on the quality of specialization andinternational integration of Morocco.The influence of the fta is analyzed by employing the gravity model in two separatestudies. In the first one, the model measures the potential of Morocco’s exports between1998 and 2013 from 172 countries. This study finds a positive impact of agreements onMoroccan exports. Among the trading partners, the European Union (eu) has remainedto be the Morocco’s main destination market with an export rate around 99% comparedto estimated exports. Meanwhile, the exports in framework of bilateral agreements withUnited States (us), United Arab Emirates (uae), Turkey, Egypt and Jordan are around91%. However, there is an untapped trade potential with Arab Maghreb Union (amu)countries.In the second study, the gravity model is applied to examine the role of trade openness ontechnological products by using a panel data of Morocco’s exports towards 82 countriesfrom 1967 to 2014. The results show a positive impact of fta on medium high technology,low technology and non-manufactured products.Finally, the analysis of fta’s impacts to Moroccan heterogeneous firms is conductedin the last research. The results of Heckman selection model (1979) show that thecompanies created after year 2000, which use the imported inputs, increase exportingprobability. However, customs and tax constraints reduce export intensity. Moreover,the Tobit model gives a positive effect of technology on export intensity by using thesame panel data.

The thesis concentrates on measuring the benefits and losses of implementing regional trade agreements. In particular, the thesis analyses trade flow changes, foreign direct investment inflow changes, industrial total factor productivity changes and specific commodity trade flow changes in Australia and China. Four empirical studies are undertaken. Firstly, the thesis introduces the gravity model to estimate the effect of regional trade agreements on trade flow changes, focusing on thirty-nine countries and areas from seven regional trade agreements during 1980-2004. The results show that there are trade creation and trade diversion effects for various memberships. The results further show that China experiences an export creation effect for its APEC membership while Australia has an import diversion effect for its CER membership. When trade between Australia and China is considered, Australia's CER membership impedes its trade with China. However, both Australia and China benefit from attending APEC jointly to enlarge their bilateral trade. Secondly, a modified gravity model is undertaken to test the impact of regional trade agreements on foreign direct investment inflows to Australia and China. It uses the same regional trade agreements to that of the trade flow study for the period of 1980 to 2004 for Australia and 1985 to 2004 for China. The results show that CER members tend to strengthen their bilateral foreign direct investment cooperation after the implementation of CER trade and investment liberalization. Thirdly, the impact of regional trade agreements is examined on industrial total factor productivity growth. The findings show that industries with comparative trading advantages in both Australia and China tend to improve their total factor productivity upon liberalizing trade both bilaterally and multilaterally. However, industries with comparative disadvantages need more protection against severe foreign competition. It uses data from 1974-75 to 2004-05 for the Australian market sector analysis, from 1968-69 to 1990-2000 for the Australian manufacturing industry analysis, and from 1987 to 2003 for the Chinese industry analysis. Finally, the thesis investigates the impact of regional trade agreements on bilateral commodity trade between Australia and China from 1979 to 2004. A similar gravity model to that of the trade flow study is used, introducing an additional GDP per capita variable to capture the effect of increasing consumers' income on their consumption of particular goods and products type based on product and production characteristics. Both the one-digit and some detailed four-digit commodity classifications described in the Standard International Trade Classification are considered. The results show that participation in regional trade agreements is an important factor that affects Australia's major commodity trade with China. The major contribution of this thesis is the investigation of issues on trade flows and foreign direct investment specifically in Australia and China, together with the studies of the effect of regional trade agreements on industrial total factor productivity improvement and specific commodity trade changes. Due to the increasing pursuit of bilateral and regional economic cooperation in Australia and China, the results of this thesis are of particular importance to both countries in their foreign trade and economic strategies.

<p>Increasing energy needs globally have recently led to an interest in effectively bringing energy services in the trading system. Energy services were part of the Uruguay Round of negotiations, whose main achievement was the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). The objective of the GATS is to achieve progressive liberalisation and reduction or elimination of trade barriers of all services sectors, including energy services. The GATS has made commendable progress in liberalising many service sectors, however it has not made meaningful progress with energy services. Furthermore though the SADC region engages in energy services trade through bilateral and regional agreements, a variety of&nbsp / barriers inhibit major successes from being achieved. Effective energy services trade and liberalisation has therefore proved problematic both at the multilateral, regional and bilateral level. This study, seeks to investigate why energy services liberalisation and trade at the multilateral, regional and bilateral level is problematic, with a particular focus on&nbsp / the SADC region.</p>

The Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China have a long history of trading with each other. They are economic partners as well as competitors for many years. In order to push their economic relationship to a higher level, in November 2002, ASEAN and China signed the initial framework agreement, determined on establishing the ASEAN - China Free Trade Area (ACFTA) among the eleven countries by 2010 for the ASEAN-6 (Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand) and by 2015 for the transitional economies of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam (the CLMV). There are fears that China’s rapid development recently will encourage ASEAN’s exports to flow into its giant domestic market instead of among the members countries. Also the benefits of the Free Trade Agreement are still unclear. The Thesis uses three gravity models and the panel data of 11 countries from 1992 to 2009 to test two hypotheses: trade diversion (that expanded trade with China will reduce intra-trade within ASEAN) and trade creation (that ACFTA will boost up bilateral trade between ASEAN and China).

<p>Increasing energy needs globally have recently led to an interest in effectively bringing energy services in the trading system. Energy services were part of the Uruguay Round of negotiations, whose main achievement was the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). The objective of the GATS is to achieve progressive liberalisation and reduction or elimination of trade barriers of all services sectors, including energy services. The GATS has made commendable progress in liberalising many service sectors, however it has not made meaningful progress with energy services. Furthermore though the SADC region engages in energy services trade through bilateral and regional agreements, a variety of&nbsp / barriers inhibit major successes from being achieved. Effective energy services trade and liberalisation has therefore proved problematic both at the multilateral, regional and bilateral level. This study, seeks to investigate why energy services liberalisation and trade at the multilateral, regional and bilateral level is problematic, with a particular focus on&nbsp / the SADC region.</p>

Doctor Legum - LLD / Competition law and its enforcement have become necessary tools in the face of trade liberalisation. Nowhere is this more evident than in the area of cross-border cartels. The global South is steadily becoming aware of this. With the advent of globalisation and trade liberalisation, individual economies have become intrinsically linked. Anti-competitive conduct in one territory may have an impact in another territory. Therefore, an effective regional competition law framework complements trade liberalisation, especially in light of the principal objective of the South-South regional economic communities: the deepening of regional integration, in order to realise economic development and alleviate poverty. Cartel practices, such as, market allocation cartels, are in direct contradiction to this primary objective. This is when enforcement collaborations in South-South regional economic communities becomes crucial. The regional legal instruments of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, the East African Community, the Southern African Customs Union and the Southern African Development Community make provision for enforcement collaborations among Member States. To facilitate collaboration, regional competition authorities have been created to investigate, among other things, cross-border cartels. Within these economic communities, there is a strong case for enforcement collaborations, as evidence shows that the majority of the firms engaging in cartels are the so-called Regional Multinational Corporations. They operate throughout the territories of Member States. Additionally, the international nature of cartels, such as, private international cartels and export cartels, provide an opportunity for South-South co-operation to be utilised. However, this co-operation has not been utilised to the fullest extent, especially with reference to cross-border cartel activities. This has been attributed to various factors, such as, institutional incapacities, resource austerity, the absence of common procedural rules, the lack of adequate investigatory tools, and political ineptitude. As a solution, this current study makes specific recommendations that are directed at enhancing the effectiveness of South-South collaborations pertaining to cross-border cartel activities.

Magister Philosophiae - MPhil (LAS) (Land and Agrarian Studies) / Fish remains a vital source of food, income, nutrition and livelihoods for millions of people in Africa. This study investigated the modalities of trading in fish imported from sub-Saharan Africa into South Africa in the Cape Town Metropolitan area. The research analyses the opportunities and constraints faced by retail fish traders and importers regarding the South African and Southern African Development Community (SADC) policies that are in place, to ascertain how far the policies go in facilitating the intra-regional fish trade. In addition, the study analyses consumer factors underlying the attractiveness of imported fish, the channels used for importation as well as the types and forms of fish imported into South Africa. The study employs a qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews with purposively selected key informant retailers, traders and City of Cape Town officials to collect the information. Findings show that shop owners and traders face challenges in relation to obtaining the required documents for trading, sanitary and phytosanitary certification and tariff and non-tariff barriers at borders. Some of these challenges include long and tedious procedures to acquire documents, as well as the limitations placed on the amount of goods traders can import. Consumers (mostly from the diaspora) prefer the taste of fish that they are used to, thereby creating an increasing demand for imported fish. National and regional policies put in place do not facilitate the trade in fish as well as current municipal regulations for retailing imported fish and other food types. The study also raises critical questions about the implementation of sanitary and phytosanitary standards by officials in the food shops. The thesis concludes that is it critical for national and regional policies to be coordinated and harmonised for enhanced intra-regional fish trade, which could contribute towards increased food security, nutrition and livelihoods.

This Chapter summarises the work carried out during the lifetime of the Action by Working Group I whose main task was to build multiregional NEG models. The main results are briefly presented and some of the questions left open are pointed at. Finally, topics for future research are suggested.

Magister Philosophiae - MPhil / Increasing energy needs globally have recently led to an interest in effectively bringing energy services in the trading system. Energy services were part of the Uruguay Round of negotiations, whose main achievement was the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). The objective of the GATS is to achieve progressive liberalisation and reduction or elimination of trade barriers of all services sectors, including energy services. The GATS has made commendable progress in liberalising many service sectors, however it has not made meaningful progress with energy services. Furthermore though the SADC region engages in energy services trade through bilateral and regional agreements, a variety of barriers inhibit major successes from being achieved. Effective energy services trade and liberalisation has therefore proved problematic both at the multilateral, regional and bilateral level. This study, seeks to investigate why energy services liberalisation and trade at the multilateral, regional and bilateral level is problematic, with a particular focus on the SADC region. / South Africa