Atualmente, há um debate acerca dos efeitos da aplicação de medidas antidumping entre as partes de um acordo regional de comércio. Discute-se que o emprego de tais instrumentos pode gerar um óbice ao livre comércio e ao avanço da integração econômica negociados em tais acordos. As regras do sistema multilateral de comércio determinam que direitos antidumping podem ser aplicados quando comprovada a existência de dumping, dano à indústria nacional e a relação causal entre estes. Entretanto, mesmo que haja regras sobre a condução de uma investigação antidumping e a aplicação da medida, ainda há muito espaço para a discricionariedade das autoridades nacionais investigadoras. Isso enseja a preocupação de que a aplicação desse instrumento pode conduzir a uma ineficácia dos objetivos de liberalização comercial negociados nos acordos regionais de comércio, além de neutralizar as concessões tarifárias feitas no âmbito desses acordos, em prol do protecionismo de uma indústria doméstica, muitas vezes, defasada e inapta à concorrência internacional. A presente dissertação pretende demonstrar que, à medida que o antidumping representa um potencial impacto negativo aos ideais dos acordos regionais de comércio, sua aplicação é antagônica com os objetivos desses acordos, inclusive no caso do MERCOSUL. Assim, as regras antidumping no âmbito do MERCOSUL deveriam ser repensadas, uma vez que a não aplicação de direitos antidumping no comércio intrarregional permitiria o avanço da integração econômica na região e representaria mais um passo rumo à consolidação da união aduaneira. / Currently, there is a debate about the effects of antidumping measures among members of regional trade agreements. It is argued that the use of such instrument can represent an obstacle to free trade and the deepening of economic integration. The rules of the multilateral trading system determines that antidumping duties may be applied when verified the existence of dumping, injury to the domestic industry of the importing country and causal relationship between them. However, even though there are rules governing the conduction of an antidumping investigation and the application of antidumping measures, there is still much room for discretion of investigating authorities. This gives rise to concern that the use of antidumping may lead to ineffectiveness of the goals of trade liberalization and neutralization of tariff concessions made under such agreements, in order to protect a domestic industry, usually outdated and unprepared to international competition. This thesis intends to demonstrate that, as antidumping represents a potential negative impact to the achievements of regional trade agreements, its application among members of a RTA is opposed to the goals of such agreements, including in the case of MERCOSUR. Thus, antidumping rules within MERCOSUR should be reconsidered, since the elimination of antidumping duties on intraregional trade would allow the deepening of the regional economic integration and represent a step towards the consolidation of the customs union.

A América do Sul, na história recente, foi palco de diversas ações de integração regional relacionadas ao comércio, influenciando os posicionamentos dos países em matéria de políticas de comércio interncional bem como formando um emaranhado de relações que se sobrepõe muitas vezes de formas antagônicas. Neste contexto, a presente dissertação aborda o histórico das principais blocos regionais que envolvem a América do Sul como base para mostrar a atual fragmentação deste subcontinente em três visões principais de política de comércio internacional, sendo uma visão intermediária caracterizada pelo Brasil e acompanhada pelos membros do MERCOSUL em uma vertente regional-multilateralista. Em um extremo estão Venezuela, Equador e Bolívia, representantes da ALBA, com seus governos de posicionamento extremo-nacionalista. E em posição antagônica a estes estão Chile, Peru e Colômbia, que conformam o eixo liberal-bilateralista. Objetivando comprovar que há uma tendência de fortalecimento da visão liberal-bilateralista na região será feito um estudo com base nas suas principais formas de atuação, ou seja, por meio da análise de Acordos Preferenciais de Comércio, mais especificamente FTAs bilaterais celebrados com países de distintas regiões com foco especial ao período imediatamente após a eclosão da crise de 2008, de 2009-2014. Finalmente, se a hipótese se confirmar, restando evidenciada a retomada do posicionamento bilateralista, após período de predominância da visão multilateralista na América do Sul, é importante apontar os desafios para o Brasil neste cenário. / South America, in recent history, has had several regional integration actions related to trade, influencing the countries positions in terms of international trade policies as well as forming a tangle of relationships that often overlaps with contrary views. In this context, this thesis addresses the history of the main regional blocs involving South America as a basis to show the current fragmentation of this subcontinent in three main views of international trade policy, with an intermediate vision characterized by Brazil and followed also by members of the MERCOSUR in a regional-multilateralist position. At one extreme, the countries Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia, ALBA representatives, present their extreme-nationalist position. And in an antagonistic position, Chile, Peru and Colombia constitute the liberal-bilateralist axis. In order to prove that there is a trend towards the strengthening of the liberal-bilateralist vision in the region, a research based on analysis of Preferential Trade Agreements will be held, focusing bilateral FTAs concluded with different countries regions with special attention to the period immediately after the outbreak of the 2008 crisis, from 2009 to 2014. Finally, if the hypothesis is confirmed, demonstrating the resumption of the bilateralist position after a period in which the multilateralist vision was predominant in South America, it is important to point the challenges of this scenario for Brazil.

O artigo analisa os capítulos sobre propriedade intelectual dos acordos preferenciais de comércio firmados pelos Estados Unidos com países da América Latina na década de 2000, discutindo tanto as motivações do país para a assinatura dos mesmos (e inserindo tal discussão em um framework teórico) quanto as implicações dos acordos para os direitos de propriedade intelectual de seus signatários. Nesse sentido, apresenta algumas teorias acerca das características intrínsecas a instituições internacionais multilaterais, em contraste com as bilaterais e regionais; tais teorias afirmam que os estados, ao lidarem com resultados indesejados de características institucionais, modificam instituições (ou criam novas instituições) de acordo com seus objetivos. Em seguida, apresenta o resultado de um levantamento bibliográfico acerca das motivações estadunidenses para a assinatura dos mencionados acordos preferenciais de comércio, com ênfase nas relacionadas aos direitos de propriedade intelectual; tal resultado é complementado com a análise dos documentos primários pertinentes. Por fim, compara o conteúdo dos mencionados capítulos entre si; também os compara com o Acordo TRIPS da OMC. O artigo conclui que as motivações estadunidenses coincidem com as expectativas teóricas; que os capítulos analisados são substancialmente diferentes do Acordo TRIPS; que eles contêm diversas diferenças entre si (as quais são, em parte, decorrentes de exigências do legislativo estadunidense); e que ainda há espaço para pesquisas sobre a política comercial estadunidense praticada no período, no que tange à sua interface com os direitos de propriedade intelectual. / The article analyzes the intellectual property rights chapters of the preferential trade agreements signed by the United States with Latin American countries during the 2000s, discussing both the country\'s reasons for signing such agreements (and inserting such discussion in a theoretical framework) and their implications to the intellectual property rights of its signatories. In this regard, it presents some theories about the features intrinsic to the multilateral international institutions, when contrasted with the bilateral and regional ones; such theories claim that states, when dealing with undesired effects of institutional features, modify institutions (or create new ones), in accordance with their objectives. Then, the article presents the findings of a literature review about the U.S. reasons for signing the aforementioned preferential trade agreements, emphasizing those reasons related to intellectual property rights; such findings are complemented by the analysis of the pertinent primary documents. Finally, it compares the content of the chapters with each other; it also compares them with the WTO TRIPS Agreement. It concludes that the U.S. reasons presented coincide with the theoretical expectations; that the analyzed chapters are substantially different from the TRIPS Agreement; that the chapters have many differences with each other (which are, in part, due to U.S. Congress requirements); and that there is still room for new researches on the U.S. trade policy practiced during the analyzed period, when it comes to its interface with intellectual property rights.

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.

I propose a simple approach to trade cooperation in economic shocks. A two-country, two-good trade model provides a stage setting. In a dynamic model, international demand for traded goods is allowed to be subject to sudden shocks. Numerical simulations predict that negative, sustained demand shocks may spark trade wars. Negative demand shocks that are short relative to the period it takes for governments to detect violations render instead incentives in free trade agreements more robust. I find that the multilateral policy response to the 2008 crisis - to temporarily enhance multilateral information mechanisms - may have worked to strengthen this effect. / I den här uppsatsen analyseras incitament i handelsavtal under ekonomiska chocker utifrån grundläggande spelteori. Jag finner att långa lågkonjunkturer påverkar incitamenten på ett sätt som kan få parterna att frångå avtalet och starta ett tullkrig. Korta lågkonjunkturer stärker i stället incitamenten i avtalet. Jag argumenterar för att brytpunkten mellan en tullkrigsutlösande lågkonjunktur och en incitamentstärkande lågkonjunktur kan regleras genom att tillfälligt stärka informationsmekanismerna kring avtalet och att de multilaterala åtgärderna i krisens spår kan ha haft den effekten.

<p>The aim of this thesis is to clarify the affect that preferential and regional trade agreements have on the World Trade Organization (WTO), as being establisher of the international trading regime. The essay is an explanatory literature study, which strives to answer the following questions:</p><p>Are regional and preferential trade agreements a threat or a complement to the WTO?</p><p>Is an undermining of the MFN principle weakening the WTO?</p><p>How do regional trade agreements made by the EU affect the future of the WTO?</p><p>The empirical material is to be analyzed using an explanatory framework, which is based on neo-liberal instutionalism, theories on regime changes and a game theoretical approach, using prisoner’s dilemma. I will employ the EU-ACP relation, the Cotonou agreement to exemplify how an agreement of this kind can have an influence on multilateral trade. The result shows that preferential agreements do have an impact on the WTO, one that is fairly negative in scope. Preferential trade agreements do pose a threat to the WTO, in its current structure and may be harmful to the international trading regime. It is partly because the MFN is widely discouraged that PTAs are stumbling stones to the organization. By signing agreement that do not comply with WTO regulations and considering its role in international trade, EU does affect the future of the WTO.</p>

In recent years, the use of the mode of regional trade liberalisation has proliferated, while the multilateral talks through the WTO have proceeded slowly, resulting in a debate on the role of bilateral and multilateral trade liberalisation. This thesis aims to provide new insights to this debate by studying the welfare effects of different types of trade agreements and the equilibrium outcome(s) of trade negotiation. We apply the three-country and three-good “competing-exporters model" developed by Bagwell and Staiger (1999) as our basic trade framework. By comparing the equilibrium welfare of each country under different structures of trading blocs, we clarify the welfare impacts of each trade agreement. Then we model the process of trade negotiation as a trade negotiation game, in which each country endogenously decides whether to negotiate through multilateral or bilateral trade liberalisation. By solving the equilibrium of the game, the stable structure of trading blocs and the path(s) to reach it can be found. We start with a framework in which all countries are welfare maximising. We find that at the early stage of trade negotiation, a free trade agreement (FTA) is Pareto welfare improving, despite the fact that member countries benefit more than any non-member. Although being the hub is the best position, a spoke is in a worse position than being outside a single FTA. Thus, a “hub-and-spoke" structure cannot be achieved and the unique equilibrium outcome of trade negotiation is given by multilateral free trade (MFT) through a multilateral trade agreement (MTA). The welfare-maximising analysis is followed by the examination of cases in which each government is politically motivated. The political structure we use is similar to Ornelas (2005), which follows the basic framework developed by Grossman and Helpman (1995), emphasising the interaction between lobby groups representing the special interest of one industry and the government in their home country. We first consider a circumstance where the political pressures are only from the import- competing sector. It is then generalised to a case in which all sectors are allowed to lobby the local government. Furthermore, the analysis is extended into an asymmetric world that includes two big countries and one small country. Our results show that political economy forces usually reduce the likelihood of forming trade agreements and that when the political concerns are sufficiently large, all trade agreements can be prevented by political pressures. Also, our findings suggest that the option of bilateral FTAs does not cause an initially infeasible MFT to become feasible, while a previously feasible MFT is likely to be blocked by the option of FTAs. Thus, our thesis provides some evidence to support the argument that the formation of FTAs can be a “stumbling block" for global trade liberalisation. / Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Adelaide, School of Economics, 2009

In recent years, the use of the mode of regional trade liberalisation has proliferated, while the multilateral talks through the WTO have proceeded slowly, resulting in a debate on the role of bilateral and multilateral trade liberalisation. This thesis aims to provide new insights to this debate by studying the welfare effects of different types of trade agreements and the equilibrium outcome(s) of trade negotiation. We apply the three-country and three-good “competing-exporters model" developed by Bagwell and Staiger (1999) as our basic trade framework. By comparing the equilibrium welfare of each country under different structures of trading blocs, we clarify the welfare impacts of each trade agreement. Then we model the process of trade negotiation as a trade negotiation game, in which each country endogenously decides whether to negotiate through multilateral or bilateral trade liberalisation. By solving the equilibrium of the game, the stable structure of trading blocs and the path(s) to reach it can be found. We start with a framework in which all countries are welfare maximising. We find that at the early stage of trade negotiation, a free trade agreement (FTA) is Pareto welfare improving, despite the fact that member countries benefit more than any non-member. Although being the hub is the best position, a spoke is in a worse position than being outside a single FTA. Thus, a “hub-and-spoke" structure cannot be achieved and the unique equilibrium outcome of trade negotiation is given by multilateral free trade (MFT) through a multilateral trade agreement (MTA). The welfare-maximising analysis is followed by the examination of cases in which each government is politically motivated. The political structure we use is similar to Ornelas (2005), which follows the basic framework developed by Grossman and Helpman (1995), emphasising the interaction between lobby groups representing the special interest of one industry and the government in their home country. We first consider a circumstance where the political pressures are only from the import- competing sector. It is then generalised to a case in which all sectors are allowed to lobby the local government. Furthermore, the analysis is extended into an asymmetric world that includes two big countries and one small country. Our results show that political economy forces usually reduce the likelihood of forming trade agreements and that when the political concerns are sufficiently large, all trade agreements can be prevented by political pressures. Also, our findings suggest that the option of bilateral FTAs does not cause an initially infeasible MFT to become feasible, while a previously feasible MFT is likely to be blocked by the option of FTAs. Thus, our thesis provides some evidence to support the argument that the formation of FTAs can be a “stumbling block" for global trade liberalisation. / Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Adelaide, School of Economics, 2009

In recent years, the use of the mode of regional trade liberalisation has proliferated, while the multilateral talks through the WTO have proceeded slowly, resulting in a debate on the role of bilateral and multilateral trade liberalisation. This thesis aims to provide new insights to this debate by studying the welfare effects of different types of trade agreements and the equilibrium outcome(s) of trade negotiation. We apply the three-country and three-good “competing-exporters model" developed by Bagwell and Staiger (1999) as our basic trade framework. By comparing the equilibrium welfare of each country under different structures of trading blocs, we clarify the welfare impacts of each trade agreement. Then we model the process of trade negotiation as a trade negotiation game, in which each country endogenously decides whether to negotiate through multilateral or bilateral trade liberalisation. By solving the equilibrium of the game, the stable structure of trading blocs and the path(s) to reach it can be found. We start with a framework in which all countries are welfare maximising. We find that at the early stage of trade negotiation, a free trade agreement (FTA) is Pareto welfare improving, despite the fact that member countries benefit more than any non-member. Although being the hub is the best position, a spoke is in a worse position than being outside a single FTA. Thus, a “hub-and-spoke" structure cannot be achieved and the unique equilibrium outcome of trade negotiation is given by multilateral free trade (MFT) through a multilateral trade agreement (MTA). The welfare-maximising analysis is followed by the examination of cases in which each government is politically motivated. The political structure we use is similar to Ornelas (2005), which follows the basic framework developed by Grossman and Helpman (1995), emphasising the interaction between lobby groups representing the special interest of one industry and the government in their home country. We first consider a circumstance where the political pressures are only from the import- competing sector. It is then generalised to a case in which all sectors are allowed to lobby the local government. Furthermore, the analysis is extended into an asymmetric world that includes two big countries and one small country. Our results show that political economy forces usually reduce the likelihood of forming trade agreements and that when the political concerns are sufficiently large, all trade agreements can be prevented by political pressures. Also, our findings suggest that the option of bilateral FTAs does not cause an initially infeasible MFT to become feasible, while a previously feasible MFT is likely to be blocked by the option of FTAs. Thus, our thesis provides some evidence to support the argument that the formation of FTAs can be a “stumbling block" for global trade liberalisation. / Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Adelaide, School of Economics, 2009