Mega-Regional Trade Agreements: Implications for ACP Countries
ECIPE Occasional Paper No. 2/2014
53 Pages Posted: 12 Jun 2017
Date Written: February 1, 2014
Abstract
This paper exams two mega-regional FTAs under negotiation at the time of writing, namely the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, and exams what the implications may be - particularly of new rules in regulatory sectors hitherto untouched by multilateral trade disciplines - on African, Caribbean and Pacific Countries themselves often struggling to implement the many commitments undertaken in the recent wave of bilateral and regional PTAs they were, for the most part, given little choice but to conclude. The paper concludes with some recommendations for ACP countries hoping to have more of a say and more influence on important rule-making negotiations when they are not directly seated at the negotiating table themselves.
Keywords: International Trade, Free Trade Agreements, TPP, TTIP, ACP Countries, Trade and Development
JEL Classification: F13, F15, K33
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation