U.s.-uk Free Trade Agreement

U.s.-uk Free Trade Agreement
Author: Congressional Research Service
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Total Pages: 28
Release: 2017-04-19
Genre:
ISBN: 9781545466919

Prospects for a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) between the United States and the United Kingdom (UK) are of increasing interest for both sides. In a national referendum held on June 23, 2016, a majority of British voters supported the UK exiting the European Union (EU), a process known as "Brexit." The Brexit referendum has prompted calls from some Members of Congress and the Trump Administration to launch U.S.-UK FTA negotiations, though some Members have moderated their support with calls to ensure that such negotiations do not constrain the promotion of broader transatlantic trade relations. On January 27, 2017, President Trump and UK Prime Minister Theresa May discussed how the two sides could launch high-level talks and "lay the groundwork" for a future U.S.-UK FTA. Negotiations on a bilateral FTA between the United States and UK would represent a change in U.S. transatlantic trade policy, which has recently focused on negotiating a U.S.-EU Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP) FTA. Formal U.S.-UK FTA negotiations cannot start immediately. On March 29, 2017, Prime Minister May sent a letter to the European Council notifying it of the UK's intention to leave the EU, triggering the two-year Article 50 exit process under the Treaty of the European Union. Until the UK formally exits, it remains a member of the EU, which retains exclusive competence over trade negotiations. During this time, and in the absence of any preferential trade agreement between the United States and the EU, World Trade Organization (WTO) parameters continue to govern U.S.-UK trade, as they do for U.S. trade with all other EU member states. In the meantime, the United States and the UK could pursue preliminary "informal" discussions on a potential bilateral FTA. The prospects for a future U.S.-UK FTA depend on a number of variables, including the terms of the UK's negotiated withdrawal from, and future trade relationship with, the EU, as well as the UK's redefined terms of trade within the WTO. A U.S.-UK FTA could include reciprocal provisions to expand access to goods, services, agriculture, and government procurement markets; enhance and develop new bilateral trade-related rules and disciplines in areas such as intellectual property rights (IPR), investment, and digital trade; and cooperate on regulatory issues such as transparency and sector-specific concerns. Congress has important legislative, oversight, and advisory responsibilities with respect to any potential U.S.-UK FTA. The U.S. Constitution grants Congress the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations. Congress also establishes overall U.S. trade negotiating objectives, which it updated in the 2015 Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) legislation (P.L. 114-26). In addition, Congress would need to approve future implementing legislation for a final U.S.-UK FTA to enter into force. Under TPA, an FTA could be eligible to receive expedited legislative consideration if Congress determines that the FTA advances trade negotiating objectives and satisfies TPA's various other requirements, including notification to and consultations with Congress on the status of the negotiations.

Ripe for Reform: UK Scrutiny of International Trade Agreements

Ripe for Reform: UK Scrutiny of International Trade Agreements
Author: Emily Jones
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2020
Genre:
ISBN:

Now that the UK has left the EU, the Government is negotiating trade agreements for the first time in almost 50 years. What role should Parliament play in scrutinising trade deals? This paper compares current processes of parliamentary scrutiny in the UK, United States, European Union, Australia, and Canada. It shows how parliaments in the US and EU have extensive powers of scrutiny, including oversight of the negotiations, and a debate and vote on the trade agreement before it is ratified. In contrast, in the UK, Australia, and Canada, the negotiation and ratification of trade agreements is an executive power, and parliaments are not guaranteed a debate or vote on trade agreements before ratification. Their main role is to enact any legislation that is needed for the trade agreement to come into effect, but only some parts of an agreement may require implementing legislation, and this may be secondary legislation which is not subject to parliamentary debate. Unless changes are made, the UK's future trade deals will receive less scrutiny than the trade deals it entered as part of the EU. There are compelling reasons for strengthening Parliament's scrutiny role. Contemporary trade agreements involve policy decisions that affect the everyday lives of citizens. Effective scrutiny would improve the quality of decision-making, provide leverage in negotiations, and reassure negotiating partners any treaty they negotiate with the UK will be ratified and implemented. Properly engaging devolved administrations and legislatures would respect devolution and ensure that all parts of the UK support negotiated outcomes. For scrutiny to be effective, Parliament needs access to much more information throughout negotiations and more time to scrutinise final agreements, and there are strong grounds for guaranteeing Parliament the opportunity to shape the negotiating mandate, and to debate and vote on treaties before they are ratified. This paper identifies practices in other countries that the UK can learn from.

UK Trade Negotiations

UK Trade Negotiations
Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. International Trade Committee
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2023
Genre:
ISBN: 9781804926239

Handbook of Deep Trade Agreements

Handbook of Deep Trade Agreements
Author: Aaditya Mattoo
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 768
Release: 2020-09-23
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1464815542

Deep trade agreements (DTAs) cover not just trade but additional policy areas, such as international flows of investment and labor and the protection of intellectual property rights and the environment. Their goal is integration beyond trade or deep integration. These agreements matter for economic development. Their rules influence how countries (and hence, the people and firms that live and operate within them) transact, invest, work, and ultimately, develop. Trade and investment regimes determine the extent of economic integration, competition rules affect economic efficiency, intellectual property rights matter for innovation, and environmental and labor rules contribute to environmental and social outcomes. This Handbook provides the tools and data needed to analyze these new dimensions of integration and to assess the content and consequences of DTAs. The Handbook and the accompanying database are the result of collaboration between experts in different policy areas from academia and other international organizations, including the International Trade Centre (ITC), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and World Trade Organization (WTO).

Defending the NHS

Defending the NHS
Author: Labour Research Department
Publisher:
Total Pages: 64
Release: 1984
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

Free Trade Agreements and Global Labour Governance

Free Trade Agreements and Global Labour Governance
Author: Adrian Smith
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 194
Release: 2020-09-07
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0429535775

Exploring the contentious relationship between trade and labour, this book looks at the impact of the EU’s ‘new generation’ free trade agreements on workers. Drawing upon extensive original research, including over 200 interviews with key actors across the EU and its trading partners, it considers the effectiveness of the trade-labour linkage in an era of global value chains. The EU believes trade can work for all, claiming that labour provisions in its free trade agreements ensure that economic growth and high labour standards go hand-in-hand. Yet whether these actually make a difference to workers is strongly contested. This book explains why labour provisions have been profoundly limited in the EU’s agreements with the CARIFORUM group, South Korea and Moldova. It also shows how the provisions were mismatched with the most pressing workplace concerns in the key export industries of sugar, automobiles and clothing, and how these concerns were exacerbated by the agreements’ commercial provisions. This pioneering approach to studying the trade-labour linkage provides insights into key debates on the role of civil society in trade governance, the relationship between public and private labour regulation, and the progressive possibilities for trade policy in the twenty-first century. This book will appeal to research scholars, post-graduate students, trade policy practitioners, policy researchers allied to labour movements, and informed activists.

Bilateral and Regional Trade Agreements

Bilateral and Regional Trade Agreements
Author: Simon Nicholas Lester
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2009
Genre: Commercial treaties
ISBN: 9781107613126

The history of the world trading system and international trade agreements is characterised by shifts between bilateralism, regionalism and multilateralism. Bilateralism has recently returned, having gained momentum following the failed WTO negotiations at the 1999 Seattle Ministerial Conference. The result is that today's international trade rules are now a complex web of instruments and agreements. This volume contains case studies of selected bilateral and regional free trade agreements (FTAs), covering a wide range of countries, regions and key issues such as intellectual property and agriculture. Authored by leading scholars, practitioners and governmental officials, each case study provides a comprehensive review of the negotiating history and result of the selected agreement. Each study can serve as an in-depth examination of a particular FTA, and the group of case studies can be used to compare and contrast the coverage of different FTAs or to examine the FTAs signed by a particular country.

Negotiating Freer Trade

Negotiating Freer Trade
Author: Ian M. Drummond
Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press
Total Pages: 216
Release: 2006-01-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0889208239

On November 17, 1938, Great Britain, the United States, and Canada, after four years of discussion and manoeuvre, signed two wide–ranging and interlocking trade agreements. A few large elements dominated the talks. The Americans wanted to breach the walls of the British imperial preferential tariff system. The British were anxious to retain markets and political support in the British dominions and the Baltic, while protecting their domestic agriculture and improving political relations with the United States. Canada, whose acquiescence and co–operation were necessitated by the pre–existing network of trade agreements, hoped to win new export markets, to retain old ones, and to achieve international political tranquility through economic means. Although the negotiations began with a mixture of lofty and ignoble motives, in the end the latter predominated. The authors have drawn on archival and statistical materials in all three countries to provide a clear and detailed account of the economic context of the mid–1930s, the process of negotiations, the issues, and the political and economic significance, both then and now, of the final agreements. Their work is a valuable case–study of the problems that face any country that tries to negotiate freer trade. It is therefore full of contemporary resonance and relevance, and will be of interest to students of and specialists in modern history (European, British, and North American), international relations, and international economic policy.

Restructuring Trade Agreements

Restructuring Trade Agreements
Author: Juscelino F. Colares
Publisher: Kluwer Law International
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2021-07-27
Genre:
ISBN: 9789403530345

To avoid trade-bargain erosion, countries involved in large-scale, bilateral or regional trade arrangements must reconcile preserving close economic ties and supply chains with the need to dynamically adjust to new opportunities with other partners. Using the growing deterioration of the European Union-Turkey Customs Union as an illustration to a new model of trade-agreement restructuring, this well-researched and deeply insightful book outlines and demonstrates how this trade arrangement can be successfully renegotiated, thus providing expert practical guidance in a crucial area of trade law and policy that rarely receives the attention it deserves. The book's novel framework features a clearly articulated legal foundation, a transactional deployment strategy, and a sequential negotiating approach applicable to bilateral and regional trade arrangements whose original terms no longer reflect the changed capabilities and interests of at least one of its parties. The authors respond in detail to questions, such as: When should a country pursue bargain rebalancing? How should trade diplomats pursue renegotiation and/or new partnerships, legally and transactionally? Given that free trade agreements keep each country's trade sovereignty mostly intact, under which circumstances should a country ever consider entering a customs union? How may free-trade agreements help countries address trade imbalances while enhancing supply chain resilience? What are the limits to WTO litigation as an effective market-barrier-opening tool? How should trade-agreement restructuring be deployed as a path to further trade liberalization? In-depth attention is paid to identifying and investigating trade arrangements that are ripe for renegotiation and assessing sources of domestic and external support for or against renegotiating such bargains. This book's model of international trade-agreement restructuring fits well with emerging thinking on greater trade diversification and supply-chain resilience. The authors provide a clear, actionable approach for considering and conducting the renegotiation of trade deals. For these reasons, this book will be welcomed by trade lawyers, supply-chain executives, economists, government officials, and academics who are grappling with rising economic frictions in the fault lines of national sovereignty, economic interdependence, and the limits of current trade arrangements.

Navigating Uncertainty

Navigating Uncertainty
Author: Brendan Vickers
Publisher: Commonwealth Secretariat
Total Pages: 61
Release: 2018-03-26
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1849291764

Navigating Uncertainty: Towards a Post-Brexit Trade and Development Agenda offers timely and expert commentary on how a new UK trade policy towards the EU and developing countries could be designed and implemented. The essays unbundle complex issues and offer a context for the current debate, as well as providing a framework within which to assess and discuss the ongoing negotiations.