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31IMPACT OF WTO AND RTA ON THE WORLD ECONOMY
1 2 Sevostyanov V. , Khalilov F. (Russian Federation)
ВЛИЯНИЕ ВТО И РЕГИОНАЛЬНЫХ ТОРГОВЫХ
СОГЛАШЕНИЙ НА МИРОВУЮ ЭКОНОМИКУ 12 Севостьянов В. Н. , Халилов Ф. З. (Российская Федерация)
1Севостьянов Василий Николаевич / Sevostyanov Vasily - студент магистратуры;
2Халилов Фаррух Зафарович / Khalilov Farrukh - студент магистратуры, международный финансовый факультет, Финансовый университет при Правительстве Российской Федерации, г. Москва
Abstract: the article analyses the results of the WTO since foundation and the reasons for the emergence of regional trade agreements. For the purposes of this article the history of the GATT was examined, and work results were considered. It turned out that the period of the WTO can be described as the time of the increased number of regional trade agreement in several times, which is one of the consequences of unsatisfactory work of the WTO. One of the brightest examples of regional arrangements is Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership involves US and EU members.
Аннотация: в статье анализируются результаты деятельности ВТО с момента основания, а также причины возникновения региональных торговых соглашений. Для целей данной статьи была проанализирована история предшественника ВТО - ГАТТ, и описаны краткие результаты работы. В ходе анализа было выявлено, что в период действия ВТО количество региональных торговых соглашений увеличилось в несколько раз, что является одним из последствий неудовлетворительной работы ВТО. Одним из таких соглашений стало Трансатлантическое торговое и инвестиционное соглашение о торговле между США и ЕС.
Keywords: WTO, GATT, world trade, tariffs.
Ключевые слова: ВТО, ГАТТ, мировая торговля, тарифы.
WTO was founded instead and on the base of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which had existed for almost seventy years and provided system of rules for developing of international trade. In 1994, liberalization agreements were produced on Uruguay Round of trade that allowed "to extend trade rules to new areas such as services, investment, and intellectually property" [3, p. 239]. Moreover, the World Trade Organization acquired official status of formal institution provided stage for resolving more complex and wider range disputes. GATT provided the all negotiating rounds before WTO was officially established. Considering information here, it is possible to make a conclusion that GATT achieved its goals, as long as tariffs continuously decreased after its foundation in 1947 and new contracting parties were included into negotiation process.
Founded in 1994, the WTO became a much more powerful institution than GATT had ever been. At the same time, WTO was initially very visible and controversial organization due to "fears that the WTO would have extensive powers to strike down domestic environmental, health, and safety regulations that might conflict with world trade rules, and thereby undermine national sovereignty" [3, p. 259]. Conversely, it turned out that all fears have not been realized that led to lack of intense target criticism.
It should be mentioned that WTO's goal is not to define or specify trade outcomes and it doesn't seek to manage trade flows as well. Simultaneously, R. Baldwin [2, p. 97] states that WTO doesn't have any clear list of principles. It has one general constitutional principle which declares rules-based organization instead of result-based. As its predecessor, GATT, WTO focuses only on regulation of international trade rather than on stimulating or restricting volume of exports and market shares.
Above, success of GATT was mentioned that could mean potential achieving of high results by follower. But even taking into consideration lack of criticism about WTO, it is widely thought that performance review of WTO would be contradictory. "Little progress has been made on the trade liberalization front for almost two decades, since a handful of agreements in 1997" [2, p. 106]. Only dispute settlement mechanism could achieve a highperformance score. Why foundation of GATT did not become the source of success of the WTO? There are two possible explanations or underlying reasons.
The first one is external. Usually, losing of dominance of advanced economies understands under external reason. For instance, "in the GATT period, the United States, European Union, Japan, and Canada - known as the Quad - dominated on the metric, accounting for two-thirds of world import" [2, p. 106]. Today, share of Quad is only about half of total world import. Therefore, developing countries have taken possession of more voting power and made negotiations more difficult to reach beneficial conclusion.
The second one is internal. GATT negotiations used to involve Quad bargaining about tariffs that other members had to ride upon. WTO negotiations require approbation from all members. Accordingly, these members try to avoid agreements threatened their domestic interests.
Because of existing problems of WTO, a huge number of regional trade arrangements have placed comparing to GATT period [3, p. 283].
One of the brightest examples of regional arrangements is Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership involves US and EU members that can be even called "mega regional" due to size of participated economies. The goal of negotiations, which have started by Obama administration in its second term, is "to conclude agreements that will increase market access among the participants by reducing tariff and especially nontariff barriers to trade" [3, p. 291]. But negotiations are still under consideration and probably will stay there a long time, because there is very big room for discussion. Barrier tariffs between USA and EU are now very low, therefore the focus of TTIP negotiations are solving of current regulatory barriers and rules issues.
The potential influence on the third countries of TTIP could be both positive and negative. From one point of view, deeper integration of the two largest economies could lead to elimination of barriers for exporters. Because in that case, exporter must worry only about "compliance with a single regime in an enlarged market" [1, p. 6]. From another point, negative impact can arise from direct discriminatory effect and possible import restrictions due to new regulations and regulatory arrangements influencing access to the market.
References
1. Akman M., Evenett S, & Low P. Catalyst? TTIP's Impact on the Rest. CEPR Press, 2015.
2. Baldwin R. The World Trade Organization and the Future of Multilateralism. The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2016. № 30 (1). P. 95-115.
3. Irwin D. A. Free trade under fire. Princeton University Press, 2015. № 4. 290 p.
