Bilateral and Regional Trade Agreements

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.

Notes on contributors; Acknowledgments; Table of common abbreviations; Table of cases; Table of treaties and international agreements; 1. The Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement Andrew D. Mitchell and Tania Voon; 2. Central American-Dominican Republic-United States Free Trade Agreement Mauricio Salas; 3. China-Chile Free Trade Agreement Luz Sosa; 4. European Union-Mexico Economic Partnership, Political Co-ordination and Co-operation Agreement Bradly J. Condon; 5. European Free Trade Association-Southern African Customs Union Free trade Agreement Nkululeko Khumal and Peter Draper; 6. Japan-Mexico Economic Partnership Agreement Bryan Mercurio; 7. United States-Morocco Free Trade Agreement Jason Kearns; 8. Association of Southeast Asian Nations-China Free Trade Agreements Jiangyu Wang.