Transatlantic Economic Disputes

Abstract

Recent transatlantic relations have been plagued by a seemingly endless series of disputes over trade and other economic and political interests. Some of these disputes have been amongst the most prominent of the WTO era: the Bananas Case, the Beef Hormones Case, and over the application of the Helms–Burton Act. This book analyzes the source of transatlantic disputes, the means employed to prevent and settle such disputes both bilaterally and through the dispute settlement mechanism of the WTO, and to identify promising areas for reform. This book begins with a survey of transatlantic governance and dispute-settlement problems. Part II analyzes 14 case studies of transatlantic economic and regulatory disputes written by leading EU and US experts. The analytical papers in Part III examine the disputes in the broader context of legal, economic, and political theories of dispute prevention and dispute settlement. Part IV offers policy recommendations from EU and US policy makers and academics. Most of the more than 20 contributors conclude that joint EU–US leadership in multilateral institutions (e.g., for trade liberalization, dispute prevention, and dispute settlement in the WTO) offers advantages over bilateral approaches. By contrast, a potential transatlantic free-trade association (TAFTA) remains the second-best approach, which might not prevent many of the transatlantic disputes over internal trade-related domestic policies. Transatlantic initiatives e.g., for regulatory cooperation and citizen-oriented institutional reforms can, however, serve as precedents for multilateral reforms (e.g., of WTO rules).

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