The Origin of Goods: Rules of Origin in Regional Trade Agreements (Centre for Economic Policy Research)

This book looks at rules of origin in preferential trading agreements and their growing importance in trade negotiations. The book's message is that rules of origin can act as powerful barriers to trade and have been deliberately used as such. Contents......Page 8 List of Figures......Page 10 List of Tables......Page 11 List of Contributors......Page 13 Introduction......Page 16 Part I. Rules of Origin: Theoretical perspectives......Page 32 1 Understanding Rules of Origin......Page 34 2 The impact of Rules of Origin on strategic outsourcing: an IO perspective......Page 50 Part II. Rules of Origin in Regional Trade Agreements around the world......Page 82 3 Mapping and measuring Rules of Origin around the world......Page 84 4 Rules of Origin for services: economic and legal considerations......Page 129 Part III. The political economy of Rules of Origin......Page 162 5 Rules of Origin as export subsidies......Page 164 6 Rules of Origin and US trade policy......Page 188 Part IV. Measuring the impact of Rules of Origin......Page 204 7 Are different Rules of Origin equally costly? Estimates from NAFTA......Page 206 8 Implementing PTAs in the Southern Cone region of Latin America: Rules of Origin......Page 228 9 Preferential trade arrangements production, and trade with differentiated intermediates......Page 252 Part V. Rules of Origin and development......Page 272 10 Rules of Origin as tools of development? Some lessons from SADC......Page 274 11 Trade preferences for Africa and the impact of Rules of Origin......Page 310 A......Page 330 C......Page 331 E......Page 334 F......Page 335 H......Page 336 I......Page 337 L......Page 338 M......Page 339 N......Page 340 P......Page 341 Q......Page 342 S......Page 343 T......Page 345 V......Page 346 Z......Page 347 The dark side of preferential trade agreements, Rules of Origin (RoO) are used to determine the eligibility of goods to preferential treatment. Ostensibly meant to prevent the trans-shipment of imported products across Free Trade Agreement borders after superficial screwdriver assembly, they act in reality as complex and opaque trade barriers. This book provides evidence strongly suggesting that they do so by intent rather than accidentally---in other words, that RoOs are policy. Part one draws insights about the effects of RoOs on cross-border trade and outsourcing from recent economic theory. Part two reviews the evidence on RoOs in preferential agreements around the world, putting together the most comprehensive dataset on RoOs to date. Part three explores their'political economy'---how special interests have shaped them and continue to do so. Part four provides econometric evidence on their costs for exporters and consequent effects on trade flows. Finally, part five explores how they affect trade in the developing world where they spread rapidly and have the potential to do most harm. Beyond the collection of new evidence and its interpretation in light of recent theory, the book's overall message for the policy community is that RoOs are a potentially powerful and new barrier to trade. Rather than being relegated to closed-door technical meetings, their design should hold center-stage in trade negotiations. The contributors to this work look at the rules of origin in preferential trading agreements and their growing importance in trade negotiations. The book's message is that rules of origin can act as powerful barriers to trade and have been used deliberately as such