Las relaciones comerciales de América Latina: integraciones económicas regionales y análisis de la proliferación de acuerdos con los EE.UU. (Tema Central)

El objetivo del presente artículo es hacer una reflexión acerca de la nueva geografía comercial de América Latina, relativa a los acuerdos celebrados con los EE.UU. Frente a las incertidumbres en el ámbito regional y multilateral, hoy existe un cierto predominio de un tercer movimiento en las relaciones económicas internacionales, esto es, la proliferación de tratados bilaterales. Aunque estos tratados asuman diferentes contenidos y obligaciones, en general tienen compromisos más rígidos para los países en desarrollo en América Latina, que las obligaciones firmadas en foros de negociación subjetivamente más amplios (como es el caso de la OMC).

TLC: los buitres contraatacan (Tema Central)

Este artículo plantea que los TLC se inscriben dentro de una lógica de profundización de la globalización económica y del pensamiento neoliberal, en donde los mercados abiertos, el desmantelamiento del Estado y la reducción del gasto público, entre otras, son las condiciones necesarias para dicha profundización. De acuerdo con el autor los TLC son otra de las estrategias de Estados Unidos frente a la arremetida de los bloques económicos como la Unión Europea y a la lentitud de las negociaciones en la OMC, por lo tanto este tipo de acuerdos solo reedita la misma lógica neo liberal e implica un sometimiento a la geopolítica de Estados Unidos.

La OMC: traspasando las fronteras de la interestatalidad (Otros Temas)

El artículo, bajo la óptica de la gobernanza y la supranacionalidad, muestra el funcionamiento de la OMC y Sistema de Resolución de Disputas, presentándola como una Organización Internacional con capacidad "para convertirse en un ente omnipotente" no dependiente de ningún Estado en particular, para la cual debe emprender una amplia tarea para asegurarse que sus fallos y decisiones sean cumplidos por parte de sus miembros.

El papel de Brasil en la geografía del comercio internacional y la efectividad del Sistema Multilateral de Comercio (Tema Central)

La Organización Mundial del Comercio (OMC) ha fortalecido y mejorado el sistema multilateral de comercio, surgido en los años siguientes al final de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, con el fin de garantizar la libre competencia entre los países miembros, eliminar las barreras al comercio internacional y permitir cada vez más el acceso de las empresas y de los consumidores a los mercados extranjeros de bienes y servicios.

El TLC UE-Colombia-Perú y la integración regional latinoamericana: ¿hacia una norteamericanización de la estrategia interregional europea? (Coyuntura)

El artículo realiza un análisis comparativo de los contenidos de los tratados de libre comercio (TLC) que la Unión Europea (UE) y Estados Unidos (EUA) firmaron recientemente con Colombia. Este análisis, que tiene lugar desde la clasificación “OMC-extra” y “OMC-plus”, permite concluir que se ha producido una norteamericanización parcial de la estrategia interregional europea en América Latina porque muestra similitudes importantes en cuanto a las disposiciones negociadas en ambos tratados. Sin embargo, dicha norteamericanización se revela parcial porque el tema de la integración regional es abordada con precisión en el TLC europeo.

The 2002 US Farm Bill: what's in it for CAP reform?

The 2002 U.S. Farm Bill (the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act or FSRIA) provides considerably more government subsidies for U.S. agriculture than Congress envisaged when it passed the preceding 1996–2002 FAIR Act. We review the FAIR record, showing how government subsidies increased greatly beyond those originally scheduled. For FSRIA, we outline key commodity, trade, and conservation and environmental provisions. We expect that the commodity programmes will: (a) encourage production when the market calls for less; (b) significantly increase subsidies over FAIR baseline subsidies; (c) press against current WTO and possible Doha Round support limits; and (d) aggravate trading partners. Finally, we suggest two lessons from the U.S. policy experience that might benefit those working on CAP and WTO reform. First, past research shows that farm programmes have little to do with the economic health of rural communities. Second, programme transparency, and especially public disclosure of the level of payments going to individual farmers, by name, influences the farm policy debate. Personalized data show what economists have long maintained—that the bulk of programme benefits go to a relatively few, large, producers—but do so in a way that captures the public and policy-makers' attention

The CAP and EU enlargement: Prospects for an alternative strategy to avoid the lock-in of CAP support

The integration of the central and east European countries (CEECs) into the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) could become a major problem. At the Copenhagen European summit in December 2002, the EU agreed a transitional period with a gradual phasing in of direct payments. However, this strategy will not solve the problems of the CAP: budgetary limits remain problematic, the policy ignores possible developments in the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the extension of direct payments to the CEECs will further capitalize, and hence lock-in, agricultural support. The latter makes future reform even more difficult and, to overcome these problems, we suggest an alternative strategy to integrate the CEECs into the CAP. The EU should phase out direct payments by applying a bond scheme. Finally, we consider whether this option is politically viable.

The politics of CAP reform: Trade negotiations, institutional settings and blame avoidance

In this article we argue that the conclusion of the GATT Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture and the subsequent role of the WTO has changed the international context of CAP policy-making. However, comparing the three latest CAP reforms, we demonstrate that pressures on the CAP arising from international trade negotiations cannot alone account for the way in which the EU responds in terms of CAP reform. The institutional setting within which the reform package was determined also played a crucial role. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the CoAM seems to be a more conducive setting than the European Council for undertaking substantial reform of the CAP. We suggest that the choice of institutional setting is influenced by the desire of farm ministers and of heads of state or government to avoid blame for unpopular decisions. When CAP reform is an integral part of a broader package, farm ministers pass the final decision to the European Council and when CAP reform is defined as a separate issue the European Council avoids involvement.

Curbing agricultural exceptionalism: The EU's response to external challenge

From 1948 to 1994, the agricultural sector was afforded special treatment in the GATT. We analyse the extent to which this agricultural exceptionalism was curbed as a result of the GATT Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture, discuss why it was curbed and finally explore the implication of this for EU policy making. We argue that, in particular, two major changes in GATT institutions brought about restrictions on agricultural exceptionalism. First, the Uruguay Round was a 'single undertaking' in which progress on other dossiers was contingent upon an outcome on agriculture. The EU had keenly supported this new decision rule in the GATT. Within the EU this led to the MacSharry reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in 1992, paving the way for a trade agreement on agriculture within the GATT. Second, under the new quasi-judicial dispute settlement procedure, countries are expected to bring their policies into conformity with WTO rules or face retaliatory trade sanctions. This has brought about a greater willingness on the part of the EU to submit its farm policy to WTO disciplines.

Mixed Logit Model Performance and Distributional Assumptions: Preferences and GM foods

Using mixed logit models to analyse choice data is common but requires ex ante specification of the functional forms of preference distributions. We make the case for greater use of bounded functional forms and propose the use of the Marginal Likelihood, calculated using Bayesian techniques, as a single measure of model performance across non nested mixed logit specifications. Using this measure leads to very different rankings of model specifications compared to alternative rule of thumb measures. The approach is illustrated using data from a choice experiment regarding GM food types which provides insights regarding the recent WTO dispute between the EU and the US, Canada and Argentina and whether labelling and trade regimes should be based on the production process or product composition.