Acta Oeconomica Pragensia, 2008 (vol. 16), issue 2

Globalization, Multilateralism, Regionalism: from Dilemma to Multi-dimensionality

Pavel Hnát

Acta Oeconomica Pragensia 2008, 16(2):6-22 | DOI: 10.18267/j.aop.53  

Globalization, multilateralism and regionalism are the most significant tendencies of today's world economy. Their mutual relation has bee so far studied mainly as a dilemma between globally free trade and world economy's fragmentation through competing trade blocks. With the upsurge of globalization and sharp global competition in globalization latest wave, multilateralism and regionalism has, however, changed markedly. Subsequently, their mutual relations have changed as well. Based upon the study of New Regionalism, which leads towards more complex and open trade agreements, it seems that multilateralism and regionalism can be understood as compatible...

Could Regional Trade Integration be a Building Block for Global Governance of Trade?

Ludmila Štěrbová

Acta Oeconomica Pragensia 2008, 16(2):23-36 | DOI: 10.18267/j.aop.54  

Some theories consider the possibility to multilateralize regional approaches and to establish global system of rules based on regionalism. These tendencies are also tailored on international trade. Nevertheless, the fundamental problem of the multilateral trading system in the framework of the World Trade Organization is the extent of policy space, which states' governments do not want to give in favor of global trade governance. Although the multilateral trading system and further multilateral trade liberalization face many challenges, regionalism is not an alternative that could help government to pursue their trade interests. On the contrary, bilateral...

Multilateral Governance of the Sustainable Development and the Contribution of the EU

Eva Cihelková, Jakub Krč

Acta Oeconomica Pragensia 2008, 16(2):37-47 | DOI: 10.18267/j.aop.55  

The adoption of the Sustainable Development Strategy in 2001 represented a new attempt to address the challenges that the EU was facing. The deterioration of the environment, the climate change as well as structural changes of world economy represent the new framework that ought to be carried on by the multilateral environmental governance structures. One of the important parts of that system is the WTO and its Doha Development Agenda. This paper outlines the consequences of the Sustainable Development Policy for the multilateral governace. It is based on the characteristic of the EU's sustainable development policy and the contribution of the WTO...

WTO and the Social Clause, or else: the Multilateral Approaches to the International Labor Standards

Jakub Krč, Eva Cihelková, Josef Bič

Acta Oeconomica Pragensia 2008, 16(2):48-57 | DOI: 10.18267/j.aop.56  

One of the very important features of the dispute settlement mechanism under the WTO is the principle of the cross retaliation. The dispute settlement mechanism is going to be used for any of the areas within the agenda of WTO. Therefore, there is a crucial question of the issues included in the scope of subjects administrated under the World Trade Organization. Several development countries tried to pressure the member states, basically the developing countries to link labor standards with trade and include them under the jurisdiction competences of the WTO. The main aim of this paper is to outline the development of the linkage of the labor standards...

The Interplay between Multilateral Regimes as the Relationship between Trade and Environmental Rules

Jakub Krč

Acta Oeconomica Pragensia 2008, 16(2):58-69 | DOI: 10.18267/j.aop.57  

The existence of world trade regime under the WTO and the environmental regime under the UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol can create several conflicts. The various norms of both regimes can confirm or contradict each other. In the case of a conflict, the Dispute Settlement Mechanism of the WTO is probably to be applied. The regime interplay theory offers suitable tools for analyses of potential areas of conflict and can lead to an adoption of an appropriate regime management that would enhance the regime synergies. This paper tries to outline the differences of the trade rules and climate change regime norms in regard to the overlaps of their norms. It is...

Fragmentation versus Unity of the World Economy

Pavel Neumann

Acta Oeconomica Pragensia 2008, 16(2):70-89 | DOI: 10.18267/j.aop.58  

The article deals with fragmentation and unity prospects of the world economy with respect to the role of its main centres (Europe/EU, East Asia, America). From the view point of the process of the running multilateral liberalisation the world economy was formed as relatively unified at first after World War II. However, regionalisation intensified in 1990s and since then stronger fragmentation has become a natural element of the world economy globalization as "new regionalism". Theoretically, the fragmentation process can be explained by Viner's customs union theory as well as later by the regionalism domino theory developed by many authors. Concerning...

Changing Regionalism in South-East Asia: some theoretical and practical aspects

Zuzana Stuchlíková

Acta Oeconomica Pragensia 2008, 16(2):90-108 | DOI: 10.18267/j.aop.59  

There are many sophisticated discussions about the possible effects of the regional economic cooperation. Their results have been ambiguous. However, it is evident that regional trade agreements (RTAs) have been increasingly transforming international trade, especially since the second half of the 1990s. The region of South-East Asia has become more interested in such cooperation only after the Asian financial crisis in 1997. Especially the case of Japan proves how the Asian governments have changed their approach to the international economic cooperation. They shifted the emphasis from the multilateral negotiations under the umbrella of the WTO to...