Dan Ciuriak, Hanne Melin and Derk Bienen contribute an analysis of the design principles for the mega regional trade negotiations to facilitate SME utilisation of these agreements. Published in the Brazilian edition of the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development’s journal, Pontes.
An English version of the paper is available on SSRN.
In the April issue of the Global Trade and Customs Journal, Derk Bienen discusses the potential role that an Administrative Protective Order (APO) system could have in EU Trade Defence proceedings: The Quest for Finding the Balance between Transparency and Confidentiality in EU Trade Defence Cases.
While rules of origin (ROOs) constitute an essential element of preferential trade agreements (PTAs), recent analysis of the utilization of preferences shows that even with liberal ROOs, utilization of preferences is often low, especially by smaller exporters. To overcome the negative implications of ROOs, we propose a way to increase the welfare benefits from PTAs while also providing a stronger impetus to the integration of SMEs into regional trade than would be possible under even the most favourable ROOs regime currently in use: the presumption of origin. It involves a presumption of compliance with ROOs for smaller commercial-scale shipments accompanied by a simple good faith attestation of origin, with use of anti-circumvention measures modelled on similar provisions in anti-dumping and countervailing duty law to address complaints and/or to investigate suspicious import surges.