Abstract
Proposals for transatlantic integration of any kind arouse strong interest because of the economic power of the potential partner countries. The following article attempts to assess the impact of a “free trade and investment area” and examines the costs and benefits involved.
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Robert Z. Lawrence: Regionalism, multilateralism, and deeper integration, Washington, DC, 1996, p. 3.
This is attributable mainly to a steady rise in the import ratio, which in the mid-eighties surpassed that of the EU for the first time (European Economy, No. 3, 1997 (The European Union as a World Trade Partner), pp. 25 ff.
Horst Siebert, Rolf J. Langhammer, Daniel Piazolo: TAFTA: Fuelling trade discrimination or global liberalisation? in: Journal of World Trade, Vol. 30, No. 3, June, p. 18.
Based on US Department of Commerce: Survey of Current Business, september 1997, pp. 88 and 128.
Dunning demonstrates this using the delta coefficients for 1990, relating the bilateral trade and investment shares to world shares (John H. Dunning: The European internal market programme and inbound foreign direct investment (Part 1), in: Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol 35, No 1, March, pp. 22 ff.
See James R. Markusen, Anthony J. Venables: The increased importance of direct investment in North Atlantic economic relationships: a convergence hypothesis, in: Matthew. B. Canzoneri, Wilfred. J. Ethier, Vittorio Grilli (eds.): The new transatlantic economy, Cambridge 1996.
Based on US Department of Commerce:, Benchmark Survey (US Direct Investment Abroad) 1982 and 1994.
Based on IMF: Direction of Trade Statistics, Yearbook 1989 and 1997.
Dunning shows that “the most impressing trading performance was recorded by the EC affiliates of US MNEs” und concludes that “the fact that between 1957 and 1982 the share of exports to non-US countries (mainly European) of their total sales rose threefold, and over two-thirds of this trade was intra-firm, points strongly to the complementary interplay between extra-EC FDI and intra-EC trade” (John H. Dunning, op. cit., The European internal market programme and inbound foreign direct investment (Part 1), in: Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol. 35, No. 1, March, p. 4).
See Pierre Buigues, Fabienne Ilzkovitz, Jean-Francois Lebrun: The impact of the internal market by industrial sector: the challenge of member states, in: European Economy (special edition) 1990.
John H. Dunning: The European internal market programme and inbound foreign direct investment (Part 2), in: Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol. 35, No. 2, June, p. 201.
Jeffrey J. Schott: Reflections on TAFTA, in: Bruce Stokes (ed.): Open for Business: Creating a Transatlantic Marketplace, Council on Foreign Relations, New York 1996.
Richard E. Baldwin, Joseph F. Francois: Is it time for a TRAMP?, in: Otto G. Mayer Hans-Eckart Scharrer (eds.): Transatlantic relations in a global economy (forthcoming).
Barry Eichengreen: Transatlantic economic relations at the end of the twentieth century, in: Amerikastudien—American Studies, Vol. 42, No. 1, p. 55.
Gary P. Sampson: Compatibility of regional and multilateral trading agreements: Reforming the WTO process in: American Economic Review, Vol. 86, No. 2, May 1996, p. 90.
Paul Wonnacott: Merchandise trade in the APEC region: Is there scope for liberalisation on an MFN basis? in: The World Economy (Special issue on global trade policy 1995, edited by Sven Arndt and Chris Milner) 1995, p. 50.
See, for example, Juergen B. Donges, Andreas Freytag, Ralf Zimmermann: TAFTA: Assuring its compatibility with global free trade, in: The World Economy (Special issue on global trade policy 1997, edited by Sven Arndt and Chris Milner), Vol. 20, No. 5, August 1997, pp. 574 f.
Lawrence distinguishes between “deeper integration” (“integration that moves beyond the removal of border barriers”) and “shallow integration”, in other words pure trade liberalisation (Robert Z. Lawrence, op. cit., Regionalism, multilateralism, and deeper integration, Washington, DC, 1996, p. 8).
Policy Forum: Transatlantic Free Trade, in: The Washington Quarterly, Vol. 19, No. 2, p. 130. As a first step in harmonisation, the Transatlantic Business Dialogue recommends the development of uniform motor vehicle standards: (Susan Philip Poteate: Transatlantic Business Dialogue convenes Third Annual Conference in Rome, in: Business America, December 1997, p. 20.
For details, see Richard E. Baldwin, Anthony A. Venables: Regional economic integration, in: Kenneth Rogoff, Gene M. Grossman (eds.): Handbook of International Economics, Vol. 3, Amsterdam 1995.
See Joel Davidow: Recent developments in the extraterritorial application of U.S. antitrust law, in: World Competition, Vol. 20, No. 3, March 1997, p. 12.
See European Commission: XXVI. Report on Competition Policy, Brussels and Luxembourg 1997, p. 107.
The European Commission, for instance, does not have the freedom to waive or delay the application of the EU merger control regulation. See European Economy, No. 3, 1997 (The European Union as a World Trade Partner), p. 196.
See Sebastian Graf von Wallwitz: Das Kooperationsabkommen zwischen der EU und den USA, in: Europäische Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftsrecht, No. 17, 1997, p. 529.
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The author would like to thank Michael Finger (WTO), Ray Matalony and Obie Whichard (US Department of Commerce) for the kind provision of trade and investment data.
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Koopmann, G. North Atlantic trade and investment links: For internal and external openness. Intereconomics 33, 118–125 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02926819
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02926819