Energy and CO2 emission relationships in the NAFTA trading bloc: a multi-regional multi-factor energy input–output approach

The North-America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has brought together the economies of Canada, Mexico, and the US into forming one of the largest trading blocs worldwide (within the top CO₂ emitters). However, the current global protectionist discourse threatens the agreement. This paper analyzes the energy and energy-related CO₂ emission relationships between NAFTA countries in 2014 to gain insights into the climate change implications of current integration and the possible cancelation of the agreement. The analysis is performed with a multi-regional version of the multi-factor energy input–output model. The results show that NAFTA has not built a single integrated energy system, though it has helped reduce energy-related CO₂ emissions. Moreover, if NAFTA is not revoked, further integration would depend on the capacity of the Mexican energy sector to converge to the performance of its trade partners’ energy sectors. Conversely, a broken deal would induce negative environmental externalities.     

Public Open Access and Private Timber Harvests: Theory and Application to the Effects of Trade Liberalization in Mexico

A common popular assertion is that trade liberalization encourages deforestation. But whether this is true depends on how trade policies affect the allocation of land among competing uses and how they influence illegal cutting of public forests. A model is presented that allows for forests to be either public or private, and public forests are divided into protected (or managed) and threatened categories. Effects of price changes are shown on each part of the forest. An empirical version of the model is applied to the case of Mexico with NAFTA. Most scenarios considered show that NAFTA will have positive long-run effects on forest cover in Mexico but that this is net of losses on private lands.     

The Scope and Limits of a Public–Private Hybrid: Dispute Settlement under NAFTA Chapter 19

Globalisation is often depicted as having led to an increase in private authority at the expense of that of the state. It is important to correctly specify the scope that private authority has achieved and the capacity of states to push back and limit that authority. This article grounds these theoretical issues in a discussion of the hybrid, public–private dispute settlement mechanism set up in the original Canada–US Free Trade Agreement (CUSTFA), and later extended into Chapter 19 of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). It finds that privatising the enforcement process did make a difference. Trade experts on panels saw things differently to judges and in ways that were more sympathetic to exporters. This favoured Canadian and Mexican interests. However, the arrangement lacked deep roots. It was a late-stage compromise in trade negotiations. This rendered it vulnerable to a US counterattack once panels began to rule in favour of Canadian and Mexican challenges to US trade determinations. The transfer of quasi-judicial authority to a public–private hybrid proved contingent, partly on the hegemonic state's ongoing level of comfort with the arrangement, as well as on a lack of business consensus within the United States.     

从NAFTA和MAI的视角看投资协定中的环境规则

进入20世纪90年代以来，人们日益把投资和环境问题联系起来。这里首先阐述了投资和环境问题的内在联系，继而对北美自由贸易协定和多边投资协定中的环境规则进行分析，最后为未来的投资协定的环境规则提出了若干建议。     

评NAFTA案例之UPS v.Canada及其对我国的启示

美国联邦包裹速递公司诉加拿大案(UPS·v.Canada),是NAFTA投资人诉投资东道国争端解决机制历史上的第一个关于公共服务的投资争端案件.该案件无论是在程序问题上还是在实体问题上都有值得高度重视的地方,它将对NAFTA三个成员国内的所有公共服务领域产生重大的影响.     

中国参与区域贸易协定对江苏经贸的影响

中国目前正在规划与建设中的自由贸易区究竟会给江苏经贸带来何种影响?笔者从世界其它成功的自由贸易区入手,阐述了其成功经验,结合江苏经济发展的特色与优势所在,放宽经济发展的视野,为江苏经贸应对区域贸易协定提供借鉴和建议。     

Corporate Strategy and NAFTA When Environmental Regulations Are Barriers to Trade

SUMMARY

Under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), domestic environmental regulations can have the ultimate impact of erecting entry barriers against foreign companies. These actions by domestic firms are part of a corporate “shelter”-seeking strategy. Five recent cases are analyzed out of twenty-four environmental disputes relevant to NAFTA.     

Economic integration,economic crises and economic cycles in Mexico

This article analyzes the peculiarity of the dynamics of economic fluctuations of the Mexican economy, within the framework of its integration with the US and Canada; the article demonstrates how the Mexican economy make endogenous the macroeconomic crises from the USA (2001 and 2007), and how the business cycles of both countries became more aligned to each other.Based on the heterodox economic theory of crises and cycles, we check the “empirical law of economic dynamics” of the Mexican capitalist system according to the logic of the multiplier–accelerator theory that allowed us to study the dynamics of business cycles for the period of the study (1993–2013). To do this, we construct and estimate a stationary VAR model and utilize the Granger causality tests and quarterly data.     

How did investor‐state dispute settlement get a bad rap? Blame it on NAFTA,of course

In the short history of the US bilateral investment treaty (BIT) programme, there have been no instances of dispute settlement cases initiated against the United States by firms from BIT countries. The NAFTA experience changed that. Where other studies have only hinted at the reasons for NAFTA controversies, this paper makes clear three causal factors: (i) changing patterns and intensity of FDI, (ii) the application of those rules to developed countries amid those changing FDI patterns and (iii) ambiguities in ISDS rules themselves. The paper explores these and traces the ways in which lessons of the NAFTA have been instrumental in changing the pursuit of investment protection agreements. BITs used to be uncontroversial, but the NAFTA focused attention on reforms to ISDS that maintain the utility of BITs in the governance of FDI, without creating a legal structure for simply challenging the state.     

Trade liberalization in services: Investor responses to NAFTA’s cross-border trucking provisions

ABSTRACT

We investigate the response of US trucking firms to the removal of barriers to cross-border trucking under NAFTA. This was done via a program implemented in 2007, cancelled in 2009, and reinstated in 2011. We use a model of endogenous exporting to show that this can arise from incorrect expectations of import competition. We find that, unsurprisingly, the program’s start resulted in lower stock returns, particularly for border firms. However, later policy changes indicate that investors, and particularly those investing in US multinationals, viewed the pilot as beneficial.