International Trade Agreements

Last Updated : 15th December 2016

The world is witnessing a new era of international trade agreements with partnerships like Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) are forging across continents. These agreements hold potential to enhance the trade among the member countries multifold and in addition helps in building more people to people contact.

However, on the flip side, these agreements pose serious threat to non-member countries as after signing these agreements, non-member countries will become virtually excluded from the global trade. Exclusion of civil society groups while arriving at a consensus on these agreements has also stocked a anti globalization movement in various parts of the world.

Let's attempt few questions from this topic.

Question 1

Recently, the discussions on Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) have been stalled because of fierce opposition in the Europe. The TTIP is a proposed agreement between European Union and which of the following countries or groups?

a) Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).
b) The United States of America
c) India
d) Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS)

Question 2

The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the European Union and Canada was recently in news. Which of the following statements is/are correct with respect to CETA?

a) The agreements aims to boost the trade between the two through the removal of around 98% of tariffs on all goods.
b) The agreements forges cooperation in areas ranging from regulations, to financial services and telecoms.
c) To come into force , the agreement requires ratification by all the member states of the EU.
d) The agreement has been universally ratified by all the 28 member states of the EU.

Question 3

Which of the following are/were the principle objections to the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA)?

a) Lack of democratic legitimacy.
b) A separate Investor-state dispute settlement courts.
c) Persistent fear of impact of globalization on domestic industries and communities.
d) All of the above.

Question 4

Which of the following is/are the reasons for the stalled negotiations on the India-European Union Free Trade Agreement (FTA), which commenced in 2007?

a) Lack of consensus on Mode 4 access for service professionals on the EU side.
b) Lack of consensus on FDI liberalization on the Indian side.
c) Both a and b
d) Neither a nor b

Question 5

Which of the following statements is incorrect with respect to Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) ?

a) TPP has United States but not China Whereas RCEP has both United States and China as its members.
b) TPP is a regional trade agreement among 12 Pacific Rim countries Whereas RCEP is a regional trade agreement among members of ASEAN and its 6 FTA members.
c) 7 Asia Pacific rim countries are common to TPP and RCEP.
d) TPP is more stringent than RCEP in terms of conditionalities.

Answers

1) b
2) d, Regional legislature of Wallonia, the francophone Belgian region has objected to the agreement.
3) d. In early negotiation phase, the CETA was criticized for being prepared and negotiated in secret, excluding key stakeholders such as labour unions, consumer associations and other civil society groups. This rendered it a zero democratic legitimacy.
4) c
5) a , TPP has United States but not China Whereas RCEP has China but not United States as its member.