__smbhome.uscs.susx.ac.uk_tb263_Desktop_UK-EU FTA WTO rules 19 Feb clean.pdf (288.24 kB)
Download fileDeep and not comprehensive? What the WTO rules permit for a UK-EU FTA
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 13:23 authored by Emily LydgateEmily Lydgate, L. Alan WintersL. Alan WintersWTO rules prohibit Free Trade Areas (FTAs) that provide tariff-free access or services liberalization in only one or a few sectors. In this sense, a narrow, sectoral approach to concluding an FTA between the EU and the UK would contravene WTO law. However, assuming the EU and the UK were able to agree a substantially broad tariff-free FTA, WTO rules would not prevent them from moving further to maintain the bulk of the benefits of the Customs Union and the Single Market in a few key sectors. They could establish customs union-like conditions by coordinating external tariffs in some sectors and agreeing on relaxed Rules of Origin (RoOs) administered lightly and Single Market-like access could be approximated through sectoral Mutual Recognition Agreements. Such an approach would enable continued deep integration, whose desirability has been signalled on both sides. It would fall short of current market access levels even in the selected sectors, and, in the case of tariff coordination, re-create some of the limits to an independent trade policy that Brexit aimed to remove. If the trade-off were deemed desirable, however, the approach could be reconciled with WTO rules including the ‘Most Favoured Nation’ requirement that equal treatment be awarded to all WTO Member States.
History
Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Accepted version
Journal
World Trade ReviewISSN
1474-7456Publisher
Cambridge University PressExternal DOI
Issue
3Volume
18Page range
451-479Department affiliated with
- Law Publications
Research groups affiliated with
- Sussex Sustainability Research Programme Publications
- Sussex European Institute Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes