Open Plurilateral Agreements, Global Spillovers and the Multilateral Trading System. Bertelsmann Stiftung Working Paper 03/2020.

Hoekman, Bernard and Sabel, Charles (2020) Open Plurilateral Agreements, Global Spillovers and the Multilateral Trading System. Bertelsmann Stiftung Working Paper 03/2020. [Working Paper]

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Abstract

Problems involving regulatory design and cooperation to respond to climate change, the rise of the digital econ- omy and managing industrial policy conflicts call for cooperation to identify good practice and balancing the achievement of noneconomic objectives against competitive spillovers. Contrary to arguments that small group cooperation is second best in a world where consensus is not obtainable, open plurilateral agreements (OPAs) can be a first-best response to international collective action problems as it does not require all WTO members to participate or for the package deals that characterize trade negotiations. Sustaining an open, rules-based multilat- eral trading system calls for greater use of OPAs. The prospects for this would be enhanced if the trade policy community would build bridges to other organizations and epistemic communities and agree to a code of conduct for OPAs to ensure they support the open multilateral trade regime.

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