COVID-19 has created new trade restrictions and threatens to expand the old business departments. To what extent can trade agreements be a bulwark against protectionism? Modern trade agreements cover not only trade, but also a range of policy areas, such as international investment and labour flows, as well as the protection of intellectual property rights and the environment. The goal is integration beyond trade or deep integration. These agreements are important for economic development. Their rules affect how countries, and therefore the people and companies that live and work there, transact, invest, work and ultimately grow. Regional trade agreements are increasing in number and are changing in character. Fifty trade agreements were in force in 1990. In 2017, there were more than 280. In many trade agreements today, negotiations go beyond tariffs and cover several policy areas that affect trade and investment in goods and services, including cross-border rules such as competition policy, public procurement rules and intellectual property rights. RTAs covering tariffs and other border measures are “superficial” agreements; RTAs covering a wider range of policy areas, both inside and outside the border, are “deep” agreements. Caroline Freund is Global Director of Trade, Investment and Competitiveness.

Previously, she was a Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. She also worked as Chief Economist for the Middle East and North Africa at the World Bank, having worked in the International Trade Department of the research department for nearly a decade. Freund began his career in the International Finance Division of the Federal Reserve Board and spent a year visiting the IMF`s research department. She has published numerous articles in academic journals and is the author of Rich People Poor Countries: The Rise of Emerging Market Tycoons and their Mega Firms. She is American and holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Columbia University. 15. Trade agreements with environmental provisions mitigate deforestationRyan Abman, Clark Lundberg and Michele Ruta This database contains detailed information on the content of a subsample of eighteen policy areas most commonly covered by a number of 283 agreements currently notified to the WTO between 1958 and 2017. For each agreement, the database covers the stated objectives and substantive obligations, as well as aspects related to transparency, procedures and enforcement. This database represents the most comprehensive effort in terms of coverage of policy areas and the granularity of information in each area.

This database is the result of cooperation with scientific experts and other international organizations such as ITC, OECD, UNCTAD and WTO. Introduction: The Economics of Deep Trade AgreementsAna Margarida Fernandes, Nadia Rocha and Michele Ruta 10th Framework of Services Trade Agreements: What Really MattersIngo Borchert and Mattia Di Ubaldo Deep Trade Agreements are important for economic development. The rules embedded in DTAs, as well as multilateral trade rules and other elements of international economic law such as bilateral investment treaties, influence how countries (and thus the people and companies who live and operate there) act, invest, work and, ultimately, develop. Trade and investment regimes determine the level of economic integration, competition rules influence economic efficiency, intellectual property rights are important for innovation, and environmental and labour regulations contribute to environmental and social outcomes. This database provides the tools to analyse these new dimensions of integration in order to better identify the content and consequences of DTAs. Deep trade agreements are reciprocal agreements between countries that cover not only trade, but also other policy areas such as international investment and labour flows, as well as the protection of intellectual property rights and the environment. Although these agreements are still called trade agreements, their goal is integration beyond trade or deep integration. While multilateral trade negotiations have stagnated and tensions between major players have risen, bilateral and regional agreements appear to have run away with the trade agenda.

Today, there are more than 300 agreements, compared to 50 in 1990. More importantly, many of these agreements have expanded their scope far beyond tariffs and aim to achieve integration beyond trade or “deep” integration. A new e-book from the World Bank and CEPR focuses on the determinants of deep trade agreements, their impact on trade and non-trade outcomes, and how they could shape trade relations in a post-COVID-19 world. 8. Trade Facilitation Provisions in Deep Trade Agreements: Impact on Peruvian ExportersWoori Lee, Nadia Rocha and Michele Ruta This event will present the Deep Trade Agreements Manual and the underlying database – the result of cooperation between the World Bank and experts from academia, the International Trade Centre (ITC), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). The manual provides new data and analysis to “deepen” trade agreements. A panel of three leading experts will discuss the role that trade agreements will play in a post-COVID-19 world and how they can shape future business models and global value chains. Nadia Rocha is a Senior Economist in the Global Macroeconomics, Trade and Investment Practice at the World Bank. Prior to joining the bank in 2016, Nadia worked for five years in the Department of Economic Research and Statistics at the World Trade Organization. She was seconded to the Colombian Ministry of Commerce in 2015 as Senior Trade Advisor. Nadia holds a PhD in International Economics from the Graduate Institute of Geneva, a Master`s degree in Economics from the Pompeu Fabra University of Barcelona and a Bachelor`s degree in Economics from the Bocconi University of Milan. His current work focuses on regionalism, trade costs, global value chains, and trade and gender.

This project provides data and analysis on the content of in-depth trade agreements. Robert W. Staiger is the Roth Family Distinguished Professor of Arts and Science and Professor of Economics at Dartmouth College. Professor Staiger received his A.B. from Williams College in 1980 and his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1985. From 1985 to 1991, he was an assistant professor of economics at Stanford University and was promoted to full associate professor at Stanford in 1991. In 1993, Staiger moved to the University of Wisconsin School of Economics, where he remained until his return to Stanford in 2006 to become Holbrook Professor of Commodity Price Studies in the Department of Economics. In 2011, he returned to the Wisconsin Department of Economics as the Stockwell Professor of Economics, and during the 2013-2014 academic year, he attended Dartmouth as a Roth Family Distinguished Visiting Scholar and joined the Dartmouth Department of Economics in the fall of 2014. Professor Staiger`s research focuses on international trade policy, rules and institutions, with a particular focus on the economics of GATT/WTO.

Professor Staiger`s research has been published in various academic journals and in a book, The Economics of the World Trading System, co-authored with Kyle Bagwell and published by The MIT Press (2002). With Kyle Bagwell, he was also the editor of The Handbook of Commercial Policy, published by Elsevier in December 2016. Richard Baldwin has been Professor of International Economics at the Graduate Institute of Geneva since 1991 and Editor-in-Chief of Vox since its creation in June 2007. He was President/Director of the CEPR (2014-2018) and Visiting Professor at Oxford (2012-2015) and MIT (2003). In terms of government service, he served as a senior economist for the Bush administration`s Presidential Council of Economic Advisers (1990-1991) and on leave from Columbia University Business School, where he was an associate professor. He received his Ph.D. in economics from MIT under the supervision of Paul Krugman, with whom he wrote several articles. .