Emerging Powers and the World Trading System: The Past and Future of International Economic Law

345 Pages·2021·3.954 MB·English

by  Gregory Shaffer

“GregoryShafferhaswrittenasuperbanalysisofthecrisisinthelegalordergoverning
worldtrade Thecoreofthebookconsistsofco-authoredstudiesoftheengagementwith
the trading system of China, most significantly, but also of Brazil and India But the
decisiveactornowturnsouttobetheUS,whichhasincreasinglylostfaithinthesystemit
created Inthefuture,suggestsShaffer,internationalrulesmustgrantcountriesgreater
roomtoact and alsotoreact totheactionsofothers Yetan agreedinterface between
systemsisalsovitaliftheworldistoenjoyameasureofstabilityandpeace.”
MartinWolf,FinancialTimes
“Fordecades,internationaltradehasbeenattheheartofglobalization.AndasShaffer
brilliantlyilluminatesinthisbook,trade—andthewaycountrieslikeChina,Indiaand
Brazilhaveusedthelawsandregulationsthatgovernittopromotetheirowninterests
—hasverymuchshapedtheworldweliveintoday.Butglobalizationisnowchanging
trajectory,andthewaytradelawsandregulationsevolvefromherewillshapetomor-
row’sworld.WhichmakesEmergingPowersandtheWorldTradingSystemessential
readingforpolicymakersandacademicsalike.Abookwrittenexactlyforourcurrent
moment.”
IanBremmer,PresidentofEurasiaGroup,founderofGZEROMedia
“Amonumentalachievement!NotonlydoesShafferprovideacomprehensiveelucida-
tionofhowwegottowhereweareontradelaw,buthealsolaysoutabroaderframework
andmethodologyforunderstandinghowtheinternationalsystemchangesovertime.A
superbexampleofworkthatisboththeory-generatingandempiricallygrounded,with
implicationsformultipledisciplines.”
TomGinsburg,LeoSpitzProfessorofInternationalLawandProfessorof
PoliticalScience,UniversityofChicago
“GregoryShafferhasresearchedtheglobaldiffusionofinternationaltraderulesforover
twodecades.ThisuniquebooksynthesizesdevelopmentsacrossChina,Brazil,andIndia
-aswellastheUnitedStates–puttingthiscriticalmomentforthemultilateraltrading
systemintofascinatinghistoricalcontext.”
ChadP.Bown,ReginaldJonesSeniorFellow,PetersonInstitute
forInternationalEconomics
“Shaffer broadens our gaze, deepens our knowledge, and connects the micro to the
macroinexplaininghowtheinternationaltraderegimeworks.Indoingso,henotonly
furnishesuswithcriticalknowledgeofBrazil,India,andChina,andtheirrelationtothe
trade law system; he also provides a masterclass in how to undertake transnational
research.”
AntheaRoberts,ProfessorattheSchoolofRegulationand
GlobalGovernance,AustraliaNationalUniversity
“ProfessorShaffer’sworkeloquentlyilluminatesacomplexbutvitalsubject–thelaw’spower
toshapeamoreinclusivemodeloftransnationaltrade.Byexamininghowandbywhomthe
ruleshavebeenwrittenandrewritten,hedetailsthewaysinwhichemergingeconomieslike
Brazil, China, and India can spur the creation of capabilities needed to help reform and
rebuildthemultilateraltradingsystem,sothatthebenefitsoftradeaccruetoall.Thisisan
importantcontributiontoourunderstandingofrecentgeopoliticalhistoryandtheforcesthat
willcontinuetodefineourfuture”
RobertoAzeveˆdo,Director-GeneraloftheWorldTradeOrganization(2013 2020);
AmbassadorofBraziltotheWTO(2008–2013)
“Greg Shaffer’s dogged and exhaustive research provides an unparalleled and realistic
insider’s guide to how the WTO dispute settlement system has operated behind the
headlinesinthefirst25yearsofitsexistence ProfessorShafferhasproperlyputhisfocus
onthethreeemerginggiantsintheworldeconomy–China,India,andBrazil–andtheir
ability to make strategic use of the dispute settlement system to advance their trading
interests His analysis will be invaluable for WTO Members and the broader trade
community to make the necessary mid-course corrections to the WTO dispute settle-
mentsystemthatmustcontinuetoprovideaninvaluableresourceforcountriestosettle
theirtrade-relateddifferencesinthedecadesahead.”
ScottAndersen,formerManagingPartneroftheGenevaoffice
ofSidley&Austin,andformermemberoftheU.S.MissiontotheWTO
“International economic law can only be understood from a holistic view of law,
economics, and politics.Here we finally havea study thatoffers sophisticated analysis
oflegalconstraintsandtheireconomicimpactwhileattendingtopoliticalcontextwithin
countries and the power politics between them. In a masterful study, Shaffer explores
how Brazil, China, and India interact with the World Trade Organization. The book
compellingly portrays how emerging powers were changed by engagement in the
internationaltradesystemand,inturn,forcedresponsesandadaptationtothoserules,
includinginthestatesthatoriginallydrovetheirformation.Fromrichdetailsbasedon
local knowledge to larger questions about the survival of the trade regime, this book
shouldberequiredreadingforscholars,tradeofficialsandpractitioners.”
ChristinaL.Davis,ProfessorofGovernment,HarvardUniversity,andSusanS.and
KennethL.WallachProfessor,RadcliffeInstitute
“This brilliant and artfully narrated comparative assessment from the inside, of the
strategiesbywhichthreeascendantmemberstateswithintheWTOhavegainedpower
through legal capacity has been achieved by a sustained, collaborative practice of the
fieldwork method which ethnographers of elite cultures in the changing international
systemwouldbeproudof,mightbeenviousof,butmostimportantly,canlearnfrom.”
GeorgeE.Marcus,DistinguishedProfessor,UniversityofCalifornia,Irvine,
memberofFrench-fundedcollaborativeanthropologicalteamstudyofthe
WTO,2008–2013,andco-editorofWritingCulture:ThePoeticsand
PoliticsofEthnography
“AtatimewhentheworldisstrugglingtounderstandthetradepoliciesoftheTrump
Administrationandwhatmotivatedthem,GregShafferhasprovidedcompellinganswers
groundedindecadesofresearchalongwithcasestudiesoftheshiftsineconomicpower
andlegalcapacityinChina,IndiaandBrazil.Ifyouwanttounderstandthepastandthe
futureofthetransnationallegalorderfortrade,readthisbook!”
JenniferHillman,SeniorFellow,CouncilonForeignRelations;formermember
ofWTOAppellateBody,CommissioneroftheU.S.International
TradeCommission,andUSTRGeneralCounsel
“Changes in international trade and the legal economic order cannot be understood
withouttakingintoaccounttheimpactofemergingeconomiessuchasChina,Braziland
India Anyanalysisisincompletewithoutconsideringtheirlegalcapacityandpractice
ProfessorGregoryShaffer’sbookprovidesthestorythatfillinavacuumintheliterature
andbecomesanobligatoryreference”
AlejandroJara,formerWTODeputyDirector-GeneralandAmbassador
fChil t WTO
emerging powers and the world trading system
VictoriousafterWorldWarIIandtheColdWar,theUnitedStatesanditsallieslargely
wrote the rules for international trade and investment. Yet, by 2020, it was the United
States that became the great disrupter – disenchanted with the rules’ constraints.
Paradoxically,China,India,Brazil,andotheremergingeconomiesbecamestakeholders
in and, at times, defenders of economic globalization and the rules regulating it.
Emerging Powers and the World Trading System explains how this came to be and
addressesthemicropoliticsoftradelaw–whathasbeendevelopingunderthesurface
ofthebusinessoftradethroughthepracticeoflaw,whichhasbroadmacroimplications.
This book provides a necessary complement to political and economic accounts for
understanding why, at a time of hegemonic transition where economic security and
geopolitics assume greater roles, the United States challenged, and emerging powers
becamedefendersof,thelegalorderthattheUnitedStatescreated.
GregoryShafferisChancellor’sProfessorattheUniversityofCalifornia,IrvineSchool
of Law. His publications include 9 books and over 100 articles and book chapters,
including Constitution-Making and Transnational Legal Order (with Ginsburg and
Halliday, 2019), Transnational Legal Orders (with Halliday, 2015), and Transnational
LegalOrderingandStateChange(2013).

Emerging Powers and the World Trading
System
the past and future of international
economic law
GREGORY SHAFFER
UniversityPrintingHouse,CambridgeCB28BS,UnitedKingdom
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Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781108495196
DOI:10.1017/9781108861342
©GregoryShaffer2021
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Firstpublished2021
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LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
NAMES:Shaffer,Gregory,1958–author.
TITLE:Emergingpowersandtheworldtradingsystem:thepastandfutureofinternational
economiclaw/GregoryShaffer,UniversityofCalifornia,Irvine
DESCRIPTION:Cambridge,UnitedKingdom;NewYork,NY:CambridgeUniversityPress,
2021 |Includesindex
IDENTIFIERS:LCCN 2020051783|ISBN 9781108495196(hardback)|ISBN 9781108817127
(paperback)|ISBN 9781108861342(ebook)
SUBJECTS:LCSH:Foreigntraderegulation |Commercialtreaties
CLASSIFICATION:LCC K4600.S532021|DDC 343.08/7–dc23
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ISBN 978-1-108-49519-6Hardback
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Contents
ListofFigures pagexi
ListofTables xii
Preface:TheProjectandItsMethodology xiii
part i legal capacity and transnational legal orders
1 Introduction:EmergingPowersandtheTransnationalLegal
OrderingofTrade 3
2 TheTheory:BuildingTradeLawCapacityinEmergingPowers
andItsImplications 22
3 TheChallengesofInternationalTradeLaw 58
part ii the cases of brazil, india, and china
4 BuildingLegalCapacityandAdaptingStateInstitutionsinBrazil 81
WithMichelleRattonSanchezBadin
5 India:AnEmergingGiant’sTransformationandItsImplications 128
WithJamesNedumparaandAseemaSinha
6 HowChinaTookontheUnitedStatesandEuropeattheWTO 174
WithHenryGao
7 ANewChineseEconomicLawOrder? 222
WithHenryGao
ix