Vox eBooks

Beyond Trade: How deep trade agreements shape non-trade outcomes

• edited by Ana Margarida Fernandes Nadia Rocha Michele Ruta
20 Jun 2023

Trade agreements increasingly include disciplines aimed at achieving non-trade objectives: promoting FDI, technology transfers, workers’ movements, but also improving labor conditions, environmental quality and achieving other broader social goals. This eBook brings together a group of leading economists to investigate the economic rationale for including nontrade
objectives in trade agreements and whether these disciplines actually achieve their intended goals. The evidence shows some successes, such as in the area of FDI, technology transfers and the environment, but also the limits of regulating non-trade policy areas in trade agreements, especially with regards to social outcomes such as child labour.