From Rule-takers to Rule-makers: Emerging Powers in the Regulation of International Trade (SNIS)

DURATION OF THE PROJECT: September 2012 - June 2016

This project featured a comparative research design examining the foreign economic policy behaviour of Brazil, China, India and Mexico in three contested fields of trade regulation: competition law, intellectual property rights and services-related labour mobility. These regulatory fields touch so-called “behind-the-border” issues and have far reaching implications for the role of the state in economic development.

Two of these fields flow directly from the regulatory agenda of the EU and the US – competition law and intellectual property rights – partly evoking vivid resistance and alternative approaches from countries such as Brazil and India in particular, whereas the promotion of labour mobility is a priority of the emerging countries meeting the resistance of Western powers.

In short, the project sought to understand when and under which conditions emerging powers evolve from rule-takers to rule-makers in trade regulation, through which venues and with which implications for the substance and architecture of the international trade regime.

The project was financed by the Swiss Network of Int. Studies (SNIS) and was a cooperation between the Universities of Bern, Geneva, Lucerne, and the Duke University.

 

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SNIS-Website