© 2000 by Oxford University Press
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Subsidiarity perspectives on the new trade agenda
Z John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA Y European Commission, Directorate-General for Trade, Brussels, Belgium
Despite the substantial achievements of the Uruguay Round, the trading system is faced with new and growing demands to extend the liberalization of international commerce and the purview of its rules in new areas hitherto considered only of domestic concern. This new trade agenda is mainly driven by the increasing integration of the world economy that has multiplied the interlinkages and reciprocal impact of domestic policies and measures. In this context it may be useful to use the notion of subsidiarity as a benchmark to assess the desirability and effectiveness of addressing policy challenges at the international level. The paper argues that in the case of investment, competition policy, and domestic (economic) regulation a multilateral rule-making response represents a first-best outcome, if the nature of the trans-border externality, market or policy failure it addresses is inherently or increasingly global in character.