ICON S Conference 17 – 19 June 2016 Humboldt University Berlin

Klaas Hendrik Eller: The Transpacific Partnership
Agreement Through the Lens of Global Value
Chains
The TPP shifts the conventional paradigm of
inter-state trade to a growing focus on Global Value
Chains (GVC) as organizational form of contemporary
production. The regional differentiation of trade
and investment regimes is both a reaction to the
existing fragmentation of production networks and
a vital factor in expanding this trend. While GVCs remain
highly sensitive to their regulatory environment,
they are also a proper source of governance patterns
which reflect the systemic nature of chain-wide
coordination. This paper discusses how the novel
administrative law architecture created by the TPP
interacts with the private and hybrid infrastructure
of contracts, standards and certification. Providing
for mutual recognition of national standards, the TPP
further blurs regulatory boundaries to create a space
that is eminently preconfigured by chain governance
instruments. Their justification becomes increasingly
pressing, from the perspective of chain actors and
third parties alike.
economy and beyond. Spill-over effects seem likely
due to the economies of scale generated by interoperability
in the digital ream. The United States are likely
to push for similar rules in the Transatlantic Trade and
Investment Partnership (TTIP) with the EU to combat
what it perceives as the current state of digital protectionism.
Helen Churchman: The Limitations of Regulatory
Convergence within Free-Trade Agreements
This paper explores whether megaregional free
trade agreements (FTAs) are a legitimate vehicle to
achieve regulatory convergence or whether targeted
multilateral negotiations would result in a more balanced
outcome. I argue that this mechanism prevents
substantive participation in the negotiation of new
standards and regulations that will have a significant
impact on countries and people across the globe, not
just on TPP parties; that power dynamics and imbalances
are more pronounced within smaller plurilateral
negotiations, which can have a dramatic effect on the
outcomes; and that trade offs that are made in other
areas of the FTA negotiations may also affect the quality
of the standards and regulations that form part of
the final agreement. I also outline some of the practical
limitations of regulatory convergence within FTAs,
arguing that from a technical perspective, effective
regulatory convergence can be hard to achieve within
this framework.
Thomas Streinz: The Trans-Pacific Partnership’s
Innovative Framework for the Digital Economy
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) reacts to the
digital revolution and its implications for the global
economy in the 21st century. Across the chapters on
telecommunications, electronic commerce, and intellectual
property, the TPP features innovative provisions
on important and controversial issues such as
Internet access, free data flows, data privacy, server
location requirements, source code protection, domain-name
dispute settlement, and the liability of
intermediaries. Taken together, these provisions provide
the basic framework for the TPP-area’s digital
Concurring panels 100