RTAs and Australia

[Name of the institute]RTA and Australia

Introduction

The world in which we live today is in a chaotic situation. It is the era in which recession is going on. As a result of the global economic crisis there is unemployment, there is inflation and there is less circulation of money. In such circumstances, it is imperative that all the countries should unite and promote easy trade conditions. In order to adhere to such rulers where there is understanding between the two countries and there should be easy and open trade terms there is an international body the purpose of which is to promote such sort of trade agreements. This international body is of Regional Trade Agreement that works under World Trade Organization. The aim and objective of this paper is to undertake discussion about RTAs in context of Australia. This paper takes into account the role that Australia play related to RTAs and how these agreements are causing its affect on the economy of Australia.

RTA

RTA is the abbreviation of Regional Trade Agreements. RTAs Since the early 1990s the RTAs have become increasingly prevalent and more and more countries are forming such agreements. The following period shows the evolution of RTAs and how average number of RTA partners is increasing over the period of time. If we take into consideration facts and figures then it can be stated that till 15 January 2012 around 511 notifications have been received by the GATT/WTO. Out of these 511 notifications 319 were in force (WTO.org, 2012).



Mission and Structure of RTA

In this modern world, the activities related to trade and commerce are taking place at the global and regional level. In this environment, there is an immense need that there should be a known level of certainty when the businesses and governments operate in international trade environment. As a result of the globalization the volume of the capital, goods and services has increased that transact across traditional state borders. All of these positive changes became possible because of the international trade policies and international bodies like WTO.

In the dictionary of trade policy terms, the term regionalism can be described as the actions that the governments take in order to liberalize or to facilitate the trade on regional levels often times by involving the phenomenon of free trade areas or custom union. Looking at the concept of the regional trade agreement in terms of world trade organization (WTO) would reveal that according to WTA the RTA adopts booth the general and specific meanings. According to WTO, in general terms RTA may involve agreements that are formed between countries that may not belong to the same geographical region. In specific ways RTA according to WTO involves formulation of conditions and policies of preferential liberalization of trade with RTAs (WTO, 2012).

Australia's Role in RTA

Australia plays an important and significant role in RTA. The Doha Round of WTO that presented effective ideas about trade adopted the level of high priority for Australian government. The Australian government ...