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Liberalizing Trade in Energy Services and Domestic Regulation: New Approaches in Mega-Regionals?

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Mega-Regional Trade Agreements

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Abstract

In light of recent negotiations on mega-regional trade agreements this chapter analyses if and how such agreements approach the liberalization and regulation of energy services. In particular it discusses how liberalization commitments can be reconciled with regulatory principles and rules. In this regard, the chapter addresses the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) and the Energy Charter Treaty as a special case of a mega-regional agreement. It is shown that mega-regionals have failed so far to deliver better and fairer results concerning energy services. As a consequence, renewed efforts to negotiate an agreement on energy in the multilateral trade system are called for.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See Cottier et al. (2011), pp. 211–244.

  2. 2.

    European Commission (2013).

  3. 3.

    Krajewski (2003).

  4. 4.

    See generally Cossy (2011), pp. 149–180.

  5. 5.

    WTO, Council for Trade in Services, Communication from the European Communities and their Member States, GATS 2000: Energy Services (23 Mar 2001) S/CSS/W/60, 2–3.

  6. 6.

    On the classification difficulties regarding electricity, see Evans (2003), p. 176.

  7. 7.

    On the overlap of rules on trade in goods and rules on trade in services, see WTO, European Communities—Regime for the Importation, Sale and Distribution of Bananas, Appellate Body Report (9 Sept 1997) WT/DS27/AB/R, para. 221.

  8. 8.

    Zarrilli (2003), p. 46; Delimatsis (2015), p. 340.

  9. 9.

    Selivanova (2014), p. 297.

  10. 10.

    The following draws on Krajewski (2012), pp. 345–348.

  11. 11.

    European Commission, Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, Energy 2020: A Strategy for Competitive, Sustainable and Secure Energy (10 Nov 2011) COM(2010) 639 final, 2. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2010:0639:FIN:En:PDF. Accessed 23 Aug 2016.

  12. 12.

    Goldemberg (2003), p. 1; IEA et al. (2010), p. 8 et seq.

  13. 13.

    See also Frey (in this volume).

  14. 14.

    Davies (2009), p. 74.

  15. 15.

    Bhattacharyya (2008), p. 204.

  16. 16.

    United Nations General Assembly, Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (25 Sep 2015) A/RES/70/1.

  17. 17.

    Agarwal (2010).

  18. 18.

    UNCTAD (2010), p. 101.

  19. 19.

    For reference to India see Badrinarayana (2010), p. 10709.

  20. 20.

    Davies (2009), p. 76.

  21. 21.

    Ottinger and Zalcman (2003), p. 80 et seq.

  22. 22.

    European Commission, Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, Energy 2020: A Strategy for Competitive, Sustainable and Secure Energy (10 Nov 2011) COM(2010) 639 final, 6. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2010:0639:FIN:En:PDF. Accessed 23 Aug 2016.

  23. 23.

    Evans (2003), p. 168.

  24. 24.

    Talus (2013), p. 269.

  25. 25.

    UNCTAD (2010), p. 37.

  26. 26.

    WTO, Council for Trade in Services (1998) Energy Services: Background Note by the Secretariat (9 Sept 1998) S/C/W/52, para. 64.

  27. 27.

    See also Krajewski (2004), p. 108.

  28. 28.

    See Sect. 3.2.

  29. 29.

    Mattoo (1997), p. 110.

  30. 30.

    WTO, Canada—Certain Measures Affecting the Renewable Energy Generation Sector, Canada—Measures Relating to the Feed-in Tariff Program, Appellate Body Report (6 May 2013) WT/DS412/AB/R, WT/DS426/AB/R.

  31. 31.

    Eeckhout (2001), pp. 232–234.

  32. 32.

    See Delimatsis (2007), p. 202.

  33. 33.

    For a detailed analysis of this see Krajewski (2016).

  34. 34.

    Greenpeace, TTIP Leaks: Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, Cross-Border Trade in Services Text Consolidation (30 Nov 2015). https://ttip-leaks.org/menelaos/doc3.pdf. Accessed 24 Aug 2016.

  35. 35.

    European Commission (2013) Proposal by the European Union in the context of the “Trade in Services Agreement – TiSA” for Core Text Provisions. Mar 2013. http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2014/july/tradoc_152687.pdf. Accessed 24 Aug 2016.

  36. 36.

    European Commission (2012).

  37. 37.

    Consolidated CETA Text (2016). http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2016/february/tradoc_154329.pdf. Accessed 24 Aug 2016.

  38. 38.

    This was already predicted by VanDuzer (2012), p. 47.

  39. 39.

    On the Energy Charter Treaty, see Selivanova (2012), pp. 307–342; Bamberger and Wälde (2007), p. 149.

  40. 40.

    International Energy Charter (2016).

  41. 41.

    International Energy Charter (2015) Agreed text for adoption in The Hague at the Ministerial Conference on the International Energy Charter on 20 May 2015. http://www.energycharter.org/fileadmin/DocumentsMedia/Legal/IEC_EN.pdf. Accessed 24 Aug 2016.

  42. 42.

    For a full discussion of this issue see Hoekman (in this volume).

  43. 43.

    European Commission (2015).

  44. 44.

    European Commission (2013).

  45. 45.

    Available at http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/TTIPNonPaper.pdf. Accessed 24 Aug 2016. For an analysis, see Espa and Holzer (2015), p. 357.

  46. 46.

    Lavranos (2015).

  47. 47.

    Benes (2015), p. 18.

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  1. Faculty of Law, University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany

    Markus Krajewski

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  1. Faculty of Law, University of Augsburg, Augsburg, Germany

    Thilo Rensmann

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Krajewski, M. (2017). Liberalizing Trade in Energy Services and Domestic Regulation: New Approaches in Mega-Regionals?. In: Rensmann, T. (eds) Mega-Regional Trade Agreements. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56663-4_12

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