Recent transatlantic relations have been plagued by a seemingly endlessseries of disputes over trade and other economic and political interests.Some of these disputes have been amongst the most prominent of the WTO era:the Bananas Case, the Beef Hormones Case and over the application of theHelms-Burton Act. This book analyzes the source of transatlantic disputes, the meansemployed to prevent and settle such disputes both bilaterally and throughthe dispute settlement mechanism of the of the WTO, and to identifypromising areas for reform.This book begins with a survey of transatlantic governance and disputesettlement problems. Part II analyzes 14 case-studies of transatlanticeconomic and regulatory disputes written by leading EU and US experts. Theanalytical papers in Part III examine the disputes in the broader context oflegal, economic and political theories of dispute prevention and disputesettlement. Part IV offers policy recommendations from EU and USpolicy-makers and academics. Most of the more than 20 contributors concludethat joint EU-US leadership in multilateral institutions (e.g. for tradeliberalization, dispute prevention and dispute settlement in the WTO) offersadvantages over bilateral approaches. By contrast, a potentialtransatlantic free-trade association (TAFTA) remains a second-best approachwhich might not prevent many of the transatlantic disputes over internaltrade-related domestic policies. Transatlantic initiatives e.g. forregulatory cooperation and citizen-oriented institutional reforms can,however, serve as precedents for multilateral reforms (e.g. of WTO rules).
