ERF 26th Annual Conference
CO2 Emissions, Environmental Provisions and Global Value Chains: The Middle East and North Africa in a Global Context
No.
ERF26_223
Publisher
ERF
Date
July, 2020
Topic
F1. Trade
F. International Economics
The paper investigates the relationship between carbon emissions, environmental provisions in Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) and Global Value Chains (GVCs) using a panel data gravity model for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region over the period 1990-2015. We find that RTAs with legally enforceable environmental provisions reduce carbon emissions. However, the impact of RTAs with no enforceable and without environmental provisions on pollution is insignificant. Participation of MENA countries in backward GVCs rises environmental degradation. Moreover, we examine the interaction effects between the number of RTAs with environmental laws and participation of MENA countries in GVCs. Results confirm that articipating in upstream activities in GVCs and signing more RTAs with environmental laws reduce pollution when those Environmental Provisions (EPs) are legally enforceable. From backward GVC perspective, our study proves that RTAs with environmental laws (enforceable and not enforceable) could reduce carbon emissions in MENA region. Therefore, there is a need to enforce and increase the number of environmental provisions in MENA in order to reduce pollution and contribute to sustainable upgrading in GVCs.
Authors
Insaf Guedidi
World Trade Organization (WTO) Chair Junior Fellow,...
Research Fellows
Leila Baghdadi
Professor of Economics, ESSECT, University of Tunis