Conferences : Centre for the Analysis of Regional Integration at Sussex (CARIS) : University of Sussex

CARIS organises an annual conference where high profile speakers are invited to debate the most important international trade issues. In 2009 the annual conference was co-hosted with the World Bank.

Forthcoming 2011

FEMISE-DEFI-CARIS conference on "Firms, Trade and Development"

- Programme

- Presentation

The conference will be held in Aix-en-Provence (France) the next 4-5th July 2011 and will see the presence of the following high profile experts among others:

- Beata Javorcik (Oxford University)
- Francesco Daveri (University of Parme, Igier & CESifo), Maria Laura Parisi (Brescia University) et Rémy Lecat (Banque de France)
- Olivier Cadot (HEC Lausanne and World Bank)
- Leonardo Iacovone (World Bank)
- Richard Kneller (University of Nottingham)
- Joep Konings (Université Libre de Louvain)
- Juan Manez (University of Valencia), Juan Sanchis-Llopis (University of Valencia) and Maria Rochina-Barrachina (University of Valencia)
- Khalid Sekkat (Economic Research Forum)
- Flora Bellone (Université de Nice Sophia Antipolis)

2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006

2010

The Future of GSP

Held on 30 September, the main theme of the conference is the analysis of GSP arrangements with a particular focus on the following issues:

Comparisons among the GSP programs;
S&D in the WTO in terms of eligibility criteria;
Legality and security of GSP;
Coherence and coordination across different GSP schemes.

Participants also explored whether countries such as China, Brazil, India and other big emerging economies could play a role in this area of international trade policy commensurate with their trading power. For example, China already has unilateral preferences towards some African countries. Based on the existing regime, would it be feasible to expand the coverage of commodities/sectors towards African countries and extend to unilateral preferences to other LDCs?

Documents 2010

Coming soon

2009

CARIS-World Bank Conference on Regional Integration in Asia and Europe

Held on September 14-15 2009 at the University of Sussex. The conference was organized jointly held with Trade Department of the World Bank (PRMTR) in collaboration with colleagues from the Swiss NCCR Trade Centre.

The main themes of the conference were on Asian and Europe and the role of deep integration in trade and institutions on development. Presentations covered empirical evidence on the causes and effects of Asian regional integration including comparison with Europe; and issues of behind the border regulations in RTAs – based on recent World Bank studies on competition and government procurement provisions, environmental provisions, labour standards and labour mobility provision, technical standards, SPS and dispute settlement mechanism.

Documents 2009

2008

Regional Integration & Deep Integration: Concepts & Empirics

With the well documented rapid rise in regional trading arrangements, the aim of the conference is to focus on the potential role of, what is often referred to as, "deep integration". In the broader sense CARIS is interested in the circumstances under which the welfare effects arising from deeper integration might overcome the well-known distortions associated with shallow integration, in particular for developing countries. This annual conference focuses in more detail on what is meant by the concept of deep integration itself, considering ways in which deep integration might be appropriately measured and evaluating the possible impact of deeper integration.

Documents 2008

2007

CARIS/SEI conference "What have we learned from European Economic Integration?"

Held on the 16th and Tuesday 17th of July 2007. The aim of the conference is to analyze the experience of European integration in its different aspects. The EU in its development over the last 50 years from customs union to common market and now including monetary union has been a natural experiment in economic integration. This has had important implications for the development of social science theory and analysis as well as for the understanding of practical policy making. Fifty Years after the Treaty of Rome, 20 years after the Cecchini Report and 15 years after the founding of SEI and in the light of ongoing work at SEI and CARIS it seemed an appropriate moment to reflect on the experience of the European Union and the academic research that it stimulated and what it means for future research.

Documents 2007

2006

Developing Countries and the Challenge of Regionalism: Assessing the Options

Held on September 28th to 30th 2006, the aim of the conference was to build on DFID and European Commission funded research undertaken by the team of researchers at Sussex University over the past few years which has focused on the potential role of regional integration for developing countries. As part of that research programme a handbook/framework for the evaluation of the potential costs and benefits of regional integration has been developed, using explicit criteria and careful use of descriptive statistical methods. The intention being that such a framework can provide useful input into the policy making process. The Conference is based on presentations by key experts in the field as well as on papers arising from the work undertaken by the Sussex team. A key aim of the conference is thus to outline the framework, the conceptual issues underpinning it, and to illustrate the application of the framework to case studies.

Programme 2006 [PDF 136.09KB]

Centre for the Analysis of Regional Integration at Sussex (CARIS)

Conferences