Publications /
Policy Paper

Back
Trade in the Wider Atlantic and the Transatlantic Trade And the Investment Partnership
Authors
Peter Sparding
March 11, 2014

This paper examines the changing role of trade in the Wider Atlantic space and the shifting trade patterns between the four continents

Historically, transatlantic relations have often been focused on North-North connections in the Atlantic space. In light of momentous geopolitical, economic, and demographic changes around the world, it now seems expedient to expand the view of the Atlantic by exploring its “vertical map” and including its Southern half. This paper focuses on one of the trends currently shaping the region — the changing role of trade in the Wider Atlantic space. Significant developments are unfolding. Total trade among the regions of the Atlantic Basin has seen a dramatic increase in recent years, more than doubling in volume between 2000 and 2011. Over the same period, new actors have entered the Atlantic sphere. In addition, trade patterns are slowly shifting between the four continents. This paper illustrates and analyzes the history of trade relations in the Atlantic and the changing trade patterns in the Wider Atlantic, and explores the potential impacts of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) on geostrategic and economic developments in the region.

RELATED CONTENT

  • Authors
    January 4, 2019
    If you haven't read Part 1 of Cyberwarfare, click here.   “THIS WEAPON WILL NOT BE PUT BACK IN THE BOX” In March 2018, the US Department of Homeland Security warned critical infrastructure operators of Russian cyberspace attacks targeting industrial control systems. Particularly endangered would be nuclear facilities, energy and water. Just recently, the Marriott /Starwood hotel chain revealed that hackers plundered 327 million guest files, including passport numbers and credit ca ...
  • January 1, 2019
    Le Maroc a initié une première étape vers l’adoption d’un régime de change flexible, en élargissant les bandes de fluctuations à +/- 2,5% par rapport à un cours central. Cette transition permettrait à l’économie marocaine de se doter, à terme, d’un instrument macroéconomique qui joue le rôle d’amortisseur de choc et qui favorise un ajustement rapide et à moindre coût. A défaut de ce mécanisme, l’ajustement aux chocs macroéconomiques a, parfois, nécessité une contraction de la demand ...
  • Authors
    John Seaman
    January 1, 2019
    La domination de la Chine dans la production de terres rares illustre la compétition qui se joue autour des ressources minérales dans un monde toujours plus axé sur le numérique et le bas-carbone. Au cours des deux dernières décennies, la Chine a été à l’origine de 80 à 95 % de la production mondiale de terres rares, un groupe de 17 métaux devenus des éléments-clés de progrès technologiques révolutionnaires dans les domaines de l’énergie, des TIC, des dispositifs médicaux ou encore ...
  • January 1, 2019
    Morocco has moved towards a more flexible exchange rate system, by widening its currency fluctuation bands to +/- 2.5% around a central price. This transition will, in time, equip the Moroccan economy with a macroeconomic instrument acting as a shock absorber and facilitating rapid adjustment at lower costs. In the absence of such a mechanism, adjustment to macroeconomic shocks at times requires a contraction in demand and thereby a cyclical downturn in growth to restore external ba ...
  • Authors
    John Seaman
    January 1, 2019
    China’s dominance in the production of rare earth elements symbolizes the competition for once obscure sets of mineral resources in our increasingly digital, low carbon world. For the last two decades China has produced between 80 and 95 percent of the world’s rare earths – a group of 17 metals that have become key components of revolutionary technological progress in fields ranging from energy, to ICT, to medical devices, to defense. Despite their name, rare earths are not rare, an ...