Emerging Mega-Integration Blocs : Limits and Prospects

The emergence of new mega-integration blocs is an important current feature of the global economic system. The United States, the European Union and Japan intend to set on their own terms new rules for trade, investment and settlement of disputes for the coming generation. All other players will have to accept these rules (capitulate) or be excluded from their potential benefits. However, this has the potential to backfire as important excluded players such as China may create a parallel system. The whole rules-setting process in the emerging mega blocs is both obscure and held captive by big corporations that tailor rules according their needs. Disenfranchised people in this process are treated not as citizens but as consumers, hence a lot of public resentment towards these emerging mega blocs. The planned arcane, ad hoc and private dispute settlement mechanisms are monumentally controversial. The ratification processes of the new mega deals are expected to have long, rough and uncertain journeys which could well end up running off the rails