Economy-wide assessments of regional trade agreements often fall short of capturing the complexity of agri-food trade policies especially in the case of major structural changes (as market concentration and global value chain issues). “New generation” trade agreements include many aspects beyond traditional trade policies. Consumer concerns are increasing about food quality and safety, environmental implications, as well as ethical concerns about the way food is produced and its impact on poverty, job destruction and increasing inequality. BATModel will advance assessments of agri-food trade policies as follows: (1) by improving the theoretical underpinning and methodologies of partial and general equilibrium models in ex-ante trade assessments; (2) based on micro-level evidence, by improving our understanding and modelling of value chain to enable more precise impact assessments (gains and losses, between and within member states, between and within groups of agents); and (3) by integrating econometric estimations into existing simulation models at micro- and macro-level, which will allow the analysis of extended welfare effects, like inclusiveness and sustainable development goals. The core contribution will be the BATModel Modular Platform for agri-food trade modelling that will equip the analytical tools, in particular the simulation models currently used by the European Commission (EC), for the analysis of 21st-century agri-food trade issues. BATModel will provide a new modular generation of trade models to support the EC, policy-makers and other stakeholders to better account for specific issues such as non-tariff measures, geographical indications, zero trade flows, quality differentiation and global value chains. The BATModel Modular Platform will ensure long-term impact of the project. The dedicated BATModel Dissemination and Stakeholder Platform will ensure close interactions with stakeholders to provide and disseminate relevant trade policy analyses.

International trade and investment are of considerable economic and political importance for Europe. The EU is negotiating trade agreements globally, involving the abolition of tariffs, the reduction of non-tariff barriers to trade, and the introduction of dispute settlement mechanisms. However, the example of the controversial TTIP has shown the challenges of EU trade policy. The objective of the EU Trade and Investment Policy ITN (EUTIP) is to foster interdisciplinary research into the evolving international trade policy of the EU with a view to create a significantly increased European knowledge base and research capacity on EU law and policy of the regulation of international trade through free trade agreements (FTAs) with third countries, thus helping Europe to safeguard the benefits of international trade (wealth, jobs, etc.) while addressing the challenges of its regulation (competence, democracy, accountability, environmental- and labour, standards, etc.). It is argued that the EU trade and investment policy pursued through FTAs will lead to the evolution of an entirely new legal sub-discipline closely related to and originating in EU law and international trade law. This new field of law will be wide-ranging, including aspects already addressed in existing FTAs and fields of trade and competition law currently regulated in the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU), the relevant decision-making mechanisms, the relationship between the relevant legal systems, and dispute settlement. Moreover, the ITN investigates Transatlantic agreements as precedents and possible templates for third generation trade agreements of the EU with other parts of the world. The network is an interdisciplinary, intersectoral collaboration pooling world-leading researchers and practitioners from all relevant disciplines of law - EU constitutional, internal market, and external relations law, international trade law, and international law, as well as political science, international relations, business studies, and economics. EUTIP fully integrates non-academic Beneficiaries (Ben) and Partner Organisations (PO), including think tanks, lobbyists, regulatory bodies, law firms, US academic institutions, and an international organisation. Furthermore, the network will support and enhance the process of converting research results into policy papers through partnership with high-impact policy research units at the forefront of European policy research and policy making. The work package consists of 3 substantive work packages on (1) governance, (2) regulation, and (3) multilateralism and regionalism. 15 PhD research projects will be supervised by academics of the 11 Beneficiaries with an interdisciplinary training programme covering the legal, political and economic foundations of EU trade and investment policy and an interdisciplinary and intersectoral programme of secondments involving 18 Partner Organisations.