This project centres on an under-researched area of trade regulation: analysis of the law, politics and economics of Rules of Origin (RoO), with a particular focus on differences in approaches in the EU and the US, motivated by the ongoing negotiations to establish a Ttransatlantic Trade Investment Partenership (TTIP). The RoO that are agreed will help determine the magnitude and distribution of the benefits from TTIP. The RoO will also be a determinant of the effects of TTIP on third countries. One motivation for the project is to assess whether, and to what extent, there is scope for what may be agreed in TTIP to overcome the differences in views of the EU and the US on RoO that have resulted in the deadlock of negotiations in the WTO and to establish a set of harmonised RoO for a broad range of trade policy instruments that do not involve trade preferences.