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WTO Issues
Regional Economic
Cooperation
Developmental
Issues
CUTS CITEE in Action
Call for Publications
WTO Issues
Making Trade
agreements relevant for Poor Countries: Why dispute settlement is not
enough
Poor countries are rarely challenged in formal WTO trade
disputes for failing to live up to commitments, reducing the benefits of
their participation in international trade agreements. This paper examines
the political-economic causes of the failure to challenge poor countries
and discusses the static and dynamic costs and externality implications of
this failure. Given the weak incentives to enforce WTO rules and
disciplines against small and poor members, bolstering the transparency
function of the WTO is important to make trade agreements more relevant to
trade constituencies in developing countries.
Ghttp://www.brookings.edu/views/papers/200702bown.pdf
EU commercial policy in a
multipolar trading system
In
recent years the bipolar multilateral trading system of the post-war years
has given way to a multipolar alternative. Although many specifics have
yet to be determined, some contours of this new trade policy landscape are
coming into focus. Here particular attention is given to both the state of
business-government relations and the propensity to liberalise under the
auspices of reciprocal trade agreements by Brazil, India, and China; the
potential new poles of the world trading system.
http://www.evenett.com/articles/EUTradeMultipolarWorld.pdf
Doha Round
Suspension and MDGs
At present, the World Trade Organisation
(WTO) is passing through a critical juncture. Since July 2006, the Doha
Round of multilateral trade negotiations has been suspended with no
certainty on when the talks will resume. After trade ministers from
Australia, Brazil, the European Union (EU), India, Japan and the United
States (US), failed to bridge differences in July, WTO Director General
(DG), Pascal Lamy had no choice but to recommend the suspension of trade
negotiations.
http://www.sawtee.org/uploads/articles/dohasuspension.php
Doha Round: A flicker of hope
One positive outcome of the recent World
Economic Forum in Davos was that Ministers from 30 countries made "a
commitment to put the Doha Round back on track." What is intended to be
achieved is a broader, balanced package among key trading nations
involving not only agriculture but also industrial products and services.
But it is clear that developing country concerns have not gone away, says
S. Sethuraman.
http://www.blonnet.com/2007/02/17/stories/2007021700330800.htm
Leader: Multilateral muscle needed for Doha deal
The prospects for rescuing Doha look poor.
Informal talks have restarted at the World Trade Organisation in Geneva.
Washington, Brussels, Brasilia and elsewhere hoarsely insist that a deal
is possible. But negotiating positions still appear inflexible,
particularly on the sticking point of agriculture, and at present official
optimism looks more like blame-avoidance than a serious statement of
political will. High on the EU's wishlist are the so-called "Singapore
issues".
http://search.ft.com/ftArticle?queryText=wto+issues%2C+editorial&y=7&aje=true&x=19&id=070103000576
Regional Economic
Cooperation
The ASEAN
Experience: Insights for Regional Political Cooperation
In the past, regional integration largely involved the integration
of states at similar stages of development to support national
economic strategies. Today’s new regionalism or open regionalism,
particularly in South-South initiatives, looks very different. As a
complement of or alternative to supporting national strategies for
development, regionalism in the South is being viewed as a
development option in itself. The debate and diversity in ideas
about regionalism are reflected in the many forms.
http://www.southcentre.org
Trade effects of regional
standards liberalisation: A heterogeneous approach
This study investigates trade effects of the regional liberalization of
technical barriers to trade (TBTs) in the form of harmonization and mutual
recognition agreements (MRAs) for testing procedures. The theoretical part of
the paper is framed in terms of a heterogeneous firms approach. This paper adds
to the existing literature by formalizing the effects of MRAs and harmonization
initiatives on bilateral trade flows and by applying this new theoretical
framework in the empirical part of the paper.
http://www-wds.worldbank.org
Do South-South Trade
Agreements Increase Trade? Commodity-Level Evidence from COMESA
This paper focuses
on the static effects of South-South preferential trade agreements stemming from
changes in trade patterns. It estimates the impact of the Common Market for
Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) on Uganda's imports between 1994 and 2003.
Based on a difference-in-difference estimation strategy, the paper finds that-in
contrast to evidence from aggregate statistics-COMESA's preferential tariff
liberalization has not considerably increased.
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2007/wp0740.pdf
Trade Policy in
Asia: WHERE NEXT WITH A CRIPPLED WTO AND WEAK FTAs?
After the collapse of the Doha round and a fraying multilateral trading system,
three priorities are called for. First, a clutch of East-Asian countries plus
India should be active in “coalitions of the willing” to set the WTO on its legs
again. US leadership and a Chinese helping hand will be crucial. Second,
existing FTAs should be cleaned up and new FTA initiatives only launched with
sense of economic strategy. Third, it is vital that the engine of Chinese
unilateral liberalization does not stall. Further liberalization and regulatory
reform is only through competitive emulation, not trade negotiations.
http://www.ecipe.org/pdf/Policybrief_0107.pdf
Dispute settlement
mechanisms in bilateral and regional trade arrangements
The belief that
bilateral trade agreements and various forms of regional trade agreements should
incorporate effective methods of dispute resolution, has been gaining ground of
late. The existence of a dispute settlement mechanism will ensure that all
parties to such arrangements take their obligations seriously and that an
effective method of redress exists should they violate or fail to live up to
such obligations. COMESA Court of Justice’s website, which argues that “[t]he
stronger the Court of Justice, the stronger the foundation upon which the Common
Market is built.”
http://rta.tralac.org/scripts/content.php?id=6130
Developmental
Issues
Policy space: Are WTO rules preventing development?
This Overseas Development
Institute (ODI) briefing paper argues that developing countries need “policy
space” to use policy to promote development, but current international rules
limit it. The paper indicates that: a) developing countries need ‘policy space’
to use policy to promote development, but international rules limit it; b) the
principal areas where trade agreements do or may restrict countries are tariffs,
TRIPs, and investment; c) the evidence is that while some ‘space’ has been
closed, much remains, and space can cause problems as well as create
opportunities.
http://www.odi.org.uk/publications/briefing/bp_jan07_policy_space_wto.pdf
Global Employment Trends
Brief
Strong global GDP growth in 2006 led to a stabilization of labour markets
worldwide, with more people in work1 than in 2005. At the same time the total of
195.2 million unemployed was slightly higher than a year earlier, an all time
high. The Global Employment Trends 2007 published by the International Labour
Organization indicates that the number of people unemployed worldwide remained
high in 2006, reaching a global rate of 6.3 per cent, despite global economic
growth. The report notes that this trend might continue for 2007.
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/employment/strat/download/getb07en.pdf
Trade and Labour
Standards: What's the Link?
Much has been discussed about the impacts of free trade agreements (FTAs) on
various stakeholders, from farmers to AIDS patients, but the one group that is
often missing from the trade debate is one of the largest stakeholder groups on
earth: the workers. So why is it that hardly anyone talks about them? Some NGOs
say they are not so keen on working with workers groups, because workers are
often interested in their own problems and not willing to join others in
campaigning for a greater cause: justice for all.
http://www.itd.or.th/en/news/070126
Workers’ Remittances,
Economic Growth and Poverty in Developing Asia and the Pacific Countries
This paper examines the impact of workers’
remittances on growth and poverty reduction in developing Asia-Pacific countries
using panel data over the period 1993-2003. The results suggests that, while
remittances do have a significant impact on poverty reduction through increasing
income, smoothing consumption and easing capital constraints of the poor, they
have only a marginal impact on growth operating through domestic investment and
human capital development.
http://www.unescap.org/pdd/publications/workingpaper/wp_07_01.pdf
Lending a hand to the
development process
State's Nation Building Bonds, aimed at
accelerating the development process in the country, would have many takers. By
investing in these bonds, these expatriates would help swell Government coffers,
thereby enabling the State to initiate a wide variety of development projects,
mainly in the area of infrastructure expansion. We are doing right by continuing
our efforts to attract more and more foreign exchange and investments, but such
efforts would come to nought without sound and vast infrastructure facilities.
http://www.southasianmedia.net/index_opinion3.cfm?id=106502&country=SRI%20LANKA
Call for
Publications
For
experts publishing articles in South Asian newspapers/publications,
civil society
organisations, research
institutes and academics, if you
would like your publication’s abstract and weblink to distributed to CUTS
International network (above 5,000
recipients all over the world) and added to the Economiquity
e-newsletter, please forward such details via email to following
address: citee@cuts.org
This e-newsletter is
compiled by the CUTS CITEE team , CUTS
International
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Disclaimer
Views expressed in these articles and papers are those of the respective
authors and in no way reflect the official positions of CUTS and the
agencies supporting its projects. |
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