|
WTO Issues
Regional Economic
Cooperation
Developmental
Issues
CUTS CITEE in Action
Call for Publications
WTO Issues
Compliance and Remedies Against Non-Compliance Under the
WTO System-Towards A More Balanced Regime for All Members
This paper is produced under ICTSD’s research and dialogue programme on
Dispute Settlement and Legal Aspects of International Trade which aims to
explore realistic strategies to maximise developing countries’ capability
to engage international dispute settlement systems to defend their trade
interest and sustainable development objectives. This study is a
contribution to the debate on whether adequate options for developing
countries to enforce compliance and invoke effective retaliation under the
WTO is in fact provided in Dispute Settlement Understanding or whether
certain changes should be made to truly balance the legal playing field of
the WTO.
http://www.ictsd.org/issarea/dsu/resources/Plasai_Compliance.pdf
Rethinking the Trading System
The world trade negotiations of the so called “Doha Development Round” at
the WTO are in the limelight. A more cautious position is taken by a
number of renowned international economists, trade union organizations and
NGOs who are calling for much greater attention on social and
environmental concerns and a slowing down and better “sequencing” of trade
liberalization efforts and economic reforms without questioning the WTO as
central trade negotiation forum, in rule making and in dispute settlement
entirely.
http://www.fes-geneva.org/publications/OccasionalPapers/FESOccPapers32.pdf
Trade Adjustment in the WTO System: Are More Safeguards the Answer
This
paper examines the range of adjustment problems confronting the current
and future international trading system, the economic arguments for
intervention to deal with these problems, the adjustment environment as
set out in the current WTO Agreements, and proposals for reform. While the
adjustment problems we discuss apply to both rich and poor WTO member
countries, we highlight the issues of adjustment especially relevant for
developing countries.
http://www3.brookings.edu/views/papers/200706bown.pdf
Reforming the WTO: Toward More Democratic Governance and
Decision-Making
This
paper takes a critical approach to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and
proposes a radical solution involving more direct involvement of civil
society and the private sector in WTO governing structures. It
demonstrates that the WTO is currently not meeting the appropriate
standards of democracy and accountability that should govern its
operation. The poorest of its members are disadvantaged by the governance
system which denies them the consideration and protection they require.
http://www.eldis.org/go/topics/resource-guides/trade-policy&id=31975&type=Document
Getting the fundamentals right - The early stages of
Afghanistan’s WTO accession Process
Afghanistan has recently embarked on the process
of joining the World Trade Organisation (WTO). While increased trade can
help lift countries out of poverty, the experience of countries at similar
levels of development to Afghanistan’s which have joined the WTO suggests
that, unless great care is exercised, the terms of that membership may
adversely affect poverty reduction. This paper seeks to identify how
Afghanistan can give itself the best possible chance of achieving a WTO
accession package that supports its efforts to develop sustainably and to
reduce poverty.
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/issues/trade/bp92_afghanistan.htm
Regional Economic
Cooperation
Economic Partnership Agreements: Building or
shattering African regional integration
The report, says African countries
stand to lose far more than they would gain from EPAs. It's a
conclusion supported by research from the United Nations Economic
Commission for Africa which estimates losses of up to 22% in the
growth of regional trade across Africa if a standard EPA is applied.
The report shows that Africa is anyway taking serious steps to
resolve the problems associated with African countries’ membership
of multiple and overlapping regional economic communities. It also
shows that EPAs, far from supporting this process, are making the
problem worse, adding further layers of complexity.
http://www.traidcraftinteractive.co.uk/docs/144.pdf
Impact of Intra-European Trade Agreements, 1990–2005:
Policy Implications for the Western Balkans and Ukraine
The paper provides quantitative
estimates of the impact of the European trade agreements on trade
flows. It applies both static and dynamic panel estimation
techniques. The results are useful to policymakers because new
intra-European trade agreements are being negotiated. In the absence
of a further expansion of the European Union, estimates of
alternative policies may help to clarify the policy debate. The
paper also illustrates that the performance of individual countries
under the trade agreements can be explained in terms of their
macroeconomic environment
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2007/wp07126.pdf
Falling into a Spaghetti Bowl: A Review of the Impact
of FTAs on Thailand
In
the spaghetti bowl of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), a growing number
of strands have Thailand at one end of them. In Southeast Asia,
Thailand is second only to Singapore in pursuing bilateral FTAs.
Thailand’s FTA network grew intensively after the country hosted the
2003 Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit, less than a
month after the implementation of the first of these agreements, the
Early Harvest Scheme (EHS) with China. During the APEC Summit,
former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra rushed to sign an FTA with
India and sounded out the possibility of starting FTA negotiations
with other countries, including the United States.
http://www.ftawatch.org/download/files/spaghetti%20bowl-FTA-%20LAST%20version%2025-05-07%20ARSA.pdf
The Changing Landscape of Regional Trade Agreements:
2006 Update
Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) have become in
recent years a very prominent feature of the Multilateral Trading
System (MTS). The objective of this paper is not to assess the pros
and cons of RTAs; rather to raise awareness of the magnitude of the
RTA phenomenon, the main trends and characteristics of this
proliferation with quantitative and qualitative indicators. This
paper builds upon a previous survey and aims at updating the numbers
and verifying the trends observed at that time as well as the state
of play of the DDA negotiations on WTO rules applying to RTAs.
http://onlinebookshop.wto.org/shop/article_details.asp?Id_Article=730
Trade
Negotiations In The West African Region: Issues For Consideration
West African economies
remain poorly diversified and heavily reliant on trade of primary commodities,
mainly to the European Union. This Analytical Note explores some of the main
challenges that the countries of the EPA West African region face in the EPA
negotiating process, particularly with respect to its interfaces with WTO
negotiations. It highlights the region’s interests in both settings and aims at
increasing negotiators’ understanding about the developmental implications of
both processes.
http://www.southcentre.org/publications/AnalyticalNotes/Other/2007May_West_Africa_Background_Note.pdf
Developmental
Issues
Measuring the Effect of Foreign Aid on Growth and Poverty
Reduction or The Pitfalls of Interaction Variables
Regressions in a
number of recent papers written by staff members of the World Bank and the
IMF rely on an interaction variable (IAV) to establish the effects of
foreign aid on economic growth or the reduction of poverty. The common
assumption in these papers is that if the coefficient of this IAV is
statistically significant, then both of its components have a significant
effect on the dependent variable. That assumption is not justified in its
generality, and this paper develops two techniques that show a high
probability that in at least two of the three studies analyzed one of the
components of the IAV may not have a significant effect.
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2007/wp07145.pdf
Interrelationship between Growth, Inequality, and poverty: The Asian experience
This paper examines the
relationships between economic growth, income distribution, and poverty for 17
Asian countries for the period 1981–2001. First, it investigates how much growth
is required to offset the adverse effect of an increase in inequality on
poverty. This trade-off between inequality and growth is quantified using a tool
called the “inequality–growth trade-off index.” Second, the paper looks into the
issue of pro-poor growth. How to generate pro-poor growth is a critical
challenge for policymakers concerned with sustainable poverty reduction in
developing countries.
http://www.adb.org/Documents/ERD/Working_Papers/wp096.pdf
Pro-Poor
to Inclusive Growth: Asian Prescriptions
This
policy brief explains why developing Asia needs to move its development agenda
from poverty reduction to inclusive growth in light of new and emerging
challenges and examines its implications. First, while not preordained, the
attainment of high per capita growth and lower inequality would almost ensure
the accomplishment of the mission to eradicate extreme poverty in developing
Asia by 2020. Second, rising income inequalities and the persistence of
unacceptably high non-income inequalities pose a clear and present danger to
sustaining Asia’s growth. Third, inclusive growth that focuses …….
http://www.adb.org/Documents/EDRC/Policy_Briefs/PB048.pdf
The
World is Still Waiting - Broken G8 promises are costing millions of lives
As the
2007 German G8 summit approaches, the demands of the millions of anti-poverty
campaigners worldwide are clear. G8 leaders must increase and improve aid to
provide health, education, water and sanitation for all. They must cancel more
debt and deliver trade justice. Where action has been taken by G8 countries,
lives are being saved. Yet despite some areas of real progress, in the past two
years overall progress has fallen far short of promises. The cost of this
inaction is millions of lives lost due to poverty. G8 countries must meet their
promises to the world.
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/issues/debt_aid/downloads/bp103_g8.pdf
Why Has
Unemployment Risen In The New South Africa
The paper discusses the rise
in unemployment in South Africa since the transition in 1994. It describes the
likely causes of this increase and analyze whether the increase in unemployment
is due to structural changes in the economy (resulting in a new equilibrium
unemployment rate) or to negative shocks (that temporarily have increased
unemployment). The analysis includes a multinomial logit approach to
understanding transitions in individual-level changes in labor market status
using the first nationally representative panel in South Africa.
http://papers.nber.org/papers/w13167.pdf
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
Please send us your
comments on the E-Newsletter to
citee@cuts.org
Contact Us
CUTS International
D-217, Bhaskar Marg, Bani
Park
Jaipur, India
Ph: +91.141.2282821
Fax: +91.141.2282485
If you no longer want to
receive the E-Newsletter, you can click
Unsubscribe
and send us a mail.
|
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. |
|
