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WTO Issues
Regional Economic
Cooperation
Developmental
Issues
Call for Publications
WTO Issues
Constitutional
Economics of the WTO
It examines the World Trade Organization (WTO) from the social scientific
perspective of constitutional economics. This chapter thus seeks to
identify the causes and consequences of constitutionalization. Assuming
that states act with intentionality and accuracy in their establishment of
organizational features, the cause of constitutionalization is the desire
to effect the consequences of constitutionalization, so the focus here is
on the potential consequences of constitutionalization in and in
connection with the WTO.
http://ilreports.blogspot.com/2008/08/trachtman-constitutional-economics-of.html
Trade and Competition Policy in the Developing World: Is There a
Role for the WTO
This paper considers the possibilities that the member states of
the WTO would adopt some kind of antitrust provision. Initially, the paper
reviews the historical relation of competition policy to trade policy,
from the Havana Conference to the present. It then reviews the conflicts
between the developing and developed countries in the GATT. The paper
explores the differences between the mind-set of legislators adopting a
competition law and trade negotiators bargaining for a multilateral
reduction in tariffs.
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/antitrustprof_blog/2008/08/trade-and-compe.html
Behind the
July Failure of the WTO Talks on Doha
The failure of the “mini-ministerial”
negotiations at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on July 21-29 has sent
shockwaves throughout the world. This is because there is the feeling that
this time it may have spelt the final collapse of the Doha Work Programme
(the official name for what is now called the Doha round). As several
ministers indicated to the media at press conferences after the talks
failed, the United States’ (US) presidential elections campaign may make
it impossible for any new serious negotiations to take place now, and it
will be a year into the new president’s term before the US can
meaningfully engage again.
http://www.epw.org.in/epw//uploads/articles/12560.pdf
The new geopolitics of trade and the collapse of the mini-ministerial at
the WTO: was it “only” about the Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM)?
This article from IGTN suggests that the recent collapse of the WTO
mini-ministerial, July 2008, reflects the new geopolitics of the global
economy. The emerging economies are approaching trade issues and
negotiations differently. Particularly they place more emphasis on
supporting women employed in agriculture. There is new conviction among
negotiators that poverty and livelihood issues cannot be left to the
market to be regulated. These concerns contributed to the collapse
alongside the Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) issues.
http://www.eldis.org/go/topics/resource-guides/trade-policy&id=39161&type=Document
Social Clause in WTO and Core ILO Labour
Standards: Concerns of India and Other Developing Countries
This paper addresses the concerns linking trade with WTO and its
effect on developing countries and the ILO core labour standard
conventions and India's adherence to these core conventions. The whole
study is divided into four sections in which the first one gives an
introduction to the subject and an overview of the issue of social clause
in WTO and core labour standards. The second part will discuss the core
labour standard conventions of the ILO. The third section gives Indian
adherence to the core standards and an overview of the Indian labour
legislations dealing with the issue.
http://works.bepress.com/kdraju/20/
Regional Economic
Cooperation
Regional
Economic Integration & Trade Flows: The Experience of Asean-5 and
Japan
This study determines the effect of regional economic integration,
namely the ASEAN Free Trade Area, on bilateral trade flows between
the ASEAN-5 countries and their major trading partner, Japan. The
analysis begins with the construction of a simple country-specific
index based on the Common Effective Preferential Tariff (CEPT)
scheme of AFTA to measure the progress of economic integration of
each ASEAN-5 country. The index is then used to determine the effect
of this economic integration on bilateral trade flows between the
individual ASEAN-5 country and Japan. The empirical results of this
study based on the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL).
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1204042
Despite Doha collapse, free trade is marching on
The Doha Round didn't die this week in Geneva. It died five years
ago in Cancun, when certain ministers determined that the
negotiations would be more valuable as a stage to dazzle domestic
audiences than as a means to an agreement. This week finally
provided that clarity. Although a successful Doha conclusion would
have been welcome - if for nothing more than reaffirming nations'
commitments to the rules-based system and justifying seven years of
time and expense - the Round's failure is not a big economic
setback. Ironically, it could be the catalyst ………
http://www.freetrade.org/node/908
Dispute Settlement Under PTAs: Political or Legal?
The trend for PTAs to include formal legal processes for dispute
settlement raises many interesting issues. This paper focuses on
three central questions: (a) To what extent can dispute settlement
under PTAs be characterised as diplomatic and political rather than
legal? (b) Why is there an absence of appellate review in the
dispute settlement mechanisms of most PTAs? (c) Which forum(s) is
(are) appropriate for resolving disputes under PTAs? In reviewing
these issues, the paper also considers some aspects of the
interaction and relationship between ……….
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1203022
Caribbean Integration and Global Europe: Implications of the EPA for
the CSME
This paper critically assesses the compatibility of the CARIFORUM-EC
EPA with the proposed CARICOM Single Market and Economy—CSME.
Cross-cutting compatibility issues include development strategy and
the role of regional integration, policy space and governance; and
sectoral compatibility issues relate to trade in goods, services and
trade-related issues. The main conclusion is that the CSME, a
project for the creation/strengthening of the regional economy for
engagement with globalisation; will be superseded by the EPA, which
involves a high degree of bilateral integration of individual
Cariforum countries with Europe in trade ………
http://www.normangirvan.info/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/caribbean-integration-and-global-europe-18aug08.pdf
Bilateral Free Trade Agreements and Customs Unions: The
Impact of the EU Republic of South Africa Free Trade Agreement on Botswana
The EU has indicated that after 2008 its trade relationships with
developing countries will be dominated by the development of preferential
trade agreements. Although not a consequence of the Cotonou Agreement, the
free trade agreement between the EU and the Republic of South Africa (EU
RSA FTA) was clearly one of the first fruits of this approach to trade
relationships. However, there is no evidence that the design of the EU RSA
FTA incorporated a comprehensive general equilibrium evaluation of the
agreement for either the signatories or the other southern African
nations. The analyses reported ……….
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1245624
Developmental
Issues
A ‘New’ Approach to Global Value Chain Analysis
This paper uses new trade/new growth theories to better contextualise
Global Value Chain (GVC) analysis of ‘traditional’ and ‘non-traditional’
agricultural trade. Research suggests that GVC governance structures may
limit or enhance the applicability of new trade/new growth theories in
terms of ‘learning by doing’; and therefore the ability to value chain
upgrade. This paper tries to bridge the current divergence between
input:output and value distribution approaches to GVC analysis. The case
is made that both aspects are central to understanding upgrading processes
within agricultural GVCs and growth through trade.
http://www.odi.org.uk/publications/working_papers/wp293.pdf
Can Ethical Trade Certification Contribute to the
Attainment of the Millennium Development Goals? A Review of Organic and
Fair-Trade Certification
The growth of ethical consumerism in developed countries has led to increased
imports of environmentally and socially certified products produced by the poor
in developing countries, which could potentially contribute towards the
achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Organic products and
fair-trade products are among the rapidly growing “ethical trade” products. This
market development trend utilizes certification systems that ensure impartiality
in assessment products produced in developing countries. ………
http://www.adbi.org/discussion-paper/2008/08/25/2675.organic.fairtrade.certification/
Is Higher Demand for Biofuels Fuelling Food Prices?
Against the mounting evidence that expansion of biofuels from food crops such as
corn, rapeseed, soybean and even wheat and other coarse grains has been one of
the key drivers of food prices during recent years, policymakers in both the
United States (US) as well as European Union (EU) are trying to sidetrack
attention by putting forward arguments that increasing demand for food in
developing countries is the dominant factor pushing up food prices. While it is
true that increased consumption of food in developing countries is an important
factor … … …
http://www.epw.org.in/epw//uploads/articles/12532.pdf
Poverty alleviation
and child labor
Does child labor decrease as household income rises? This question has important
implications for the design of policy on child labor. This paper focuses on a
program of unconditional cash transfers in Ecuador. It argues that the effect of
a small increase in household income on child labor should be concentrated among
children most vulnerable to transitioning from schooling to work. The paper
finds support for this hypothesis. Cash transfers have small effects on child
time allocation at peak school attendance ages and among children already out of
school ………
http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/IW3P/IB/2008/08/26
/000158349_20080826163338/Rendered/PDF/WPS4702.pdf
The Developing World Is
Poorer Than We Thought, But No Less Successful in the Fight
against Poverty
The paper presents a major overhaul to the World Bank’s past estimates of global
poverty, incorporating new and better data. Extreme poverty—as judged by what
“poverty” means in the world’s poorest countries—is found to be more pervasive
than we thought. Yet the data also provide robust evidence of continually
declining poverty incidence and depth since the early 1980s. For 2005 we
estimate that 1.4 billion people, or one quarter of the population of the
developing world, lived below our international line of $1.25 a day in 2005
prices; 25 years earlier there were 1.9 billion poor, or one half of the
population.
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1259575
Call for
Publications
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