ICTSD » Think piece

Trade and Development Symposium | Perspectives on the Multilateral Trading System

interns — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 09:53:21 +0000

On this page are the think pieces on the Future of the Multilateral Trading System that were made available during the Trade and Development Symposium (TDS), which was held from 16 to 17 December 2011 in Geneva. Please note that they are in draft form and the final version will be available in our upcoming E-book.

James Bacchus - A Way Forward for the WTO

Roderick Abbott - The Future of the Multilateral Trading System and the WTO

Pradeep Mehta - Towards a Multilateral Framework on Competition Policy

Rorden Wilkinson - Four Principles for Reforming the WTO

Andrew Stoler - WTOplus Issues in the Multilateral Trading System

Robert Lawrence - Competing with Regionalism by Revitalizing the WTO

Debra Steger - Establishment of a Dispute Tribunal in the WTO

Nicolas Imboden - The Accession of Least Developed Countries to the World Trade Organization

Lin Guijin - The Revival of Industrial Policy: How should the WTO address it?

Carolyn Deere Birkbeck - The Future of the WTO: Governing Trade for a Fairer, More Sustainable Future

Miguel Rodriguez Mendoza - Towards ‘plurilateral plus’ agreements

Roberto Bouzas - Towards ‘Plurilateral plus’ Agreements

Peter Draper - Africa’s Tripartite Preferential Trade Agreement and the PTA-WTO Conference Debate: Yin and Yang

Kimberly Ann Elliot - Breaking the Deadlock on Market Access for Least Developed Countries

Kevin Gallagher - The Challenging Opportunities for the Multilateral Trade Regime

Carlos Galperin - Biofuel Policies as a Complement to and a Substitute for Agricultural Policies

Henry Gao - The Shifting Stars: The Rise of China, Emerging Economies and the Future of World Trade Governance

Gary Hufbauer - The Trans-Pacific Parnership

Magda Shahin - There is Nothing Wrong with the WTO

Rashid Sumaila - Is an All or Nothing WTO Fisheries Subsidies Agreement Achievable?

Pedro de Motta Veiga - Should the WTO deal with Private Sector Initiatives?

Marcel Vaillant - How to Encourage the Network Trade Rules Interconnections? An Application to the Case of Non Tariff Barriers

Mahesh Sugathan - Harnessing Trade and Markets for Sustainable Energy: A Case for a Sustainable Energy Trade Initiatives

Peter Allgeier - The Trade Toolbox and Environmental Sustainability: The Case for Fisheries

Think Piece | The Political Economy of Trade and Food Security

Ammad Bahalim — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 12:19:42 +0000

Securing enough food to meet the needs of a growing global population requires managing the complex interplay between farming at home and trade with others. Andrea Woolverton, Anita Regmi and Ann Tutwiler look into challenges of political economy that undernourishment presents and how donors, such as the US, may be able to help.

Trade Policy and Food Security: Farm Policies of Developed Countries

Ammad Bahalim — Tue, 04 May 2010 11:56:09 +0000

Farm Policies in developed countries have been widely blamed for creating problems for food security in developing countries. These problems have included high barriers to developing country exports, low prices in world markets for staple foods, unstable prices that inhibit investment, and more generally an imbalance between agricultural progress in developed and developing countries. Many of these criticisms are well aimed, and this note will not attempt a defense against those arguments that are less than persuasive.

Ensuring trade policy supports food security goals

Ammad Bahalim — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:43:47 +0000

This brief summarizes the trade policy areas of concern for governments as they prepare for the upcoming World Summit on Food Security.

Developing Country Use of the WTO Dispute Settlement System:Why it Matters, the Barriers Posed, and its Impact on Bargaining

Andrew Aziz — Mon, 16 May 2005 15:29:00 +0000

The legalized dispute settlement system of the World Trade Organization (WTO) has been hailed as a new development in international economic relations in which law, more than power, might reign. Nowhere has the international “rule of law” advanced more than in trade law. And yet, such declarations beckon the question of who predominantly uses this legal system, who prevails, and how does it affect bargaining in the system’s shadow? Can the legal system work for smaller countries, and, in particular, small developing countries? To what extent has legal capacity– the ability to mobilize legal resources to prepare and litigate a WTO case–replaced the premium provided by market power? What steps could smaller and poorer countries take to mobilize legal resources to participate more effectively? How could changes in the dispute settlement system’s rules, or in the application of WTO rules by the system’s judicial bodies, facilitate small countries’ ability to pursue legal claims? These are the questions, and implicit within them, the challenges, that this paper raises. The paper examines not trade barriers as we conventionally conceive of them, but rather the barriers posed for smaller and poorer WTO members to challenge or even recognize trade barriers in the first place.

Soon to be published in the book “Field Guide on Issues, Challenges and Experiences of Developing Countries with the DSU”.