Round Of Trade Negotiations Research Articles

The Social Dimension of Globalization: A Review of the Literature

One of the worldwide goals is to make globalization a fairer and more suitable process for all. Therefore, this paper provides an analysis of the literature encompassing globalization so as to ultimately get a better understanding on how to attain this goal. The authors separate globalization in two categories: the first contains factors such as trade, investment, technology, cross-border production systems, information flows, and communication and is characterized as irreversible; and the second concerns the increased homogenization of policies and institutions across the world, which is the result of policy choices. Furthermore, the social dimension of globalization is described as the effect globalization can have on the life and work of people, their families, and their societies. Therefore the paper recommends a set of policies that can help make globalization fairer overall. Some of these suggestions include for national governments to invest in education and training, adopt core labour standards, provide and improve social protection, tackle national inequality, and discuss globalisation. On an international level, creating a development round of trade negotiations and new financial architecture is also recommended to start reforming the way the world has dealt with globalization so far. This paper was written as an insight into the work of the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization 2004 that aims to provide a fairer globalization for all.

International Institutions and Domestic Coalitions: The Differential Effects of Negotiations and Judicialization in European Trade Policy

In this paper, I analyze the impact of international trade institutions on domestic coalition formation. I argue that the size of coalitions crucially depends on the degree of institutionalization and judicialization of international trade institutions. The traditional political instrument of international trade negotiations fosters broad, sector-wide coalitions on the part of private industry, whereas judicialization in trade relations leads to a fragmentation of these domestic trade policy coalitions. The reason is that reciprocal trade negotiations - both liberalizing or trade restricting - incite government negotiators to strive for package deals, for which they seek to secure political support from sector-wide coalitions, often organized in industry peak associations. Case-by-case judicialized procedures, on the other hand, such as anti-dumping and market access investigations, or international dispute settlement, essentially de-link issues, moving interest representation to the level of intra-sectoral trade associations. In contrast to existing, predominantly economic explanations, this international institutional explanation can account for coalition patterns during both GATT (1947-1994), which consisted of a series of trade negotiation Rounds, and the WTO (1995-), which combines the reciprocity of negotiations with the multilateral spread of judicialized trade policy instruments. Comprehensive databases provide evidence related to the predominantly intra-sectoral trade associations that lodge complaints with judicialized instruments, while qualitative analysis of domestic coalitions in the EU reveals how sector-wide peak associations organize during negotiation Rounds and have reshuffled their membership structures in order to better accommodate the interests of their constituent product-specific members. The increasing role of the 'rule of law' in international trade relations, therefore, has a fragmenting and dividing effect on the coalitions that inform contemporary trade policy-making.

Trade, Growth, and the Environment

For the last ten years environmentalists and the trade policy community have engaged in a heated debate over the environmental consequences of liberalized trade. The debate was originally fueled by negotiations over the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Uruguay round of GATT negotiations, both of which occurred at a time when concerns over global warming, species extinction and industrial pollution were rising. Recently it has been intensified by the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and proposals for future rounds of trade negotiations. The debate has often been unproductive. It has been hampered by the lack of a common language and also suffered from little recourse to economic theory and empirical evidence. The purpose of this essay is set out what we currently know about the environmental consequences of economic growth and international trade. We critically review both theory and empirical work to answer three basic questions. What do we know about the relationship between international trade, economic growth and the environment? How can this evidence help us evaluate ongoing policy debates? Where do we go from here?

The Determinants of Intra‐Industry Trade in Insurance Services

AbstractIn light of the growing significance of trade in financial services, and the emphasis placed on trade in financial services during the Uruguay round of trade negotiations, this article is the first study of the determinants of intra‐industry trade (IIT) in insurance services. The article analyzes and measures the magnitude of IIT in insurance services for the United States. The empirical results of the determinants of IIT indicate that foreign direct investment in insurance services (FDI) is a significant contributor to the volume of trade in insurance services. These empirical findings confirm the new theoretical trade models that, unlike the traditional trade theory that considered trade and foreign direct investment in insurance services as substitutes, trade and FDI complement each other and hence multinational insurance companies are contributing to an increase in the volume of trade in insurance services. Furthermore, this study shows that trade intensity between the United States and its trading partners leads to product differentiation in insurance services and hence an increase in consumer welfare.

The Road From Doha: The Issues for the Development Round of the Wto and the Future of International Trade

After the debacle in Seattle in December 1999, the Fourth Ministerial Conference of WTO members took place successfully under tight security in the capital city, Doha, of the small Arabian state of Qatar in November 2001. The Doha conference did not adopt any new treaty or protocoll to add to the network of WTO agreements already in place. It did, however, approve a ‘broad and balance ’ work programme in the form of two declarations—a main declaration and one on trade related intellectual property rights (TRIPS) and public health, plus a decision on implementation designed to alleviate the difficulties of developing countries in implementing the existing WTO agreements. In other words, the Doha conference agreed on the nature and scope of the next round of trade negttiations, named as the ‘Development Round’. Although some least-developed countries had argued that ‘no new round should be started until there has been full implementation of the agreements concluded in the last Round, and an evaluation of their effects done’, the Doha Conference decided to start a new round of trade negotiations. How development oriented is the agenda of the new round of trade negotiations? What is going to be negotiated during th e negotiations? Is it indeed going to be a ‘Development Round’ in more than name? The object of this article is to analyse the background to the Doha conference, to assess the nature of negotiations at the conference and to evaluate its outcome.

The European Community's Evolving Precautionary Principle – Comparisons with the United States and Ramifications for Doha Round Trade Negotiations

Summary: Acceptance of the precautionary principle has grown from its historic roots in Germany to encompass virtually every European Community Member State and institution, including the Court of Justice. However, this broad support belies notable uncertainty regarding the principle's true meaning and standards of application at both the Community and Member State level. Similar ambiguities exist in the United States. United States regulators frequently employ precautionary standards but do so without explaining the rationale for their approach or drawing upon the lessons of their European colleagues. These uncertainties are to be expected from a concept as intrinsically vague and indeterminate as the precautionary principle. However, they make it exceedingly difficult to incorporate the principle into the current Doha round of trade negotiations. Simply put, if a negotiator is not certain of her own position, how can she most effectively argue the merits of her position to others? United States and European authorities should therefore regroup and decide for themselves precisely what the principle means, and how it should be implemented, before debating its merits in the current round of WTO negotiations.

Multilateral Determinants of Regionalism: The Effects of GATT/WTO on the Formation of Preferential Trading Arrangements

AbstractPreferential trading arrangements (PTAs) have spread widely over the past fifty years. During the same era, multilateral openness has grown to unprecedented heights, spurred by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and its successor, the World Trade Organization (WTO). If the cornerstone of the manifestly successful multilateral regime is nondiscrimination, why have its members increasingly resorted to preferential liberalization? We argue that developments at the heart of GATT/WTO encourage its members to form PTAs as devices to obtain bargaining leverage within the multilateral regime. Specifically, the growth in GATT/WTO membership, the periodic multilateral trade negotiation rounds, as well as participation and, especially, losses in formal GATT/WTO disputes, have led its members to seek entrance into PTAs. Conducting the first statistical tests on the subject, we find strong evidence in support of this argument.

Tussen schok en overgang : de Europese Unie in 2001

Without doubt, the year 2001 will remain identified with the terrorist attacks of september 11. To some extent, this goes for the European Union as well. The events of september 11 left an important mark on the European integration process, of which the development of the European arrest warrant is an important illustration. Nevertheless, as for the European Union, the year 2001 was more than a year of anti-terrorism measures. In the second semester of2001, the Belgian government assumed the presidency ofthe European Union. 2001 was also the year in which, only weeks after street violence disruputed the European Council ofGöteborg, a protester was killed in the margin ofthe G7-G8 Summit in Genova. In 2001, the gap between the European Union and the United States got larger for a number of policy fields, including National Missile Defence and the Kyoto Protocol. Yet, in the autumn of2001, both power blocks reconciliated at the WTO Ministerial Conference in Doha, Qatar. In Doha, a new global round of trade negotiations was launched. As in previous years, in 2001, the enlargement process was high on the European agenda. As for the latter, for the first time, ten candidate countries were mentioned by name, making their accession in 2004 a more realistic scenario. The eastern enlargement will radically change the face of the European Union. The Belgian presidency anticipated this impeding metamorphosis and stimulated the adoption of the Laeken Declaration in december 2001. The Declaration laid the foundation for the Convention on the Future of Europe which started on February 28, 2002. The Declaration of Laeken was one of the European highlights of 2001. The low point was the Irish referendum of June 7, 2001, in which a majority of the Irish population rejected the Treaty of Nice. Both events reflect the situation the European Union is faced with today, as they demonstrate the growing tension between the desires of «widening» and «deepening» the European construction. The future willreveal how the European Union went with this growing area of tension.

Where Do Developing Countries Go After Doha? An Analysis of WTO Positions and Potential Alliances

In the wake of the November 2001 Ministerial Conference in Doha, the positions of most members of the World Trade Organisation diverge, reflecting a large extent of disagreement within the organisation. This paper attempts to organise these positions and thereby inspire a debate on the possibility of collusion in the coming round of trade negotiations with a particular focus on the options of developing countries. Members' positions on a range of issues identified as important in the coming round are rated and used as inputs in a correlation analysis and two forms of cluster analyses to identify potential alliances between members with reasonably similar positions. The paper identifies nine clusters of countries that are internally similar. Among these clusters, the positions of most developing countries are most similar to the positions of the so-called Cairns group and the US, whereas the European Union and Norway are significantly isolated and positioned far away from the developing countries. The paper concludes that developing countries have opportunities of forming alliances with specific developed countries in order to promote their trade objectives in the coming round of negotiations.

TRIPS and the Primacy of Public Health

The 1984 Uruguay round of trade negotiations was criticized by many as discriminating against developing countries. On the issue of intellectual property, the contentious issue was that of the patent protection given to the drugs manufacturers, mostly based in developed countries. In this article, Shinzo Kobori, distinguished research fellow at the Institute for International Policy Studies, explores the issues surrounding the dilemma: the drugs need to be provided for many people in the developing world but, on the other hand, adequate compensation needs to be given to pharmaceutical companies producing the medicine. Focusing on pharmaceutical patents of anti-AIDS/HIV drugs, he examines the barriers to access to essential drugs in developing countries. Kobori goes on to scrutinize the various policy options including compulsory licensing and parallel imports, and describes the potential hurdles facing global drug companies in light of the challenges from Brazil, South Africa and the US.

India at the Doha ministerial meeting: an analysis

The outcome of the Fourth Session of the WTO (World Trade Organisation) Ministerial Conference at Doha, 9–13 November 2001, has been a mixed bag. On a balance, however, it seemed to have achieved more than anticipated gains for India in select critical and contentious areas. In the period preceding the Ministerial Conference, generally opposing views on issues to be included in the agenda for negotiations were discernible. Whilst the DMD (Draft Ministerial Declaration) that aimed at charting the immediate agenda for negotiation at the Ministerial Conference did not explicitly mention a new round of trade negotiations, it covered all the issues that clearly pointed towards a broad-based agenda being imminent. India and some other developing countries continued to oppose the launch of a new round. They stressed the resolution of commitments made under the Uruguay Round before an expansion of the scope of multilateral trade negotiations to include other issues, such as investment, competition policy, transparency in government procurement, trade facilitation, labour, and environment. On the other hand, developed countries, particularly the United States and the EU (European Union) strongly favoured the launch of a new round of trade negotiations that would address these issues. The focus of this paper is on a preand post-Doha analysis of what India set out to achieve for itself and its successes and failures. Further, the paper attempts to outline pragmatically some directions for the future.

Seizing the Future: The South, Sustainable Development and International Trade

The failure at Seattle to agree the mandate for a new round of trade negotiations represents a dual crisis, not only for the trade community, but also for those supporting a shift to sustainable development. At the root of the crisis lies the North-South faultline, with an embedded sense of inequity keeping developing countries forever wary of the industrialized countries, not least on linkages between trade and the environment. But Seattle also showed that the South's current non-strategy towards trade and environment-opposing any formal linkage within the WTO, for example-is flawed. As a result, the South is now seen as the global scapegoat for inaction on trade and environment, and has shut itself out of opportunities to shape the direction of the debate. Furthermore, trade and environmental factors are being progressively linked in the marketplace-not because of the WTO, but in spite of it. The challenge for the South is to take a more proactive approach, generating a positive agenda for change based on issues of sustainable livelihoods, environmental justice and sustainable development more broadly. One starting point is to test current policy positions against the alternative visions of the future-for example, through scenario planning-and to develop a robust ‘no regrets’ programme for engagement. The South has the most to gain from a world structured around the norms of sustainable development, and, as a result, it has the primary responsibility for reorienting the goals of trade away from the limited agenda of ‘free trade’, towards the more inclusive programme of ‘sustainable trade’. Whether this reorientation takes place, and whether the South takes a hand in shaping this process, will be one of the central questions for the years ahead.

Trade, competition and antidumping—Breaking the impasse!?

Recent reviews of the WTO, while cautioning against broadening its scope, nevertheless agree that antidumping concerns would need to be addressed “somehow”. Obviously, promoting international market access and “fair” competition is difficult in the presence of divergent rules for dealing with private market power and non-border restraints to trade. This is especially true once these differences are taken to justify preferences for highly discretionary trade policy measures in dealing with dumping concerns. Antidumping and the prerequisite competition issues will therefore have to be put onto the agenda of the new round of trade negotiations.

Post-Uruguay Round Trade Negotiations: A Developing Country Perspective

I feel greatly honoured at being invited to deliver this year's Kale Memorial Lecture. The choice of the subject of my lecture today, let me confess, has been dictated by several, considerations. Since in a public lecture I could not expect a captive audience of students as in a classroom, I did not want to drive prospective listeners away by speaking on an esoteric topic of little contemporary relevance. In the context of the dramatic disarray with which the Seattle ministerial meet, scheduled to draw up an agenda for post-Uruguay round trade negotiations, has just ended, I could hardly have chosen a more topical subject for my lecture.

Developing countries in the WTO: Support or resist the 'millennium' round?

A fundamental question to be decided at the November/December 1999 World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial meeting is whether to support or resist a new round of trade negotiations. The author argues that while many developing countries, and development NGOs, are right to feel that the earlier Uruguay round produced results skewed in favour of developed countries, there is nothing to be gained from resisting a new round: rather, developing countries should signal their willingness to get involved, but only if certain conditions are met. `[C]onstructive, but critical, support' is the only way to realise benefits and avoid further marginalisation.

Africa and Europe: The Changing Economic Relationship

* Contents * 1. Capital flows and private investment in the single European market * 2. Recent developments in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe * 3. The Uruguay round of trade negotiations * 4. The CFA devaluation and the future of African monetary cooperation * 5. The future of African-European relations

Food packaging, international standards related to food safety and quality, and trade†

International trade is subject to the Final Act of the Uruguay Round Multilateral Trade Negotiations’ Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phyto‐sanitary Measures (the SPS Agreement) and Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (the TBT Agreement). These Agreements, the purpose of which is the freeing up of trade and the removal of restraints to the greatest extent possible, affect all countries that are members of the World Trade Organization, and have an impact upon all countries that are exporters. Trade in food is subject to these rules, which include provision for countries to apply safety and quality measures to protect the consumer. Such consumer protection measures extend to all aspects of food, including its packaging. The SPS and TBT Agreements press for ‘harmonization’ based upon the adoption of standards developed by international standards setting bodies and require countries to participate in their work. The relevant body with respect to food safety and quality measures is the Codex Alimentarius Commission, which is implemented by the Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme. The work of the Codex Alimentarius Commission in harmonization within the context of food packaging and the rules applying to world trade is discussed.

Impacts of GATT/Uruguay Round Trade Negotiations on U.S. Beef and Cattle Prices

The GATT/Uruguay Round trade negotiations have resulted in a multilateral relaxation of beef trade restrictions. A linear elasticity model of the U.S. beef industry is developed using log differentials equations. Beef consumption, production, and trade are disaggregated into appropriate ground and table cut components. The model predicts that GATT/Uruguay Round will cause asymmetric effects on ground and table cut beef consumers. In general, fed cattle and cow/calf producers will benefit from trade liberalization because of increases in fed and feeder cattle prices. However, nonfed cattle price will decrease.

Export promotion: the role of transportation subsidies

An important objective of recent General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)/World Trade Organization (WTO) rounds of trade negotiations has been to urge member countries to adopt trade policies that are more transparent in their effects. One example in this regard has been the move towards tariffication of non‐tariff barriers in an effort to make the price effects of trade barriers more readily discernible. This goal remains largely unfulfilled, as many countries continue to implement barriers that are often complicated and “disguised” in their effects. Instead of adopting direct export subsidies, for example, some countries subsidize the use of a specialized input into the production of a final product. While the effect of this subsidization is similar to a direct export subsidy, the effects are not transparent in that the subsidy applies to an input and the effect that the subsidy has on trade depends on the importance of the input in the cost of producing the final product. Furthermore, there is often no way of calculating the effects of these disguised barriers in a straightforward manner.

Global Monopolies: No Longer Outside Trade Rules?

Within national frontiers, the law has long been used to encourage competition and stop restrictive practices. Not so with trade: or at least, not until the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations was finally concluded last year. This article sets out the implications of the new trade regime and outlines issues of importance to businesses in the next round of trade negotiations.