World Trade Research Articles

Trade and Inequality-considerations of the Gini Coefficient, Female Employment, Natural Resources, and Economic Growth

With the deepening development of globalization and world trade, the gap between human individuals has been paid more and more attention by researchers in the field of economic and social sciences. However, a large body of literature focuses on the inequality caused by trade and globalization, while relatively ignoring other inequality factors, such as women's participation in the work force, especially in developing countries with low international influence. This paper refers to the exports of goods and services (% of GDP), the Gini coefficient, the share of female labor force in the total labor force, natural resource rental income (% of GDP), the natural logarithm of GDP per capita (economic growth) of 20 different developing countries with the highest trade volume in the world. The interrelation of exports of goods and services, as a percent of GDP, to the latter four is analyzed. A multiple regression model was set up. The model results show that a country's export of goods and services is not significantly correlated with the Gini coefficient, indicating that trade does not directly cause the expansion of a country's income gap; As the trade volume is significantly positively correlated with the number of female labor force, it indicates that the expansion of trade makes more women participate in the work force. For some countries, exports of goods and services are significantly and positively related to the country's natural resource rental income, while for some countries they are not. The export of goods and services has a significantly positive correlation effect on a country's economic growth.

WTO Reform to Address the Exhaustion of Member States' Benefits

This article explores the need for World Trade Organization (WTO) reform and the direction it should take to adapt to and promote global trade developments. It begins with a discussion of the impact and current status of WTO membership on member countries, including the WTO's role and influence in global trade and the benefits it brings to member countries. The paper then outlines the reasons for the current depletion of benefits, new challenges and opportunities for global trade development, and the importance of reform for member countries and the global economy. In addition, it explores the principles and directions of reform, such as respect for the multilateral trading system, enhanced oversight and transparency, and improved dispute settlement mechanisms. The document also proposes specific reform measures and implementation paths, including increasing the participation and agenda-setting capacity of member countries, strengthening cooperation and coordination mechanisms among member countries, promoting trade facilitation and reducing trade barriers. Finally, this paper summarizes and looks forward to the future of WTO reform.

Reasons for International Trade Barriers and Suggestions to Eliminate Trade Barriers

In the International trades, trade barriers are common. However, regardless of how some countries may view the trade barriers, the tendency of world trade is still open and free. Besides, some international laws and treaties have regulated that states should promote the freedom of international trade, or it is against the obligations. Therefore, it is necessary to research on why international trade barriers exist and to give some suggestions to solve this problem. This paper conducted a literature review in the reason for international trade barriers. Four angles were being discussed: domestic political, income inequality, national security and culture influence. After examining 30 papers and law provisions, we got some conclusions. Reasons for international trade barriers are diverse, including the protection for states economy, security and the peoples interests. It also takes narrow nationalism and extreme patriotism and populism into consideration. To solve this problem, this paper suggests from the reform of WTO and some changes in the international treaties. On the other hand, this paper also has some advice to states to solve their domestic conflicts.

De-Dollarization

De-dollarization is a “significant reduction in the use of dollars in world trade and financial transactions, [as well as] decreasing national, institutional and corporate demand” for United States dollars. (Goldman Sachs 2023; Li Yuefen 2024) De-dollarization has been a persistent theme since the collapse of the Bretton Woods Gold System in 1971 and the rising US national debt. (Cohen 2015) Efforts to minimise reliance upon the US dollar, such as the 1976 introduction of the IMF Special Drawing Right and the 2002 introduction of the Euro, failed to displace dollar dominance. (Eichengreen 2011) The Euro is a currency without a Nation State and the IMF SDR is not a currency used to invoice and settle international trade and financial transactions. However, the decision of the United States to “weaponize” the use of the dollar and to impose restrictions on global payment systems have impelled countries to construct an alternative to the dollar system. (Sen 2019) This article first examines the adverse effects of using the US dollar as a global reserve currency. Second, the article examines the application of economic sanctions, specifically against the Russian Federation, to illustrate the probable development of an alternative reserve and invoice currency to co-exist with the dollar. Third, the article posits the conditions necessary to establish a viable alternative to the dollar and then examines efforts to promote alternatives to global payment systems such as SWIFT, and to build a new reserve currency. The article concludes: [1] the imposition of economic sanctions compels target countries to create alternative financial systems and settle international trade in national currencies; [2] establishing a new reserve currency out of whole cloth is a formidable task and lacks a recent historical counterpart, [3] the renminbi is the likely currency to rival, not displace, the US dollar.

21. Main trends in world, European and French trade

21. Main trends in world, European and French trade

A Big History of Land Clearance and Deforestation

The gathering and hunting humans who evolved from earlier manifestations of Homo changed the distribution of forests on the planet through their use of fire to direct biological productivity to their sustenance, and through their contribution to the elimination of much of the global terrestrial megafauna. Land clearance at any scale awaited the development of agriculture, the several independent origins of which may indicate that it is an emergent outcome from the combination of a social animal who can transmit knowledge through generations and who lives in environments that support high numbers of food plants. The transition from uncleared forest and treeless land to land cleared for agriculture was slow, often reversed, and limited by the necessity to produce more energy in food production than in the inputs that created comestibles. Increases in cleared land until the nineteenth century were largely a product of the displacement of gathering and hunting people by disease-ridden European agriculturalists and world trade imposed on non-Europeans by colonialists. The explosion in fossil fuel usage from the nineteenth century onwards enabled exponential growth in human populations and cleared land, with the consequence of a crash in forest cover. Ironically, attempts to mitigate global warming caused by increased fossil fuel use, deforestation and land clearance have resulted in more land clearance for biofuels. While settlements, roads, logging, plantation establishment and dam construction have all contributed to the decrease in the native terrestrial cover of the planet, their contribution has been minor compared to the massive impact of agricultural development.

Article: Bidonomics Versus Maganomics: Pick Your Poison

This essay examines the international trade policies of Joseph Biden and Donald Trump, the two presumed candidates for President of the United States in 2024. I first analyse the trade law revolution effected by the Trump presidency, 2017–2021. During these years the Trump administration adopted a protectionist policy rooted in nationalism and populism. As a direct result of Trump administration trade policy there occurred: (1) a significant retreat from globalization; (2) paralysis of the World Trade Organization (WTO); (3) a revival of US unilateralism in trade policy; and (4) the US-China trade war. When Joseph Biden became president in 2021, he did not reverse the Trump trade policies. Declaring his favour of a ‘worker-oriented’ trade policy, the Biden administration defended Trump’s tariff policies while continuing his hostility to both new free trade agreements and the multilateral trading system. Biden’s distinctive addition to Trump’s trade policy is a protectionist industrial policy featuring subsidies and a ‘buy American’ mandate. Despite these similarities, Trump and Biden propose very different international trade policies for 2025 and beyond. Trump intends to adopt across the board protectionist tariffs of at least 10% on all imports and tariffs of at least 60% on all Chinese imports. The former tariffs will provoke numerous tit-for-tat trade wars; the latter tariffs will economically ‘decouple’ China and the United States. Both policies will raise prices and slow global economic growth. On the other hand, Biden eschews new tariffs. American policy will be rooted in industrial subsidies and ‘buy American’ protectionism. Critics of both Trump and Biden propose a ‘third way’ set of international trade policies that avoid protectionism. This ‘third way’ would feature new free trade agreements with Asian- Pacific, European, and Western Hemisphere nations, a revival of multilateralism and the WTO, and a more constructive trade relationship with China.

The Study of Environmental Cases in World Trade Organization

The Study of Environmental Cases in World Trade Organization

Appeals after the Appellate Body

AbstractThe Appellate Body (AB) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) has not heard an appeal since 2019. This article explores how adjudicators and member states have navigated WTO dispute settlement in this post-AB world. It begins by providing an overview of dispute settlement practice from 2020 to 2022, including by cataloguing appeals into the void, appeals to arbitration, and appeals forewent. It explains the incentives created by the lack of a functioning appeals mechanism and provides background on the alternative appeals procedure agreed to among a subset of WTO members: the Multi-Party Interim Arbitration Arrangement (MPIA). Moreover, it closely examines five WTO disputes: Colombia–Frozen Fries, Turkey–Pharmaceutical Products, EU–Steel Safeguards, Thailand–Cigarettes, and Costa Rica–Avocados. Through these five disputes, the article examines the circumstances in which members have agreed to binding appeals arbitration even absent formally committing to the MPIA, the circumstances in which members have appealed to arbitration or foregone such appeals, and whether facilitated negotiations present a workable alternative to an effective appeals mechanism. Finally, this article closely analyzes the reasoning of two appeals arbitration awards issued to date – Colombia–Frozen Fries and Turkey–Pharmaceutical Products – with a special focus on how those awards depart from AB precedent and what those departures can tell us about the current crisis.

Article: Plurilateral Agreements and the Multilateral Trade System: Lessons from the Past and Present for the Future

The World Trade Organization (WTO) remains the leading international institution for global trade. As a member-driven organization, the WTO adopts decisions mainly by consensus. Whilst this promotes equality in decision-making between Members, it raises a challenge in a situation where Members are unable to achieve consensus required to adopt a decision. As a result, there is growing debate on whether WTO Members should adopt plurilateral agreements to advance their diverse interests in the system. This paper contributes to this argument by highlighting plurilateral agreements are part of the WTO system and have been used to strengthen the WTO, rather than weaken it and should be used in this manner. This paper highlights that plurilateral agreements are common concepts in the WTO and have been used to strengthen the multilateral trade system. This paper provides an overview of the use of plurilateral agreements during the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) era and under the WTO. It argues that plurilateral agreements have strengthened the trading system by operating as legally binding instruments for WTO plus commitments, a solution to multilateral inaction and an avenue for autonomy within the WTO. It concludes by emphasizing that discussions on the trade system’s reform should consider plurilateral agreements as an avenue to strengthen the multilateral trade system rather than as an alternative to or an escape route from it.

Article: Do Private Actors Have Rights under the WTO? The Motivation for and (Inadequate) Implementation of GATT Article X

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) Article X has been consistently overlooked in literature even though it is a unique provision in the GATT-regime: it acknowledges standing for private actors who can challenge trade-related administrative action by World Trade Organization (WTO) members. This provision is an unusual instantiation of the need to provide transparency for private actors about state policy. It is equally eccentric in seeming to provide a right for private actors to challenge governments, albeit only before domestic fora. How did the GATT end up with this provision? And are these apparent private rights meaningful in practice? Since implementation of Article X rarely arises in WTO disputes, this paper proposes an answer to the second question based on six case studies of the United States of America (US), Canada, the European Union (EU), Brazil, China, and India. This is a heterogenous group that comprises big trading nations. We find wide variance in state practice. We conclude with suggestions that would strengthen the WTO demos by providing better information through WTO monitoring on the rights accorded to private actors and the introduction of an explicit code of good practice.

“Especially in This Free Country”: Webs of Empire, Slavery, and the Fur Trade

Spanning the years from late 1600s and into the early 1800s “‘Especially in This Free Country:’ Webs of Empire, Slavery and the Fur Trade” challenges a historiography that positions what has come to be known as the Canadian fur trade as exceptional in its relationships between colonizers and Indigenous peoples, where interactions between Indigenous producers and non-Indigenous traders are presented as largely cooperative and peaceful and as rooted in relationships that operated in the absence of coerced or unfree labour. In fact, the fur trade, connected as it was through webs of family/business relationships to the rest of the colonial world was not exceptional. Across northern North America the fur trade world experienced the same sorts of violence, including chattel slavery, as the rest of the empires with which these webs connected. Far from absent, colonial violence was a part of the Canadian fur trade just as it was a part of empire. Located in the pre-history of Canada, this thesis responds to Harvey Amani Whitfield’s observation that, although there have been some excellent studies of slavery in Canada recently, “slavery has not become part of the Canadian national narrative” 1 by arguing that chattel slavery in the fur trade in what would become Canada was linked to the empires it was a part of, pervasive, integrated into all aspects of the fur trade, and occurred across the northern North American continent.

The Strategic Role of Islamic Kingdoms in Aceh in the 18th and 19th Centuries: The Case of Trade in Kuala Batee and Trumon

Kuala Batee and Trumon kingdoms had an important role in the spice trade, especially pepper in the archipelago. Both kingdoms were fragments of the Susoh kingdom, all of which were special autonomous kingdoms under the Sultanate of Aceh Darussalam in the 18th century. A historical analysis approach knows several important findings. First, the Kuala Batee and Trumon kingdoms emerged as part of Aceh's growing power on the South West Coast after it ceased to rule in Minangkabau in 1665. Secondly, these kingdoms were originally fragments of the Susoh kingdom. They were subject to the rule of the Sultan of Aceh before finally putting up a fight. Third, as Aceh's control weakened, the Kuala Batee and Trumon kingdoms established trade relations with other regions, including Europeans and the United States, making them strategic powers in world trade.

Landmarks to Lived experiences: A comparative study of Bahrain World Trade Center and Bahrain Bay Towers

The potential reverberation of urban development on the cityscape through its building functions and heightsgenerates a skyline, creating an aesthetic geographical pattern. Some have a tagline of being iconic, while others striveto attain it. The term 'iconic' is an emblem of expression, a mixture of traditional and contemporary design, and,foremost, the city's oldest superstructure. Bahrain has been fast progressing, exemplified by its wonderous skylinesand a blend from old to new. Bahrain World Trade Centre is one of its so-called 'iconic' and has won many awardsaround the globe for its sustainability aspect, while others are popping out of the datum, one of them is thecontemporary Bahrain Bay Towers, with a pride of being the tallest building in the skyline of Manama. This studyconducts pilot research comparing two superstructures, focusing on the perceptions and sensory experiences ofpeople living among them.

Trade war: the steel and aluminum markets and the trade governance

The international institutionalism has been under debate. The World Trade Organization (WTO) has not been immune to strong criticisms that has been exacerbated in recent years. A turning point in this process was the trade war between the United States and China that began in 2018. It was characterized by tariff increases that persist. The contribution of this work is to show how these measures taken by relevant global players (such as the United Sates and China) have significantly affected the international markets and it impacted on third countries, not only in terms of trade flows but also when considering the international trade regulatory framework. The drop in the demand from the United States implied a fall in the global demand that caused a fall in international prices. Moreover, it is shown that Trump's measures were successful given that China was substituted by other suppliers. Finally, his protectionist strategy against China, was accompanied by a broader strategy against the World Trade Organization by blocking not only the negotiations during the Buenos Aires Ministerial Conference but also the Dispute Settlement System.

Problems of assessing the balance of economic systems

Subject. The article investigates a model of the balance of the national economic system. Objectives. The study aims at identifying the main characteristics of the balance of economic systems to create a methodology for assessing the balance of the national economic system, and factors affecting it. Methods. We employed general scientific methods of cognition. The systems approach and logical generalization enabled to develop priority areas of the proposed methodology. We also applied methods of statistical analysis of economic data, economic-mathematical methods. Results. We proposed our own methodology for distribution of economic activities by type of subsystems, based on the proposed by G.B. Kleiner model, in two versions, i.e. excluding and including exports and imports. We also offered recommendations and strategies for improving the balance of the economy, which contribute to increasing its competitiveness and sustainability in the face of modern challenges and changes in the world arena. Our model enables to assess the impact of external factors, like global economic trends, changes in the world trade and crisis situations, on the economic stability of a country and development of its industries. Conclusions. The analysis of changes in the balance index in the context of foreign trade and industries helps assess the dynamics of balance and identify factors, including the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, that may affect the economic stability and development of the country.

Defining directions for improving regulation of private law forms of technology transfer in the European Union

The object of this study is the existing regulatory approaches to the definition of private law forms of technology transfer in the law of the European Union, international treaties, and agreements. In the course of research and generalization of existing concepts, it was established that they are not unified and differ significantly. It has been proven that this does not meet the needs of technology transfer participants and destabilizes the technology transfer process. The expediency of improving the existing concept of defining private law forms of technology transfer by unifying them has been substantiated. Recommendations on the list of the main forms of technology transfer have been formed based on a systematic analysis of regulatory legal acts that determine the content of technology. A classification of the main private law forms of technology transfer has been proposed. Three main groups of private law forms of technology transfer were distinguished. The expediency of assigning each private law form of transfer to a certain group was substantiated. Directions for improving the current regulation of private law forms of technology transfer have been formed, by summarizing and supplementing them. The need to make changes to the provisions of such international treaties and agreements as the World Trade Organization Agreements, the Recommendations of the World Organization for the Protection of Intellectual Property, the Oslo Guidelines, the UNCTAD Recommendations, and the framework program "Horizon Europe" has been proven. The research was aimed at the formation of general theoretical foundations for the improvement of regulatory methods of identification of private law forms of technology transfer. The research results can be used in the formation of international normative acts, recommendations of international institutions, acts of national legislation and serve as a basis for further scientific research on these issues

Fiscal revenue mobilization and digitally traded products: Taxing at the border or behind it?

The unprecedented growth of trade in digitized products has been underpinned by the World Trade Organization (WTO) moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmission, which effectively guarantees the tariff-free nature of this trade. Some countries fear that the current rules inefficiently constrain their policy space and hurt their revenue potential, and have argued for scrapping the moratorium. We examine the optimal role for domestic and border tax instruments in this context. We show that, independently of the future trajectory of trade in digitized products, broad-based nondiscriminatory value-added taxes are preferrable to tariffs both from an economic efficiency and from a revenue standpoint. These taxes are also easier to implement and administer. In this context, the moratorium is a valuable commitment device which can help to effectively channel developing countries’ tax reform efforts in a more efficient direction. This transition would require further investment by the global community in modernizing the tax and customs infrastructure of developing countries to adequately meet revenue needs in the digital era.

International Trade Law and the World Trade Organization: Promoting Global Economic Cooperation

International commerce has emerged as a key EG driver in our more interconnected world, boosting both national prosperity and individual well-being. This study intends to investigate how the World Trade Organization (WTO) and international trade law (ITL) are related and what function they play in fostering international economic cooperation. Data collection and analysis will be done using a quantitative research approach. The data collection strategy will involve the creation and distribution of online surveys to individuals interested in ITL and the WTO. The survey questionnaire will encompass inquiries about various aspects, including the impact of ITL on economic cooperation, the effectiveness of the WTO's policies, and other relevant variables. A sample size of 600 individuals, who are knowledgeable about or involved in ITL and the WTO, will be selected. Statistical analysis programs like SPSS will be used to analyze the data from the online surveys. The data will be employed to examine the relationship between ITL, the WTO, and their influence on global economic cooperation. The collected data through the questionnaire will be instrumental in achieving the objectives of this research study. The 600 questionnaires distributed were arranged in the form of a Likert Scale. This information will be gathered in order to better understand how ITL and the WTO affect international economic cooperation by shedding light on their respective contributions to that cause.

The Causes and Solutions of the China-US Trade War

In recent years, with the continuous development of the global economy and the deepening of the globalization process, the international trade pattern is undergoing major adjustments. Among them, the trade relationship between China and the US, the two largest economies, has been the focus of attention. However, the recent outbreak of the China-US trade war has brought great uncertainties and challenges to the global economy, and the strategic analysis to solve the China-US trade war is also the core content of this study. We need to explore the possibility and difficulty of appealing to the World Trade Organization, and the possibility and challenge of pursuing bilateral negotiations. In addition, we need to consider third-party arbitration mechanisms in the China-US trade war, with a view to finding effective ways to resolve trade disputes.The purpose of this study is to explore its impact on the two countries and the global economy through an in-depth analysis of the China-US trade war, and to provide references for the resolution of the China-US trade war.