An analysis of developing countries' current trade policies and market access problems is used as a basis for recommending positions for these countries in the new round of multilateral negotiations under the World Trade Organization.

An analysis of developing countries' current trade policies and market access problems is used as a basis for recommending positions for these countries in the new round of multilateral negotiations under the World Trade Organization.Michalopoulos analyzes 61 trade policy reviews prepared for the World Trade Organization (WTO) and its predecessor, GATT - reviews that document the progress developing countries have made in integration with the world trading system over the past decade. Based on an analysis of post-Uruguay Round tariff and nontariff barriers worldwide, he then recommends developing country positions on major issues in the new round of WTO trade negotiations.His key conclusions and recommendations:middot; Agriculture. Developing countries should support the Cairns Group in its push for greater liberalization of industrial countries' agricultural trade policies; the revised Food Aid Convention is not a substitute for but a complement to worldwide liberalization of agriculture.middot; Manufactures. The existence of tariff peaks and escalation in industrial country markets and the limited bindings at relatively high levels of developing country tariffs on manufactures present opportunities for negotiations with good prospects for shared and balanced benefits.The remaining nontariff barriers in industrial countries that affect manufactures are concentrated in textiles and clothing. Developing countries should ensure that industrial countries implement their commitments to liberalize this sector and impose no new nontariff barriers in this or other sectors under the guise of other rules or arrangements.The remaining nontariff barriers in developing countries should be converted into tariffs and reduced over time as part of the negotiations.middot; Antidumping. The increased use of antidumping measures by high- and middle-income developing countries in recent periods offers an opportunity for balanced negotiations to restrict their use. Reduced use of antidumping measures would increase efficiency and benefit consumers in all countries. But it is unclear whether a supportive climate for such negotiations exists in either industrial or developing countries.This paper - a product of Trade, Development Research Group - is part of a larger effort in the group to identify opportunities for developing countries in the WTO 2000 negotiations. The author may be contacted at [email protected].

In this paper, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have drawn together available research findings on the benefits of trade liberalization as well as on the obstacles to trade-oriented development.

Trade flows and trade policies need to be properly quantified to describe, compare, or follow the evolution of policies between sectors or countries or over time. This is essential to ensure that policy choices are made with an appropriate knowledge of the real conditions. This practical guide introduces the main techniques of trade and trade policy data analysis. It shows how to develop the main indexes used to analyze trade flows, tariff structures, and non-tariff measures. It presents the databases needed to construct these indexes as well as the challenges faced in collecting and processing these data, such as measurement errors or aggregation bias. Written by experts with practical experience in the field, A Practical Guide to Trade Policy Analysis has been developed to contribute to enhance developing countries' capacity to analyze and implement trade policy. It offers a hands-on introduction on how to estimate the distributional effects of trade policies on welfare, in particular on inequality and poverty. The guide is aimed at government experts engaged in trade negotiations, as well as students and researchers involved in trade-related study or research. An accompanying DVD contains data sets and program command files required for the exercises. Copublished by the WTO and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development

Investigating over twenty cases, this OECD report examines how environmental requirements can become trade barriers for developing countries.

This book brings together a collection of papers that Robert M Stern and his co-authors have written in recent years. The collection addresses a variety of issues pertinent to the global trading system. One group of papers deals with globalization in terms of what the public needs to know about this phenomenon and the role of the World Trade Organization (WTO), whether some countries may be hurt by globalization, how global market integration relates to national sovereignty, and how and whether considerations of fairness are and should be dealt with in the global trading system and WTO negotiations. A second group of papers consists of analytical and computational modeling studies of multilateral, regional, and bilateral trading arrangements and negotiations from a global and national perspective for the United States and other major trading countries. The remaining papers include an empirical analysis of barriers to international services transactions and the consequences of liberalization, and issues of international trade and labor standards.

This is primarily a textbook for graduate and upper-level undergraduate students of law. However, practising lawyers and policy-makers who are looking for an introduction to WTO law will also find it invaluable. The book covers both the institutional and substantive law of the WTO. While the treatment of the law is often quite detailed, the main aim of this textbook is to make clear the basic principles and underlying logic of WTO law and the world trading system. Each section contains questions and assignments, to allow students to assess their understanding and develop useful practical skills. At the end of each chapter there is a helpful summary, as well as an exercise on specific, true-to-life international trade problems.