This volume deals with the GATT 1994 and all related agreements, which include those on Agriculture, Textiles and Clothing, Trade-Related Investment Measures, Implementation of Article VII GATT 1994, Preshipment Inspection, Rules of Origin, Import Licensi

This new edition of Trade in Goods is an authoritative work on international trade by one of the most influential scholars in the field. It provides a comprehensive and detailed analysis of every WTO agreement dealing with trade in goods. The focus of the book is on the reasoning behind the various WTO agreements and their provisions, and the manner in which they have been understood in practice. It introduces both the historic as well as the economic rationale for the emergence of the multilateral trading system, before dealing with WTO practice in all areas involving trade in goods. It contests the claim that the international trade agreements themselves represent 'incomplete contracts', realized through interpretation by the WTO and other judicial bodies. The book comprehensively analyses the WTO's case law, and it argues that a more rigorous theoretical approach is needed to ensure a greater coherence in the interpretation of the core provisions regulating trade in goods. This second edition readdresses and moves beyond the discussion of the GATT presented in the first edition to assess in significant detail every trade in goods agreement at the WTO, both multilateral as well as plurilateral. The book is written to be accessible to those new to the field, with an authoritative level of detail and analysis that makes it essential reading for lawyers and economists alike.

This concise and reader-friendly overview of WTO law is essential reading for anyone needing an introduction to this complex field.

The book examines the economic rationale behind the current framework of international trade, and analyses the role and operation of international law in securing the benefits of a liberal economy."--BOOK JACKET.

The "Max Planck Commentaries on World Trade Law" explain the whole range of world trade law in seven individual article-by-article type commentaries. While the first volume ("WTO - World Economic Order, World Trade Law") serves as a nutshell-type introduction to the WTO, the remaining six volumes focus on specific aspects of WTO law. The second volume ("WTO - Institutions and Dispute Settlement") brings together the WTO institutional fundamentals and the whole dispute settlement. The third volume ("WTO - Technical Barriers and SPS Measures") deals with the most controversial provisions on technical standards, protection of health and environment. The fourth volume ("WTO - Trade Remedies") is devoted to the very specific area of antidumping, subsidies and safeguards. The fifth volume ("WTO - Trade in Goods") comments on the substantial trade in good rules of the GATT/WTO. Eventually, the sixth and seventh volume ("WTO - Trade in Services" and "WTO - Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights") deal with intellectual property rights and trade in services rules respectively.

World trade is governed by the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The WTO sets rules of conduct for the international trade of goods and services and for intellectual property rights, provides a forum for multinational negotiations to resolve trade problems, and has a formal mechanism for dispute settlement. It is the primary institution working, through rule-based bargaining, at freeing trade. In this book, Kyle Bagwell and Robert Staiger provide an economic analysis and justification for the purpose and design of the GATT/WTO. They summarize their own research, discuss the major features of the GATT agreement, and survey the literature on trade agreements. Their focus on the terms-of-trade externality is particularly original and ties the book together. Topics include the theory of trade agreements, the origin and design of the GATT and the WTO, the principles of reciprocity, the most favored nation principle, terms-of-trade theory, enforcement, preferential trade agreements, labor and environmental standards, competition policy, and agricultural export subsidies.