Saving Multilateralism: Renovating the House of Global Economic Governance for the 21st Century

Last December, the eyes of all those with a stake in international affairs turned to Europe. First they looked to Geneva, for signs that the long-running Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations at the World Trade Organization (WTO) would get back on track after years of stalemate. Then observers turned to Copenhagen, hoping to see a binding and comprehensive agreement reflecting a commitment on the part of the world’s governments to address the pressing global challenge of climate change. They were to be sorely disappointed. Inscribed on the faces of those struggling to reach agreements was a deep frustration with multilateral processes that were proving incapable of delivery. Instead of agreement, the images playing out on television screens and in newspapers around the world were of fractiousness and division, due in part to the large number of participants and contentiousness of the issues faced; of anger, on the part of all those who felt marginalized by the process; and of concern, from those looking for signs that the world still has the capacity to reach accords when it really matters. The failure of these meetings to produce formal agreements—or even specific paths to reaching agreements in the future—despite the high stakes and the political capital that had been invested in advance left many questioning the ability of the world’s leaders to meet global challenges, shedding a spotlight on the institutions and fora that were established for the purpose of achieving multilateral solutions to the most pressing collective problems of the 21st century. Why did these meetings fail? Many had assumed that the most significant economic crisis since the Great Depression and the overwhelming scientific and circumstantial evidence of damaging changes to our climate would compel world leaders to set aside their differences and reach meaningful agreements. But it did not happen. It is not that the problems are not big enough or urgent enough. The failure to reach agreements can best be seen as part of a long-term trend toward increased complexity in the world that makes it nearly impossible to reach traditional multilateral binding accords, combined with a waning of faith on the part of many countries in multilateralism and multilateral institutions

Regional integration among developing countries, revisited

Economic integration among developing countries became an important policy issue in the 1960s and early 1970s. But although intraregional trade increased in some trading groups, it remained a modest share of total trade. However, dramatic changes in the world economy have affected the environment for regional integration and cooperation. The formation of new, powerful economic and trading blocs, such as the single market of the European Community, the US-Canada free trade area, initiatives in the Pacific basin, and the transition to market economies in Central and perhaps Eastern Europe, seems to have fostered a trend toward new regionalism in the world economy. The virtual failure of the GATT negotiations may speed this up. To minimize economic losses and avoid marginalization, regional groups of developing countries must increasingly work out common positions and join one of the influential groups. Both factors require the gradual yet rapid dismantling of barriers to the free flow of production factors within regional groups. Obviously, intraregional trade cannot become an alternative to trade flows that are basically oriented to the world market. But in the 1990s, intraregional trade and economic relations are likely to grow parallel to, or even at a higher rate than, extraregional contacts.TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Trade and Regional Integration,Trade Policy

A Blueprint for Reform of the WTO Agreement on Agriculture

As the Doha negotiations are at a dead end, this paper takes a step back to address the future direction of WTO disciplines in agriculture. It puts members’ negotiating positions and the draft modalities with their ever growing list of exceptions aside to focus on three fundamental questions. First, which agricultural policy instruments should be permitted or prohibited by WTO disciplines so as to best account for the manifold effects of agriculture on societies’ welfare? Second, how should inefficient agricultural policies be treated as long as their removal is politically infeasible? And third, how can the WTO facilitate agricultural policy reform beyond establishing maximum thresholds for distorting policies? The paper argues for moving from the current ‘boxes’ of domestic subsidies to a classification system that is more responsive to the differing degree of legitimacy of agricultural policy instruments. It also proposes to introduce ‘good governance’ norms that guide members’ decision-making in agriculture towards policies that are at the same time domestically efficient and internationally responsible.Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Security and Poverty, International Relations/Trade, Political Economy,

Participation in the global knowledge commons : challenges and opportunities for research dissemination in developing countries

Due to improving Internet connectivity and a growing number of international initiatives, knowledge workers in developing countries are now getting access to scholarly and scientific publications and electronic resources at a level that is unmatched historically. This is highly significant, particularly in areas of medicine, agricultural and environmental sciences, and development literature that are much needed if developing countries are to meet the Millennium Development Goals. At the same time, the Open Access movement and the growing number of Open Archive Initiative (OAI) compliant institutional repositories promise to provide even greater access to resources and scientific publications that were previously inaccessible. These low cost technology and interoperability standards are also providing great opportunities for libraries and publishers in developing countries to disseminate local research and knowledge and to bridge the South-North knowledge gap. This article reviews these recent trends, discusses their significance for information access in developing countries, and provides recommendations for knowledge workers on how to actively participate in and contribute to the global knowledge commons

Regulating FinTech: Lessons from Africa

Technological innovation in finance (“FinTech”) has been on the rise in recent years, creating new challenges for regulators. These challenges vary significantly depending on the region in question and type of economy, not least because different technologies are applied to tackle different problems. This Article focuses on regulatory frameworks of two leading jurisdictions in terms of FinTech development in Sub-Saharan Africa: Kenya and South Africa. As the developments in the region cannot be analyzed in isolation from the global trends in FinTech regulation, this Article approaches the matter systematically. It starts by clarifying the existing terminology and preparing a comprehensive matrix of various challenges in FinTech regulation: in doing so, it does not take the interests of innovation promotion for granted and adopts a balanced approach, weighing various—often mutually exclusive—considerations against each other. This Article also argues that rule of law challenges, rather than technical problems, remain the key obstacles to adequate FinTech regulation. It then proceeds to discuss the specific regulatory issues in two African jurisdictions that are current regional leaders in the FinTech space—Kenya and South Africa. Finally, this Article concludes by synthesizing a set of recommendations for improving the FinTech regulatory systems in the two countries, in the light of the earlier matrix of regulatory challenges. Many findings in this Article (such as the need for improved methodology of social and economic impact analyses and various policy considerations for structuring the FinTech regulation) are relevant outside the African context and have universal application

Making and Breaking Impasses in International Regimes. The WTO, Seattle and Doha

WTO; international agreements; international trade; governance