Historical learning in the design of WTO rules: the EC sugar case

The Uruguay Round Agreement made significant changes to the governance of international trade. Trade rules and dispute settlement mechanisms were altered and a series of specific agreements provided for liberalisation across economic sectors. The Agreement on Agriculture, arguably the most difficult and contentious to negotiate, permitted the continued use of trade-distorting instruments, both domestically and at the border. Rule-enforcement in agriculture therefore relies crucially on the clarity of the rules. This paper provides an in-depth study of a unique and critical case for understanding the new rules: the EC sugar regime. This policy was challenged unsuccessfully under the pre-Uruguay Round rules, but successfully under the new rules. This case is particularly valuable in allowing us to isolate the effect of the Uruguay Round on agricultural trade disputes: the policy under challenge was essentially unchanged and the legal actions addressed the same concern – excessive export subsidisation. Drawing on primary and secondary materials and interviews with key policy actors, sugar is used to illustrate how those involved in the multilateral process learned from particular rule weaknesses revealed in earlier cases, revising those rules in the Uruguay Round in such a way that dispute panels can more readily and objectively determine rule breaches

What future for the Global Aid for Trade Initiative? Towards an assessment of its achievements and limitations

As with any form of contemporary global governance, the impact of the global Aid for Trade Initiative (2006) has been mixed. However, to dismiss it as a failure would be premature. The co-ordination system established was based on best-practice techniques of governance in a diverse non-hierarchical environment, such as the international development community. This form of co-operation cannot overcome global economic and political asymmetries, but it can be effective in several respects. In particular, the Initiative led to increased funding for AfT and kick-started a range of initiatives and technical advances; while the monitoring process has evolved significantly to give voice to new actors and issues. Although the future of the AfT Initiative is uncertain, its achievements merit careful consideration

Trade policy review report by the secretariat Republic of Korea

노트 : This report is subject to restricted circulation and press embargo until the end of the first session of the meeting of the Trade Policy Review Body on Republic of Korea

RTAs and South Asia: options in the wake of Cancun fiasco

The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to systematically address the situation in general and with emphasis on South Asia if the failed trade talks at Cancun throw weight behind the formation of more and more bilateral and regional trade treaties. Should they make a renewed effort to kick-start SAPTA? Should they look eastward and try to cooperate more with ASEAN and other East Asian economies? Should they further deepen trading relations with their traditional partners the EU and US? This paper contains six sections (including introduction). Section II provides a quick recap of the series of events, which resulted in Cancun debacle. Section III takes into account the proliferation of RTAs over the last two decades, change in US approach towards regionalism, further deepening and widening of EU and formation of Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation. Section IV in very brief follows the development since the Cancun collapse, the US efforts to follow bilateral path in FTAA negotiations and Indias Look East policy. Section V analyses the reasons behind low intra-regional trade. Section VI makes a comparison of intra-SAARC trade with other Southern RTAs, Finally the paper ends with looking into the possible options for South Asia in the post-Cancun scenario

Special Economic Zones and WTO Compliance: Evidence from the Dominican Republic

Special economic zones (SEZ), one of the most important instruments of industrial policy used in developing countries, often impose export share requirements (ESR). That is, firms located in SEZ are required to export more than a certain share of their output to enjoy a wide array of incentives -apractice prohibited by the World Trade Organization's Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures. In this paper we exploit the staggered removal of ESR across products and over time in the SEZ of the Dominican Republic -a reform driven by external commitments to comply with WTO disciplines on subsidies- to evaluate how ESR effect export performance at the product- and firm-level. Using customs data on international trade transactions from the period 2006 to 2014, we find that making the Dominican SEZ regime WTO-compliant made SEZ more attractive locations for exporters to be based in. The reform, however, did not have a significant effect on the country's exports nor on the share of export value originating from SEZ