As an institution, the WTO (with 153 members) has functioned very differently from the GATT. The old power centers within the multilateral trade regime have been joined by new power centers, especially the emerging economies. Developing and the least-developed members, acting in coalitions, have...

The Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) was intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while facilitating sustainable development in developing countries. However, most CDM projects contribute little to sustainable development and are inequitably distributed. The 15th Conference...

Poverty remains a serious global issue, and nearly half of the world's populations are still living below the poverty line. International trade has been a vehicle for successful economic development for some developing economies in East Asia, including South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore,...

In the climate of a global financial crisis the problem of financial stability is particularly potent, especially given the difficulties faced around the world in both developed and developing countries. A defence for future crises alongside a means of improving global development problems could...

The Generalized System of Preferences (GSP)—a system of differential and favorable trade arrangements toward less developed countries, adopted by the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT)—has been around since the early 1970s. A primary objective of these schemes has been to promote...

For most sub-Saharan African countries, participation in international trade almost always means exporting primary, often agricultural, products and importing machinery and other manufacturing goods. In appreciation of the detrimental economic effects of this situation on SSA countries, the EU...

Developing countries have been characterized by some eminent writers on the GATT as having played an essentially defensive role in the GATT, unwilling to make tariff concessions, and are said to have focused almost exclusively on securing special and differential treatment concessions. This...

In recent decades, free trade agreements have been proliferated and have become a major part of the global trading system, along with the multilateral framework represented by the World Trade Organizations. This article discusses some of the major issues with FTA in relation to the WTO...

The Sen conception of `development as freedom' represents a departure from previous approaches to development that focused merely on growth rates or technological progress. Sen however fails to adequately address the social constraints that inhibit the realization of the goal of `development as...

The current world trading system lacks a procedure to identify developing country Members, to whom "Special and Differential Treatment" (SDT) is granted. Based on the analysis of five methods of identifying developing country Members, which are GATT Article XVIII definition, listing,...