Preferential trade agreements (PTAs) on services have proliferated since 2000. This working paper briefly presents the expansion of the dataset initially developed in Marchetti and Roy (2008). The data permits to assess the extent to which market access commitments undertaken by WTO Members in...

Issues related to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) supplying services have been raised at earlier stages of the Doha Round in various negotiating contexts and, more recently, at meetings of the Council for Trade in Services. It is difficult, however, to find a common denominator as to...

Current trade policies of European Union and United States stresses establishing free trade arrangements (FTAs) with partners all over the world with special emphasis to developing countries. Besides geo-political aspects, the most important motivation include improvement in foreign market...

Economic analyses vary with respect to the extent to which deregulation contributed to the financial crisis of 2008-2009, but coalesce on one major cause: excessive leverage and risk-taking. Yet, excessive risk-taking was nearly ubiquitous and occurred despite different levels of regulatory...

It has been alleged since its inception that the WTO Dispute Settlement (DS) mechanism is biased against developing countries, as manifested in e.g. allegedly too low rates of dispute initiation. To shed light on this issue, this study analyses the determinants of developing country...

I propose a framework within which to interpret and evaluate the major reforms introduced to the GATT system in its transition to the WTO. In particular, I examine the WTO Agreement on Safeguards that has replaced the GATT escape clause (Article XIX), and the Dispute Settlement Process (DSP)...

This chapter examines the barriers posed for smaller and poorer World Trade Organization (WTO) members to challenge trade barriers under the WTO's dispute settlement understanding. It first addresses the implications of the judicialization of the WTO's dispute settlement system. It next examines...

As part of the Doha Development Agenda many members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and in particular its Director-General have actively promoted the so-called Aid-for-Trade initiative. Rather than offer a comprehensive account of this initiative, the purpose here is to consider its...

East Asian trade agreements are often described as a complicated "noodle bowl," which shows links in the region as a snarled, overlapping, intertwined mass. But this is a misleading representation-Asia's regional agreements may in fact be creating an order of a different sort, building the...

This paper maps the provisions on anti-dumping, countervailing duties and safeguards in seventy-four regional trade agreements. The key concern of the paper is that the elastic and selective nature of trade remedies may lead to more discrimination, with reduced trade remedy actions against RTA...