The benefits of an Investment Facilitation for Development Agreement need not wait for ratification by all signatories or approval from all WTO members. Early implementation can be realized through provisions in signatories' GATT and GATS commitment schedules.

A very brief history of the trading system -- The WTO in a nutshell -- Trade in goods -- Services, intellectual property, and plurilateral agreements -- Dispute settlement and transparency -- Developing countries and the multilateral trading system -- Whither the trading system?

March 1995The authors analyze the new Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) that was negotiated between a subset of General Agreement on Tariffs an Trade (GATT) members in the Uruguay Round, focusing especially on the expansion of coverage to services and on the strengthening of enforcement...

In December 2019 the WTO Appellate Body (AB) will cease to operate unless the United States stops blocking new appointments. The US argues the AB has exceeded its mandate and has indicated it wants to ensure that the AB performs the role originally assigned to it in 1995. This paper discusses...

Recent survey evidence and proposals made in long-running negotiations to improve WTO dispute settlement procedures illustrate that many stakeholders believe the system needs improvement. The Appellate Body crisis could have been avoided but for the use of consensus as WTO working practice....

At the recent World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial meeting in Doha, Qatar, WTO members called for the launch of negotiations on disciplines relating to competition based on explicit consensus on modalities to be agreed at the fifth WTO ministerial meeting in 2003. WTO discussions since...