The aim of this paper is to study the sustainability of current accounts in ECOWAS countries over the 1970–2015 period and test if this sustainability depends on the sub-regional blocs. The paper uses a formal theoretical framework, recent panel and intra-panel cointegration techniques to test...

This paper compares financial assistance programmes of four euro-area countries (Greece, Ireland, Portugal, and Cyprus) and three non-euro-area countries (Hungary, Latvia, and Romania) of the European Union in the aftermath of the 2007/08 global financial and economic crisis-which were supported...

This paper compares financial assistance programs of four euro-area countries (Greece, Ireland, Portugal, and Cyprus) and three non-euro-area countries (Hungary, Latvia, and Romania) of the European Union in the aftermath of the 2007/08 global financial and economic crisis - which were supported...

This paper analyses the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) whose Agreement entered into force on 30 May 2019, and particularly its relationship with the World Trade Organization. It considers whether the practice of African Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) to rely on the Enabling...

This paper proposes a unique overview of trade policies trends since the launch of the Doha Round, based on detailed data on tariffs and trade covering 130 countries. We show that regionalism has delivered limited effective liberalization so far, leading to only a 0.3 percentage point (p.p.) cut...

The rise of mega-regionals such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) suggests that the world trade system is fragmenting to the point it appears more like a jigsaw puzzle than a spaghetti bowl. There are both regional and global jigsaw...

Competition policy, today, is an essential element of the legal and institutional framework for the global economy. Whereas decades ago, anti-competitive practices tended to be viewed mainly as a domestic phenomenon, most facets of competition law enforcement now have an important international...

The proliferation of regional trade agreements (RTAs) in the recent decades threatens the future of the multilateral trading system (MTS) because the exclusive trade preferences of RTAs, although approved under the provisions of Article XXIV General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), are...

Under the auspices of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), international trade has increased significantly — and tariffs have declined equally dramatically — over the past 70 years (see Figures 1 and 2). It comes as no surprise that this growth in trade has been accompanied by...

This paper develops three major themes. First, the atmosphere of gloom around the multilateral trading system due to dim prospects of a successful conclusion of the Doha Round notwithstanding, global trade regime remains open and the institution in charge of it, the World Trade Organization, is...