This paper considers legal implications that are likely to emerge from the implementation of a TRIPS Waiver decision. Assuming that a Waiver is adopted in the form presented in the May 2021 proposal by South Africa and India et al, we review the interaction between the Waiver and other...

Die transatlantischen Handelsbeziehungen haben sich unter der Biden-Administration - trotz verbleibender Konflikte - sehr deutlich verbessert. In der Folge sind die USA als Exportpartner mit einem Ausfuhranteil von fast 10 Prozent im ersten Halbjahr 2022 für Deutschland noch wichtiger geworden,...

This paper considers legal implications that are likely to emerge from the implementation of a TRIPS Waiver decision. Assuming that a Waiver is adopted in the form presented in the May 2021 proposal by South Africa and India et al, we review the interaction between the Waiver and other...

Die transatlantischen Handelsbeziehungen haben sich unter der Biden-Administration – trotz verbleibender Konflikte - sehr deutlich verbessert. In der Folge sind die USA als Exportpartner mit einem Ausfuhranteil von fast 10 Prozent im ersten Halbjahr 2022 für Deutschland noch wichtiger...

The World Trade Organization (WTO) as an institution accords much less of a role to its chief officer and her staff, namely the WTO Director-General and the Secretariat, than do any of its sister international organizations—the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Organization for...

Given the negative impacts of fisheries subsidies on trade, the environment and sustainable development, there have been concerns for eliminating fisheries subsidies via international instruments following the development of international fisheries law, and international trade law, in...

International trade flows based on information. Is the foreign market open? What are the conditions for entry? Are there customs duties to be paid and other regulations that need to be satisfied? Businesses thrive on getting as much certainty as they can find, and this requires reliable...

The world is facing an unprecedented health crisis in the form of COVID-19, which has had a profound effect on the global economy, trade, and the multilateral trading system. The event has single-handedly led to the adoption of economically challenging and stringent measures by Members, which in...

Since 1947 when the general agreement on tariff and Trade (GATT), a process initiated simple rules to govern the liberalisation of trade. The GATT from 1947 to 1994 has had eight rounds of negotiation, bringing mainly the commercial trade among the developed countries. More the five decades of...

This paper uses 68 measures of trade policy and trade liberalization to ask if membership in theWorld Trade Organization (WTO) and its predecessor the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is associated with more liberal trade policy. Almost no measures of trade policy are significantly...

This paper examines the relationship between countries’ bilateral trade with the United States that is not due to gravity (non-gravity trade) and the distribution of income within countries. In countries where only a small share of the population is educated, an increase in non-gravity trade...

In recent years we have witnessed the crisis in the multilateral trading system, primarily because of the inability of the Doha Development Agenda to produce results after 17 years of negotiations. The reasons are complex large number of participants in these negotiations which complicates...

We consider the design and implementation of international trade agreements when: (i) negotiations are undertaken and commitments made in the presence of uncertainty about future political pressures; (ii) governments possess private information about political pressures at the time that the...

The world trading system is reeling from the trade war between China and the United States, the disabling of the World Trade Organisation Dispute Settlement Understanding and repeated rule-breaking by WTO members. This does not mean the end of the post-war system, but it is being transformed...

Rising levels of food insecurity continue to pose a threat to economic and social stability in developing, LDCs and low-income countries, and the WTO’s Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) provides the policy structure to ensure sustainable reform for trade in agriculture products and domestic...

Policy work in both the United States and the European Union is underway on how best to structure border carbon adjustments (BCA) mechanisms to protect the competitiveness of domestic industries while these enterprises make investments in reducing their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions—thereby...

Dreißig Jahre nach seiner Gründung fällt das Fazit zu den Integrationsfortschritten des Mercosur gemischt aus. Während die Handelsliberalisierung innerhalb des Mercosur als Erfolg verbucht werden kann, wurden die Ziele einer Umwandlung zur Zollunion und tiefere Integrationsschritte verfehlt....

The Marrakesh Agreement establishing the WTO recognizes the need for positive efforts designed to ensure that developing countries and especially the least developed among them secure a share in the growth in international trade commensurate with the needs of their economic development.This...

The WTO Agreement on Agriculture applies to those "agricultural products" as defined in its Annex 1. This definition expressly excludes "fish and fish products" from the scope of application of the Agreement. In light of this exclusion, the paper is intended to provide a historical account of...

The effects of international trade on the planet's climate and environment are manifold and complex. This makes assessment of the impact of free trade agreements (FTAs) a delicate matter. This study provides an overview of the development of sustainability chapters in FTAs and discusses their...

This paper evaluates the special and differential treatment provisions in the WTO Agreement and examines whether there is truth in the averment made by certain developed countries that special and differential treatment (S&DT) provisions have made the WTO framework of rules and disciplines...

Dreißig Jahre nach seiner Gründung fällt das Fazit zu den Integrationsfortschritten des Mercosur gemischt aus. Während die Handelsliberalisierung innerhalb des Mercosur als Erfolg verbucht werden kann, wurden die Ziele einer Umwandlung zur Zollunion und tiefere Integrationsschritte verfehlt....

The World Trade Organization (WTO) has gone through stormy times. There have been a number of serious controversies in recent years. Many of these have been attributed to the disruptive positions that former US President Donald J. Trump has taken on international trade and multilateral...

This paper examines policy centralization outcomes in a two-jurisdiction, political economy model of public good provision choices with heterogeneous policy preferences and interjurisdictional policy spillovers, under alternative democratic choice procedures, namely, direct democracy and...

In recent years, the World Trade Organization (WTO), the multilateral trading system, has faced many difficulties and challenges due to the great vows of anti-globalisation and trade protectionism. The appellate body, as a significant portion of the Dispute Settlement Mechanism (DSU) of the WTO,...

Policy making power enables governments to redistribute income to powerful interests in society. However, some governments exhibit greater concern for aggregate welfare than others. This government behavior may itself be endogenously determined by a number of economic, political and...