What are the challenges facing negotiators at the World Trade Organisation (WTO)? By the end of this year, Trade Ministers will meet in Nairobi for a WTO Ministerial Meeting and current talks in Geneva centre upon the idea of drafting a work programme that would set the direction for concluding...

Introduction : the subtext of North-South relations -- Who is served by paternalism? -- GATT and the developing world before the Uruguay Round -- Unequal partners in merchandise trade -- An uneven playing field in agricultural negotiations -- Big disparities in services and intellectual property...

At the WTO summit in Bali late last year, trade ministers managed to clear the way for a new trade agreement. This is positive news - and it proves that the WTO system is not dysfunctional. The Bali agreement brings new trading opportunities for developing countries and establishes a new...

At the Davos forum of January 2014, a group of 14 countries pledged to launch negotiations on liberalising trade in "green goods" (also known as `environmental goods'(EGs)), focussing on the elimination of tariffs for an "APEC list" of 54 products. The paper shows that the "Davos group", with an...

Barriers to trade in Environmental Goods (EGs) and Environmental Services (ESs) are documented for a large sample of countries and compared with barriers to trade in other goods and other services. Some progress at reduction in barriers has occurred at the national, regional and sectoral levels...

The new package of trade accords that was concluded at the World Trade Organisation's Bali Ministerial Meeting late last year was a fresh start for the battered international trade body. Yet defeat has been snatched from the jaws of victory. A small number of countries refuses to agree on a...

The faltering Doha round has led to a renewed focus on large regional trade agreements. There are two super-RTAs in the making in the Asia-Pacific and one in the Atlantic, all with rather ambitious negotiation targets, and presented as alternate means to reset global trade rules and take the...

The crisis has contributed to a slowdown in global trade volumes, with trade virtually stagnant in the twelve months to July 2013. In this context, fruitful negotiations in the World Trade Organisation's 9th Ministerial Conference in Bali are crucial to sustain the institution's credibility and...

The continued difficulties of the World Trade Organization to achieve further multilateral trade liberalization in the Doha Round negotiations have raised questions about its continued relevance. This paper firstly identifies and assesses the key developments in the Doha Round that have...

The World Trade Organization -- WTO law and domestic law -- Sources of law and principles of interpretation -- Dispute settlement -- Enforcement of WTO obligations : remedies and compliance -- Most-favoured-nation treatment -- National treatment -- Tariffs, quotas, and other barriers to market...

"What have WTO accessions contributed to the rules-based multilateral trading system? What demands have been made by original WTO members on acceding governments? How have the acceding governments fared? This volume of essays offers critical readings on how WTO accession negotiations have...