For decades, free trade was advocated as the vehicle for peace, prosperity, and democracy in an increasingly globalized market. More recently, the proliferation of foreign direct investment has raised questions about its impact upon local economies and politics. Here, seven scholars bring together their wide-ranging expertise to investigate the factors that determine the attractiveness of a locale to investors and the extent of their political power. Multinational corporations prefer to invest where legal and political institutions support the rule of law, protections for property rights, and democratic processes. Corporate influence on local institutions, in turn, depends upon the relative power of other players and the types of policies at issue.

International economic law is one of the crucial branches of international law, and of major importance both practically and conceptually. This document collection brings together all of the most important treaties, regulations, and other documents in this area. It presents the key documents of contemporary international economic law in one single volume, so to provide students as well as practitioners with an accessible reference guide. The book will feature a brief introduction, providing readers with a 'roadmap' through what is perceived by many as the maze of international economic law. The collection brings together documents relating to the three main pillars of international economic law, namely world trade law, international monetary law, and international investment law. These are preceded by texts of a more general character, notably issued by the United Nations and clarifying the parameters of international economic relations. This broad focus enables readers to view international economic law in its breadth and to avoid the pitfalls of a 'compartmentalised' approach, which exclusively focuses on, for example, WTO law or investment law without appreciating their interrelation. By bringing together key texts of all three branches, the book should be invaluable to students taking general courses of international economic law as well as more specialised courses such as WTO law or investment law.

In addition to the explicit goal of advancing mutual economic interests, regional economic organizations (REOs) are intended to foster regional cohesion and peace. Drawing on a data set detailing the institutional features of 25 REOs established during the 1980s and 1990s, complemented by a case study of ASEAN, Yoram Z. Haftel investigates the factors that affect REOs' ability to mitigate interstate military conflict. He finds fewer interstate conflicts among REO members who have developed high levels of economic integration and who cultivate regular interaction among member-states' representatives. Haftel concludes that, with an appropriate institutional design and fully implemented agreements, an REO can indeed play a role in mitigating interstate conflict and make a meaningful contribution to regional peace.

This edited volume comprises papers contributed by regional experts. The papers explore the possibility of creating an Asian economic community given the existing bilateral and plurilateral preferential trading arrangements in Asia. Starting with an exposition of the concept of an economic community in Asia, the book evaluates the economic rationale of such a formation in the region. While presenting the alternative view from India and China, the book also explores issues of deeper economic integration like services and investment initiatives and their possible implications for regional economic integration in Asia.

This volume addresses the growth of regional trade agreements (RTAs) which have mushroomed since the 1990s, and considers their potential as a tool for reducing inter- and intra-state conflict.

Exploring the links between trade, conflict and peace in different and varying contexts, this book maps the extant RTAs in the region, analyses the factors which hinder or promote regional trade integration and considers their economic and political impacts. Presenting a series of case studies in four regions: South America; the southern African region; South Asia and South East Asia, the authors consider three key questions:

• What is the significance of the recent and rapid development of RTAs for peace building both within and between countries?
• To what extent do RTAs engender inter and intrastate conflict?
• To what extent are trade and RTAs hostage to conflict and is regional political stability a precondition for economic integration?

Regional Trade Integration and Conflict Resolution will be of interests to students and scholars of trade, international relations and conflict studies. It will also be of interest to policy makers and NGOs.

International trade and investment in services are an increasingly important part of global commerce. Advances in information and telecommunication technologies have expanded the scope of services that can be traded cross-border. Many countries now allow foreign investment in newly privatized and competitive markets for key infrastructure services, such as energy, telecommunications, and transport. More and more people are travelling abroad to consume tourism, education, and medical services, and to supply services ranging from construction to software development. In fact, services are the fastest growing components of the global economy, and trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) in services have grown faster than in goods over the past decade and a half.
International transactions, however, continue to be impeded by policy barriers, especially to foreign investment and the movement of service-providing individuals. Developing countries in particular are likely to benefit significantly from further domestic liberalization and the elimination of barriers to their exports. In many instances, income gains from a reduction in protection to services may be far greater than from trade liberalization in goods.
In light of the increasing importance of international trade in services and the inclusion of services issues on the agendas of the multilateral, regional and bilateral trade negotiations, there is an obvious need to understand the economic implications of services trade and liberalization. A Handbook of International Trade in Services provides a comprehensive introduction to the subject, making it an essential reference for trade officials, policy advisors, analysts, academics, and students. Beginning with an overview on the key issues in trade in services and discussion of the GATS, the book then looks at trade negotiations in the service sector, the barriers to trade in services, and concludes by looking at a number of specific service sectors, such as financial services, e-commerce, health services, and the temporary movement of workers.

How can the poorer countries of the world be helped to help themselves through freer, fairer trade? In this challenging and controversial book Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz and his co-author Andrew Charlton address one of the key issues facing world leaders today. They put forward a radical and realistic new model for managing trading relationships between the richest and the poorest countries. Their approach is designed to open up markets in the interests of all and not just the most powerful economies, to ensure that trade promotes development, and to minimise the costs of adjustments. Beginning with a brief history of the World Trade Organisation and its agreements, the authors explore the issues and events which led to the failure of Cancun and the obstacles that face the successful completion of the Doha Round of negotiations. Finally they spell out the reforms and principles upon which a successful agreement must be based. Accessibly written and packed full of empirical evidence and analysis, this book is a must read for anyone interested in world trade and development.

The book provides an analytical overview of the World Trade Organisation's Anti-Dumping Agreement, as interpreted by WTO Panels and the Appellate Body. The Anti-Dumping Agreement is often perceived as being the most technical and controversial WTO agreement. While the basic concepts of dumping and resulting injury may appear deceptively simple, complex methodology related to the calculation of dumping and injury margins, as well as the very detailed procedural requirements that authorities need to comply with before taking anti-dumping action, make the Anti-Dumping Agreement difficult to apply and understand in practice. While the book of necessity goes into great detail about the intricacies of anti-dumping law and practice, it attempts to explain the various concepts in a relatively non-technical manner by means of simplified examples that are easy to grasp for experts and non-experts alike. The book also pays extensive attention to interpretations of the various provisions of the Anti-Dumping Agreement by WTO panels and the Appellate Body. There have been more WTO cases under the Anti-Dumping Agreement than under any other WTO Agreement, reflecting both the increased recourse to anti-dumping measures by WTO members all over the world and the complexity of abiding by the WTO rules. WTO Panels and the Appellate Body, called upon to review administrative determinations and aspects of national legislation, have done a remarkable job in interpreting the WTO rules. For WTO members, wishing to impose anti-dumping measures in a WTO-consistent manner, knowledge not only of the Agreement itself, but also of such interpretations, is therefore a must.

How can the poorer countries of the world be helped to help themselves through freer, fairer trade? In this challenging and controversial book Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz and his co-author Andrew Charlton address one of the key issues facing world leaders today. They put forward a radical and realistic new model for managing trading relationships between the richest and the poorest countries. Their approach is designed to open up markets in the interests of all and not just the most powerful economies, to ensure that trade promotes development, and to minimise the costs of adjustments. Beginning with a brief history of the World Trade Organisation and its agreements, the authors explore the issues and events which led to the failure of Cancun and the obstacles that face the successful completion of the Doha Round of negotiations. Finally they spell out the reforms and principles upon which a successful agreement must be based. Accessibly written and packed full of empirical evidence and analysis, this book is a must read for anyone interested in world trade and development.

Fresh water resources are at the same time ecological, economic, social, and cultural goods and must be managed accordingly. However, efforts to manage these resources are complicated by tensions arising from possible clashes between the regimes favouring privatization, trade and investment liberalization, and domestic and international regimes governing water resources, environmental protection and human rights. The relationships between the international economic and legal framework on the one hand and fresh water resource management and protection on the other, are complex and multifaceted. This book addresses the key interdisciplinary issues that increasingly confront policy makers, tribunals, arbitration bodies and other institutions. It focuses primarily on law, but also includes perspectives from economics, political science and other disciplines. It examines such questions as are governments free to decide whether or not to export water resources? Can foreign investors sue host states for adopting measures to control water pollution? Can international trade rules be used to reduce or eliminate water related subsidies? Do rules on the liberalization of water services affect domestic and international human rights obligations relating to water supply? More generally, how do the procedural rights of states, individuals, affected communities and investors affect decisions regarding the right to drinking water, the rights of investors to exploit water resources, and the rights of governments to protect their lakes, rivers and groundwater?

World hunger, jobs, the overall economic prospects of developing and developed countries alike are all being influenced by the international negotiations about trade, agriculture, services, investment and intellectual property rights going on at the World Trade Organization (WTO). Based on interviews with the participants, this remarkable book lifts the shroud of secrecy surrounding these ostensibly democratic negotiations.
What emerges is a disturbing account entirely at odds with the official picture of a rules-based consensus emerging out of multilateral trade discussions in which all WTO member countries are equal participants. In reality:
- Closed doors rather than open access and public information is the preferred mode of negotiation;
- Decisions are often being made without the full approval of developing countries;
- The tiny delegations of the poorest and smallest countries have only a limited capacity to calculate in advance the implications of what they are being asked to sign up to;
- More seriously still, there are instances of illegitimate pressures and inducements being offered by the US and EU delegations - including threats to report non-compliant Third World delegates to their superiors, and hints that aid to countries refusing to kow-tow may be withheld.
The revelations contained in this book are of enormous importance to all those concerned that international institutions should be more transparent and democratic, and that the rules being developed for the world economy should primarily be geared to solving the pressing humanitarian problems of poverty, hunger, jobs and improvements in the standards of living of all those being left behind by the process of globalization.

On 1 January 2004, the US-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (USSFTA) came into force. The USSFTA was the result of a two-year negotiation process which started towards the end of the Clinton Administration and concluded under the Bush Administration. How did the negotiation process straddle the two administrations? What is the rationale for the FTA? What were the unique features of the negotiating process? Was negotiating with the US different from negotiating with other countries? How will the FTA benefit the two countries? What is the impact on ASEAN, APEC and the WTO?This book captures some of the personal insights thrown up in the negotiations and offers highlights and analysis of the USSFTA. Contributors to the volume include the Chief Negotiators of the two delegations, the US and Singapore Ambassadors, key negotiators and close observers of the process. Selected key documents pertaining to the USSFTA process have also been included. This book is a comprehensive reader on the story behind the negotiations of the USSFTA.

Who is afraid of the World Trade Organization, the WTO? The list appears to be long. Many workers, and especially unions that represent them, claim that WTO agreements increase import competition and threaten their jobs. Other groups emphasize the role of the WTO in the allegedly ill effects of globalization in general. Many environmentalists share this concern, claiming that the WTO encourages pollution and prevents governments from defending national environmental standards. Then there are human rights advocates ready to violate WTO rules by imposing trace sanctions in defense of human rights. Still other groups fear that the WTO compromises national sovereignty, taking away a countrys right to govern its trade and even its own domestic policies. This book is in response to the many misinformed and often hysterical arguments leveled against the WTO during recent protests in Seattle and elsewhere. In this timely and engaging volume, Kent Jones explains the compelling reasons for establishing the WTO as an agreement to promote world trade, and the consensus-based structure of all its enforcement mechanisms. While Jones does not dismiss the threat that recent political protests pose for the trading system, he does reveal the fallacies in their arguments and presents a strong case in favor of the World Trade Organization, with proposals for reconciling trade and non-trade goals in the world economy.

This is a comprehensive graduate textbook on International Trade. It surveys both the theoretical and empirical literature, and reports new results. International Trade addresses the need to synthesize and integrate the new advances in a field that has become a key element of policy discussions.

Ashworth traces the growth of customs and excise, and their integral role in shaping the framework of industrial England. He examines their influence on elements such as state power, technical advance, and the evolution of a consumer society. If there was a unique pathway of industrialization, it was less a distinct entrepreneurial and technocentric culture, than one predominantly defined within an institutional framework spearheaded by the excise and a wall of tariffs.

This book examines, from the legal perspective, China's process of WTO accession, its commitments to the accession, the implications of such commitments for its trade and legal systems, and its efforts towards WTO compliance. It also discusses the issue of the capacity of the evolving Chinese legal system for ensuring compliance. In particular, the book probes into the trade and legal systems at the turn of the accession and evaluates selected trade and legal issues, including intellectual property, foreign investment law and settlement of trade disputes.

This study guide compliments van Marrewijk's "International Trade and the World Economy", as it aims to review and deepen the student's understanding of the topics covered in the main textbook. It provides a set of questions relating to every chapter and these are sub-divided into four different types of questions: review, empirical, simulation and technical questions.

In Canada, the audio-visual and print industries are referred to as the cultural industries, whereas the United States calls them the entertainment industries. These language distinctions are accompanied by different domestic policies and political discourses. The United States has relatively open policies toward these activities, while Canada has adopted an inward-looking approach. Failure to integrate cultural industries into NAFTA and WTO has led to trade disputes between Canada and the United States over copyrights, television licensing, violence in media, and discriminatory magazine policy, indicating the need for an agreed-upon process for settling cultural trade disputes.
"Much Ado about Culture" explores the differing sets of policies--cultural nationalism versus the open option--and the resulting conflicts in the context of technological developments as well as international agreements dealing with trade, investment, copyright, and labor movements. The Canadian cultural industries are examined, from film and television production and distribution to broadcasting, publishing, and sound recording. Several areas of recent conflict, such as "Sports Illustrated," Country Music Television, and Borders Books, highlight the types of policies disputed, the process followed, and the conclusions reached. Finally, the authors propose an alternative approach to constraining national cultural policies by international agreement that would allow the gains from openness to be realized while serving legitimate cultural concerns.
Authored by the acknowledged experts on trade disputes in the cultural arena, this book will be essential reading for international economists, policymakers, andlawyers interested in the cultural industries.
Keith Acheson and Christopher Maule are Professors of Economics, Carleton University, Ontario.

This text addresses the prospects and challenges of the free trade area of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa. In a broad context, therefore, it focuses on one of the most important challenges to world trade in the 21st century, especially for Africa and the developing world, namely the question of regional trade integration. The most extant theoretical and empirical aspects of the question are integrated with institutional and policy issues. The analysis is illustrated through examples from a sample of African economies. The book concludes by proposing the vision and appropriate strategies for advancing the regional trading arrangements by COMESA. It is hoped that the work will make a timely contribution not only to our understanding of the prospects and challenges of regional trading arrangements in Africa but also to the paradigm of regional trade integration in developing countries. The book is comprehensive in coverage and attempts to strike a balance between the theory, evidence and policy issues.

In trade policy, as in many other areas of public policy, decision makers often confront present and future problems with little understanding of how similar disputes were resolved in the past. Too often, busy public officials had no time to write or record negotiating histories. "Revisiting U.S. Trade Policy," which is certain to become a classic in the literature of trade negotiations, is just such a record.
Built on the oral histories of thirty-five former U.S. trade policymakers -- including Michael Blumenthal, Alonzo McDonald, William Roth, and Robert S. Strauss -- this unique record, prepared for publication by Alfred E. Eckes, revisits some of the most important moments of America's trade liberalization program in the years after World War II.
From GATT to the World Trade Organization, these major players look back in candid hindsight at their decisions concerning trade policy and the effects that those decisions had on shaping the new international economic order.

As tariffs on imports of manufactures have been reduced as a result of multi-lateral trade negotiations, interest in the extent to which existing nontariff barriers may distort and restrict international trade is growing. Accurate and reliable measures are needed in order to address the issues involving the use and impacts of nontariff barriers. This study assesses currently available methods for quantifying such barriers and makes recommendations as to those methods that can be most effectively employed. The authors focus both on the conceptual issues arising in the measurement of the different types of nontariff barriers and on the applied research that has been carried out in studies prepared by country members of the OECD Pilot Group and others seeking to quantify the barriers. Nontariff barriers include quotas, variable levies, voluntary export restraints, government procurement regulations, domestic subsidies, and antidumping and countervailing duty measures. The authors discuss the many different methods available for measuring the effects of these and other nontariff barriers. Illustrative results are presented for industrial OECD countries, including Australia, Canada, Germany, Norway, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Finally, the authors offer guideline principles and recommend procedures for measuring different types of nontariff barriers. Economists, political scientists, government officials, and lawyers involved in international trade will find this an invaluable resource for understanding and measuring NTBs. Alan V. Deardorff and Robert M. Stern are Professors of Economics and Public Policy, University of Michigan.

The author of this book argues that protectionism is in fact a threat to economic prosperity. He presents the case for free trade and points out the errors of protectionist thinkers. He also discusses immigration policy, foreign aid, regionalism, development policy, and issues of national competitiveness, as they relate to open markets between countries.

L'Accord sur le transport international tu des denrees perissables et sur l'equipement special a utiliser pour ces transports (ATP) vise a garantir que les denrees surgelees et refrigerees sont transportees de maniere efficace, sure et hygienique et ne presentent pas de danger pour l'homme. sante. Il aide egalement les pays a eviter le gaspillage de nourriture par la deterioration causee par un mauvais controle de la temperature pendant le transport. L'accord ATP prevoit des normes communes pour les equipements de transport a temperature controlee tels que les vehicules routiers, les wagons de chemin de fer et les conteneurs maritimes (pour les voyages en mer de moins de 150 km) et les tests visant a garantir la capacite isolante des equipements et l'efficacite des appareils thermiques. Le nouvel equipement ATP doit subir un test de son coefficient K, pour prouver que la chaleur s'echappant de l'interieur vers l'exterieur du corps repond aux valeurs definies par l'ATP. Les 50 parties contractantes a l'accord - y compris les pays non membres de la CEE (Maroc, Tunisie et Arabie saoudite) - sont tenues de reconnaitre les certificats ATP pour les equipements conformes aux normes emises par les autorites competentes des autres parties contractantes. L'ATP repertorie les produits pouvant etre transportes sous ATP et definit la temperature la plus chaude possible de la charge. Les fruits et legumes, sauf s'ils sont transformes, ne relevent pas encore du champ d'application de l'ATP. L'ATP s'applique si le point de chargement et de dechargement des marchandises se trouve dans deux Etats differents et le point de dechargement est situe sur le territoire d'une partie contractante. En d'autres termes, il s'applique meme si l'Etat ou les marchandises sont chargees n'est pas une partie contractante. Certains pays utilisent egalement l'ATP comme base de leur legislation nationale pour le transport a temperature controlee.

Iron Will lays bare the role of extractivist policies and efforts to resist these policies through a deep ethnographic exploration of globally important iron ore mining in Brazil and India. Markus KrÖger addresses resistance strategies to extractivism and tracks their success, or lack thereof, through a comparison of peaceful and armed resource conflicts, explaining how different means of resistance arise. Using the distinctly different contexts and political systems of Brazil and India highlights the importance of local context for resistance. For example, if there is an armed conflict at a planned mining site, how does this influence the possibility to use peaceful resistance strategies? To answer such questions, KrÖger assesses the inter-relations of contentious, electoral, institutional, judicial, and private politics that surround conflicts and interactions, offering a new theoretical framework of 'investment politics' that can be applied generally by scholars and students of social movements, environmental studies, and political economy, and even more broadly in Social Scientific and Environmental Policy research. By drawing on a detailed field research and other sources, this book explains precisely which resistance strategies are able to influence both political and economic outcomes. KrÖger expands the focus of traditionally Latin American extractivism research to other contexts such as India and the growing extractivist movement in the Global North. In addition, as the book is a multi-sited political ethnography, it will appeal to sociologists, political scientists, anthropologists, geographers, and others using field research among other methods to understand globalization and global political interactions. It is the most comprehensive book on the political economy and ecology of iron ore and steel. This is astonishing, given the fact that iron ore is the second-most important commodity in the world after oil.

The WTO's Trade Policy Review Mechanism, which reviews the trade policies and practices of each WTO member at regular intervals, is generally considered to function well. In this day and age, complacency is unwise. Examining trade policy reviews throughout the lifetime of the TPRM, this book details its evolution from Article X of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade to the proposed modifications resulting from the mechanism's latest appraisal, examining the budgetary capabilities and technical performance of all the main entities who participate in the reviews. On the basis of these considerations, the author concludes that in order to remain relevant, especially in times of increased global protectionism, the TPRM could, and should do better, and provides unique and timely suggestions for reform.