Negotiating the liberalization of world agricultural trade in the World Trade Organization (WTO) is fraught with difficulty due to the complexity of the issues and the wide range of interests across countries. In the round of global trade negotiations under the WTO, different perspectives on trade reform have produced a highly contentious agenda. These issues are addressed from a range of perspectives in this survey of the trade agenda and its implications for both developing and developed countries. Agricultural trade specialists, including those in universities, in international organizations and think tanks, analyse a comprehensive range of topics including interests and options in the WTO trade negotiations, the trade agenda from a development patent perspective, WTO trade rules, trade barriers, tariff negotiations and patent protection for developing countries.

The fifteen years of the GATT between the conclusion of the Tokyo Round in 1979 and the finalisation of the Uruguay Round in 1994 witnessed a sea change in attitudes toward the role of international trade in developing countries. The shift in orientation toward relatively open trading systems was reflected in the attitudes and participation of developing countries in the Uruguay Round. They involved themselves fully in formulating the rules of the new trading system, and also made significant offers to reduce tariff protection. This volume provides an assessment of the economic impact of the Uruguay Round of the GATT on the developing countries. The authors, all leading international trade economists, examine all aspects of the agreement and conclude that the cuts in protection should strengthen the world trading system and result in increases in the real incomes in developing countries.

Much recent research has been devoted to the consequences of the completion of the internal market in 1992. Existing estimates of the effects of market integration remain very preliminary, however, and many important issues have yet to be adequately addressed. These formed the subject of a conference on "The Impact of 1992 on European Trade and Industry" held by the Centre for Economic Policy Research. This book reports the proceedings of that conference. The contributors to the volume address such issues as the gains to be expected from both "internal" and "external" economies of scale following integration, and the implications of 1992 for the Community's trade with both its traditional EFTA partners, the potentially valuable new East European markets, and the rest of the world. The volume also contains papers considering the effects of the completion of the internal market on the design of appropriate technology and taxation policies and a study of the role of Japanese foreign direct investment in European manufacturing.

The interaction between macroeconomic and agricultural sector reforms is of vital importance to developing and East European economies, whose agricultural sectors account for major shares of economic activity and income. Derived from a conference organised jointly by the Centre for Economic Policy Research and the OECD Development Centre, the papers in this volume adopt an open economy perspective to reform, and throw light on the sequencing of reforms in the context of structural adjustment and 'intersectoral imbalance'. Leading international figures examine the stabilisation of agricultural prices and income, the public finance dimensions of agricultural reform, and the prospects for policies of liberalisation and trade reform currently being adopted in many developing and East European countries.

Much research has been devoted to the consequences of the completion of the European internal market in 1992. Existing estimates of the effects of market integration remain exploratory, however, and many important issues have yet to be adequately addressed. These are the issues concerning this book. Edited by L. Alan Winters and Anthony Venables, the volume examines such questions as the extent of gains to be expected from both 'internal' and 'external' economies of scale following integration, the implications of 1992 for the European Community's trade with its traditional EFTA partners, the potentially valuable new East European markets, and the rest of the world. There are also chapters considering the implications of the internal market for the design of appropriate technology and taxation policies, and a study of the role of Japanese foreign direct investment in European manufacturing.

Commodity markets are of considerable interest and importance to economists, econometricians and dealers. This book reports the proceedings of a major international conference on Primary Commodity Prices: Economic Models and Policy, held in London under the auspices of the Centre for Economic Policy Research in March 1989. A range of papers by leading international authorities cover topics such as expectations formation in econometric commodity market models; price determination in the market for aluminium; the estimation of dynamic disequilibrium models with rational expectations; the prices of perennial crops; modelling the effects of foreign and domestic policies on agricultural prices; exchange rate volatility and commodity prices; long-run influences on petroleum prices; price stabilization versus financing in commodity policy; and a comparison of forward markets and buffer stocks as commodity earnings stabilizers. A key feature of this book is its development of the policy implications of recent theoretical and empirical work in the field of commodity economics. Most papers are accompanied by discussants' comments to draw out their technical and policy implications.

This collection of essays provides the definitive survey of the importance of agricultural reform to the future of the world's trading system. There is growing consensus concerning the need to reduce the level of subsidies in agriculture and to open up the markets of the developed world more to the farmers of the developing world. However, while non-governmental organizations such as Oxfam may agree on this point with free trade economists, governments in Europe and the U.S. seem reluctant to give up their protectionist habits.

This book applies rigorous economic analysis to the question of sustainable development. It considers the inter-relationship between growth and sustainability showing that one does not necessarily exist to the detriment of the other. Sustainability may be measured and defined in national accounting terms and the contributors explore a potentially powerful theoretical definition. Case studies on Morocco and China examine some of the domestic policy requirements of sustainability, revealing the desirability of quite complex combinations of policies. International policy aspects of sustainability are considered, such as technology transfers and the establishment of workable agreements to reduce global pollution. The volume demonstrates the need to build the sustainability debate on sound economic foundations, and the ability of economists to provide such foundations.

The World Bank organized a conference in 1999 to analyze issues and options prior to the December 1999 World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting. Papers included in this book were commissioned for this conference to highlight the main trade issues of importance to different regions of the world. The papers include perspectives from Africa, East Asia, South Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Central and Eastern Europe, and industrialized countries. The book contains a chapter on multilateral agricultural policy reform.

Non-Tariff Barriers, Regionalism and Poverty is a collection of key articles in three important areas of applied international trade research: measuring non-tariff barriers and their effects, the consequences of regional trading arrangements, especially on the countries excluded from them, and the connection between international trade and poverty. Drawing from 30 years of research and experience, L Alan Winters illustrates the development of techniques of this field and his continued commitment to answering real policy questions at the times at which they are debated. The collection shows the ways in which economic and econometric analysis can be used to answer real-world problems rigorously in the area of international trade and trade policy. Readers will find that some of the research included is of current methodological relevance and some of more historical significance. This volume is invaluable to anyone who is keen on developing their knowledge on trade policy, regionalism or poverty - three pressing issues in today's globalized world.

This volume provides an assessment of the economic impact of the Uruguay Round of the GATT on the developing countries. The radical liberalizations of their trade regimes undertaken by developing countries are fully assessed. The authors, all leading international trade economists, examine all aspects of the agreement. They conclude that the shift in orientation toward relatively open trading systems should strengthen the world trading system and result in increases in the real incomes in developing countries.