The Customs Union proposed for four members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)- the Free Trade Area established among the 12 members of the CIS- likely to lock those countries into the old technology of the former Soviet Union. The effects of such organizations will be especially...

The twelve members of the Commonwealth of Independent States established a Free Trade Area to help maintain trade among each other. More recently, Belarus, Kazakstan, the Kyrgyz Republic and Russia agreed, in principle, to establish a Customs Union (CU). The paper concludes that the dynamic...

The author analyzes how changes in thinking about the role trade plays in economic development have been reflected in provisions affecting developing countries in the GATT and the WTO. He focuses on the provisions calling for the special and differential treatment of developing countries. The...

In this paper, developed as part of the World Bank's Poverty Reduction Strategy Sourcebook, the authors examine how to implement trade liberalization as part of a strategy for alleviating poverty in developing countries. They discuss trade policy instruments, institutions, complementary...