Trade flows are significantly affected by the trade agreements both with respect to impacts on pre-existing trade flows, (intensive margin) and on new, previously non-existent trade flows (extensive margin). The effect of the Regional Trade Agreements on pre-existing trade flows are found to be...

Prices for commodities such as minerals and metals have increased significantly over the past few years. At the same time, there has also been an increase in restrictions on the export of raw materials which has led policy makers and business people to address free trade of raw materials. This...

Regional trade agreements (RTAs) present opportunities for controlling technical barriers to trade (TBTs). Using key principles and provisions of the WTO Agreement on TBT as a yardstick for analysis, this paper examines whether and how eight major regional integration agreements within the...

Barriers to trade come in a variety of forms. This paper examines one such barrier, export restrictions, and how it impacts trade and global supply in selected strategic metals and minerals. The metals and minerals examined in the paper are of particular interest for a number of reasons: they...

To what extent are governments drawing on relevant international standards in their technical regulations, as mandated by the WTO TBT Agreement? A number of sources of data exist, including electronic databases maintained by governments, but they cannot be used to obtain systematic,...

This document provides a checklist on environmental issues for negotiators of regional trade agreements (RTAs) in order to provide guidance to countries wishing to include environmental provisions in RTAs. The checklist draws on countries’ experience of negotiating and implementing...

Importing "environmental" goods which are also used for other than environmental purposes and ensuring that they represent the most appropriate technology for a particular environmental problem are key concerns to be addressed in the approaches currently being discussed under paragraph 31(iii)...

It is in every country's interest that the deployment of carbon-change-mitigation technologies (CCMTs) be accomplished at the lowest possible cost to society and that their diffusion be rapid. Reducing barriers to trade is one way to accomplish that, especially given that it is unlikely that...