Transitioning from the post-2008 financial meltdown to a sustained period of global growth and prosperity involves a major challenge: how to ensure the effective management of international economic interdependence. Trade, growth, good governance and sustainable development constitute essential...

We show that the "skill bias" of a country's tariff structure is positively correlated with long-term per capita GDP growth. Testing for causal mechanisms, we find evidence consistent with the existence of real benefits from tariffs focused in skill-intensive industries. However, this only...

In principle, the U.S. Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) offers uniform market access to exports from eligible developing countries for a broad set of GSP-eligible products. In practice, realized GSP tariff-exemptions demonstrate marked variation across countries, industries, and years. In...

This article reviews key recent literature on the effects of trade liberalization on poverty in developing countries and asks whether our knowledge has changed significantly over a decade. The conclusion that liberalization generally boosts income and thus reduces poverty has not changed; some...

This paper examines the role of competition law and policy as tools for poverty reduction and development. The authors put forward five related principles, building upon the important work on related issues that has been done by the OECD, the International Competition Network (ICN), UNCTAD and...

LDCs' trade patterns changed in the past decade, thanks to the rebalancing of global demand towards large emerging countries and the resulting cycle of high international commodity prices. This process led to a wider geographical diversification of LDCs' exports but contributed also to a greater...

The system of global agricultural and food trade is undergoing rapid processes of change, with important implications for economic development. In this paper we document and discuss these changes; including the rapid growth and structural change in agri-food trade, the increased consolidation in...

There is a stark contrast between the ambitious investment promotion efforts of many least developed countries (LDCs) and their often minimal commitments under the General Agreement on Trade in Service (GATS). At a time of urgent need to address domestic infrastructure and investment gaps, this...

Special and Differential Treatment for Developing Countries (SDT) constitutes a central feature of the GATT/WTO system. Its formal goal is to foster export-led growth in developing countries. Its theoretical foundations and empirical support are, however, weak at best. In particular, SDT...

We provide a synthesis of the theoretical models that study the use of escape clauses, also known as safeguards, in multilateral and preferential trade agreements. We consider models that explain this type of flexibility based on economic efficiency, political economy shocks, and...