Because of concern that OECD tariff reductions will translate into worsening export performance for the least developed countries, trade preferences have proven a stumbling block to developing country support for multilateral liberalization. We examine the actual scope for preference erosion,...

Since the mid-1980s a substantial body of research has taken shape on trade in services. Much of this is inspired by the WTO and regional trade agreements. However, an increasing number of papers focus on the impacts of unilateral services sector liberalization. The literature touches on...

East Asia has rapidly become the third centre of gravity for global economic activity. North America is relatively well integrated with East Asia, but Europe is not. This paper explores the extent to which economic growth and trade policy developments over the next decade or so will strengthen...

This paper reviews the implications of the Uruguay Round Government Procurement Agreement, both for current practice in the United States and for general conditions of market access in other major markets. We emphasize the relative importance of government purchases within given markets. Because...

Antidumping actions in the United States and EU are known to be linked to macroeconomic conditions. In part, this is because positive injury findings may be easier to make in a downturn. We explore the evidence for Mexico, one of the main ‘new’ antidumping-using countries. Injury...

In this paper we provide a broad overview of the computable general equilibrium (CGE) literature on the Uruguay Round, detailing the policy experiments of various studies and differences in model structures and relating these to the overall pattern of results. We supplement this overview with a...

The inequality dataset compiled in the 1990s by the World Bank and extended by the UN has been both widely used and strongly criticized. The criticisms raise questions about conclusions drawn from secondary inequality datasets in general. We develop techniques to deal with national and...

This paper emphasizes the relevance of classical transition dynamics for trade policy, particularly for developing countries. The empirical evidence from cross-country growth regressions points to important transitional growth effects related to trade policy reforms. The paper employs a simple...

We examine the political economy underpinnings of import protection in general equilibrium. Starting from a dual theoretical representation of production, trade, and consumption, we map a general representation of the real economy to underlying political processes - aka the political support...

Protection unconstrained by rules typically varies considerably over time. The policy disciplines introduced in the Uruguay Round in `new' areas such as agricultural, services, and developing country industrial protection will constrain, but not eliminate, this variability. The effects of these...