With the gradual dismantling of tariffs and the growing integration of markets across countries, non-tariff and non-border barriers to international trade, investment and competition have become more visible, a greater source of trade tensions and costly with regard to the foregone global...

Following up a 2003 publication by the Trade Committee, this paper examines the treatment of agriculture in regional trading arrangements (RTAs) against the background of treatment under the multilateral trading system (MTS). This paper describes 18 RTAs and its findings may not be...

This declaration was adopted at the conclusion of the June 2008 Ministerial meeting on the Future of the Internet Economy, held in Seoul. It contains recommendations on how to further the development of the “Internet economy” through multi-stakeholder co-operation.

This report sets out the particular approach to special and differential treatment (SDT) in the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). In particular, the report explores how the degree of flexibility afforded to all Members under the GATS shapes its approach to SDT. Further, the report...

This report evaluates strategies to improve the efficiency with which environmental resources are used to meet human needs. Many firms in OECD countries have developed strategies that involve:- developing goals to reduce resource use and pollutant release while improving customer service;- working...

The TBP Manual, issued in 1990, serves as a standard method for surveys and data collection for trade in disembodied technology between countries which continue to be difficult to compare because of differences in coverage and in the grouping of categories of data. It also makes a contribution...

Bioenergy, including biofuels, could become a substantial tool for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, locally and globally, possibly providing a large fraction of global primary energy supply by 2020. Exactly how large that share will be is not possible to predict with any precision, being...

This chart compares the EC Procurement Directives and the UNCITRAL Model Law on Procurement of Goods, Construction and Services. Most central and eastern European countries used the Model Law as the basis of their public procurement laws in the early 1990s. Now that many countries of the region...