One of the goals of the multilateral trading system is to enhance the stability and predictability of the environment in which traders operate.Binding tariffs at the WTO reduces the scope for their discretionary use. But, countries have bound tariffs at ceiling levels often substantially above...

Tariff water - the difference between bound and applied duties - provides relevant information on domestic trade policy and WTO trade negotiations. This paper examines the general and sectoral tariff structure of 120 economies, using exploratory data analysis. -- Commercial Policy ; Taxation ;...

Building on the results of the OECD-WTO Trade in Value-Added TiVA database, the paper analyses the evolution of effective protection in about 50 developed and developing countries from 1995 to 2008. The paper reviews also the role of preferential agreements on effective protection as well as the...

The WTO's plurilateral Information Technology Agreement (ITA) reduced tariffs to zero on many IT products. This paper presents a comprehensive study of its trade impacts by incorporating recent insights from both the global value chain (GVC) and time in trade literatures. Inserting tariffs...

Many developing countries still levy tariffs on mosquito nets, thereby discouraging their use and contributing to the spread of diseases such as malaria and dengue. Focusing on sub-Saharan Africa, the paper shows to which extent such tariffs are in place and, based on existing elasticity...

Natural resources account for 20% of world trade, and dominate the exports of many countries. Policy is used to manipulate both international and domestic prices of resources, yet this policy is largely outside the disciplines of the WTO. The instruments used include export taxes, price...