At the end of 2010 there are more than 100 new preferential trade agreements being contemplated. At the same time there are approximately 200 existing trade agreements whose provisions leave large additional potential gains from trade on the table. Despite these potential benefits, there appears...

This analysis uses a residual demand elasticity model to measure market power in the international cotton market. The results indicate that China exerts significant market power and affects cotton prices. Those results, combined with a partial equilibrium model of the international cotton...

The article discusses some of the most important reasons for the poor growth performance of most countries in sub-Saharan Africa. While high protection levels in high-income countries in Europe and North America for agricultural trade have been cited as a major impediment for the development of...

This article examines the substance of the WTO panel decision for Canada-Wheat as it relates to trade friction in North American agricultural markets. I provide an overview of recent economic literature on state trading enterprises (STEs) and examine the WTO’s approach to regulating the...

Jordan acceded to the WTO in 1999. In its accession Jordan agreed, for example, to reduce tariffs on imported products and open its services market; it also modified its intellectual property regime. Jordan enjoyed special and differential treatment in few areas and was not able to designate...

Despite a failure to achieve closure on the Doha Round of WTO negotiations, regional and bilateral trade agreements involving a variety of countries have continued to be negotiated, signed and implemented. Most of the recent trade agreements have contained some environmental provisions, ranging...

Since the terrorist attacks on the United States in September 2001, an awkward nexus of security and economics has been the primary driver of North American governance. This nexus emerged as a pragmatic response to the poisonous politics of economic integration that ensued after 1994 and the...

In 2001 the World Trade Organization launched a highly ambitious program of multilateral liberalization. Eight years later, concluding the negotiations is uncertain, though an opportunity still exists. Since 2001, many proposals on market access have been brought to the negotiating table by the...

Tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) have replaced quotas at the end of the Uruguay Round. We analyze TRQs when a foreign firm competes against a domestic firm in the latter’s market. Our benchmark is the strategic rent-shifting tariff. We show that the domestic price-equivalent TRQ is a better...

In spite of some superficial success in achieving its overall global target, there has been much disillusionment with the progress on climate change since the Kyoto Protocol was negotiated in 1997. The key problems in addressing GHG emissions under the Kyoto Protocol have been the incomplete...