The issue of special and differential treatment (SDT) for developing countries in the WTO has become a source of tension in North-South trade relations. The absence of an effective SDT regime clearly contributed to the failure of the Cancun Ministerial meeting of the WTO. This paper argues for a...

The current post-crisis environment and fragile economic recovery increases the importance of aid for trade. Global rebalancing and tightened fiscal budgets in the short to medium term also place renewed emphasis on aid effectiveness. This note identifies four options to enhance the...

The trade and welfare impacts of multilateral liberalization on individual countries and groups within countries depend on many factors-including the depth of liberalization by trading partners, the extent of countries' own reforms, the responsiveness of investors to changes in relative prices...

There are large differences between WTO Members in terms of resource capacity constraints and national trade policy and investment priorities. These affect the ability and willingness to incur the costs associated with implementation of new rules, as well as the net benefits of doing so. The...

At the recent World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial meeting in Doha, Qatar, WTO members called for the launch of negotiations on disciplines relating to competition based on explicit consensus on modalities to be agreed at the fifth WTO ministerial meeting in 2003. WTO discussions since...

The Doha Round must be concluded not because it will produce dramatic liberalization but because it will create greater security of market access. Its conclusion would strengthen, symbolically and substantively, the WTO’s valuable role in restraining protectionism in the current downturn. What...

Global commodity markets are affected by a variety of government policies that may expand or lower overall supply and as a result affect world prices for the specific products concerned. Market failures and market structures (market power along the value chain) also affect supply. This paper...

Hoekman analyzes what actions could be taken in the context of the World Trade Organization's Doha negotiations to assist countries in reaping benefits from deeper trade integration. He discusses the policy agenda that confronts many developing countries and identifies a number of focal points...