This paper provides a legal-economic analysis of the unappealed WTO Panel Report in China – Certain Measures Affecting Electronic Payment Services (WT/DS413/R). The core Number was whether China’s measures that resulted in there being only one dominant supplier of electronic payment services...

Plurilateral agreements in the WTO context allow sub-sets of countries to agree to commitments in specific policy areas that only apply to signatories, and thus allow for 'variable geometry' in the WTO. Plurilateral agreements share a number of features with preferential trade agreements (PTAs)...

Reducing public sector deficits and high debt burdens in part will require an increase in net exports – which is only possible if the countries concerned are able to produce goods and services that are 'competitive' on world markets. Policies aimed at enhancing competitiveness may be offset by...

The authors examine the effects on national welfare and market access of two public procurement practices-discrimination against foreign suppliers of goods and services and nontransparency of the procedures used to allocate government contracts to firms. Both types of policies have become...

The decision not to launch negotiations in the World Trade Organization (WTO) on three of the Singapore Issues in the so-called July 2004 package provides an opportunity to revisit the knowledge base on which proposals for further international collective action may be drawn. This paper examines...

In 2011 the World Bank Group (WBG) issued a new trade strategy. This identifies the primary axes for WBG engagement and support activities and areas where action is likely to have the greatest positive impact in terms of helping developing countries to integrate further into the world economy...

Liberalization of trade and investment in services through trade agreements has progressed less than trade in goods. We review the limited progress achieved to date in the WTO and major regional agreements on services and possible explanations why trade agreements have not been more effective at...