This paper examines the potential benefits and costs of providing duty-free, quota-free market access to the least developed countries (LDCs), and the effects of extending eligibility to other small and poor countries. Using the MIRAGE computable general equilibrium model, it assesses the impact...

Developing members at the WTO are faced with shrinking policy space to support their agricultural sector owing to the restrictive provisions of the Amber Box. Contrastingly, most developed members are able to provide high levels of product-specific support without breaching their commitments, on...

With rising levels of food and livelihood insecurity among poor farmers, many developing members at the WTO are demanding special safeguard mechanism (SSM) for shielding their agriculture from import surges and price declines. Most of developing members do not have any trade instrument under the...

While most economists criticise the GSP for a number of (good) reasons, all preference donors and receivers profess their commitment to what they consider as a tool for developing countries ‘to secure a share in the growth of world trade'. The political support given by both receivers and...

There is clear evidence that existing preferential schemes contributed significantly to boosting LDC exports. Many seem to believe the multilateral trading system could offer little to LDCs as they have already obtained market access to critical markets under the current preferential schemes....

Several Least-Developed Countries (LDCs) will graduate from the LDC status in the coming decade implying that they will lose preferential access to export markets. We quantify the expected impact of LDC graduation on exports of graduating and non-graduating LDCs incorporating detailed preference...

Agriculture subsidies in developed countries have been a major stumbling block in Doha Round negotiations. Developed countries are providing huge subsidies to agriculture sector and thereby create distortions in the international market. Some of the developed countries are enjoying comparative...

This paper examines the extent to which various regions, and the world as a whole, could gain from multilateral trade reform over the next decade. The World Bank's LINKAGE model of the global economy is employed to examine the impact first of current trade barriers and agricultural subsidies,...

The Doha Ministerial Declaration emphasized that priority should be given to improving market access for products originating in the Least Developed Countries. In this paper, we analyze the importance of this proposition with respect to market access in the Triad economies. We first present a...

Disciplining domestic support to agriculture remains an unfinished agenda in the WTO negotiations due to the different views and positions of members. Developing members have been consistently demanding an effective special and differential treatment (S&DT) for themselves, along with a...