International politics affects oil trade. But does it affect the oil-exporting developing countries more? We construct a firm-level dataset for all U.S. oil-importing companies over 1986-2008 to examine how these firms respond to changes in "political distance" between the U.S. and her trading...

The data issued by the WTO Secretariat on disputes shows that "developing countries" have participated in one-third of the cases 1995-2005. The data should be corrected to exclude some OECD member countries and some others with high GDP per capita. These adjustments reduce by about 30 the number...

To date, government procurement has been effectively carved out of the main multilateral rules of the WTO system. This paper examines the systemic and other ramifications of this exclusion, from both an economic and a legal point of view. In addition to relevant elements of the WTO Agreements,...

As part of the Doha Development Agenda many members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and in particular its Director-General have actively promoted the so-called Aid-for-Trade initiative. Rather than offer a comprehensive account of this initiative, the purpose here is to consider its...

The approach taken by developing countries to intellectual property (IP) decision-making varies widely. This variation raises several questions: How do politics at the national level impact the prospects for development-oriented IP reforms? What kind of institutional frameworks would best ensure...

The success of the World Intellectual Property Organization's (WIPO) Development Agenda will depend upon reforms to the agency's governance. At the 2007 WIPO General Assemblies, several of the recommendations on the Development Agenda adopted by member states specifically alluded to the need for...

Despite the emphasis of international IP treaties, such as the TRIPS Agreement, on common minimum IP standards, considerable diversity exists among developing countries regarding the nature and scope of IP standards, approaches to administration and enforcement, and the responsiveness of...

The World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is the centrepiece of the global system of rules, institutions, and practices governing the ownership and flow of knowledge, technology, and other intellectual assets. During the TRIPS...

A study of distortions to agricultural incentives in 18 developing countries from 1960-84, by Krueger, Schiff, ad Valdés (1988; 1991), found that policies in most of those developing countries were directly or indirectly harming their farmers. Since the mid-1980s, there has been a substantial...

The paper "Brazil and The WTO informal Dialogue in 2017: History and Achievements" addresses the challenges for the launch, in 2017, of the Informal Dialogue on Investment Facilitation for Development at the World Trade Organization - WTO. It also highlights the importance of enhancing...