Trade policy commitments to lower import tariffs and to maintain tariffs at low levels entail short and long-run political-economic costs and benefits. Empirical work examining the relationship between such commitments and the exercise of trade policy flexibilities is still relatively nascent,...

There is not yet consensus in the trade agreements literature as to whether preferential liberalization leads to more or less multilateral liberalization. However, research thus far has focused mostly on tariff measures of import protection. This paper develops more comprehensive measures of...

The United States use of "zeroing" in its antidumping procedures has become a political flash point threatening some legitimacy of the WTO's dispute settlement system. This paper provides a positive analysis of the zeroing issue, explains how it has evolved and who is likely to be affected by...

Poor countries are rarely challenged in formal World Trade Organization trade disputes for failing to live up to commitments, reducing the benefits of their participation in international trade agreements. This paper examines the political-economic causes of the failure to challenge poor...

The WTO and GATT : a principled history -- Developing countries, the WTO agreements, and trade liberalization -- An introduction to WTO dispute settlement -- Developing countries and WTO trade disputes -- WTO enforcement at the firm level: the extended litigation process -- The advisory centre...