We provide a synthesis of the theoretical models that study the use of escape clauses, also known as safeguards, in multilateral and preferential trade agreements. We consider models that explain this type of flexibility based on economic efficiency, political economy shocks, and...

Die vorliegende Untersuchung stellt die technischen Grundlagen und die Marktordnung für den internationalen Handel mit Dienstleistungen der Informationstechnologie dar; sie analysiert und bewertet die resultierenden Handelsbarrieren. Die Funktionsweise des Internets (Netzaufbau, Adress- und...

This paper outlines the technical foundations and the market structure for international trade in telecommunication services; it analyzes the resulting trade barriers. The basic structure of international telecommunications depends on the national market structure and the transmission technique...

The Doha declaration on trade and environment proposed to clarify the relationship between multilateral environmental agreement (MEA) trade obligations and WTO rules by only guaranteeing economic integration upon ratification of certain MEAs. In other words, it pushed to authorize the use of...

This paper studies (i) the policy interaction between tariffs and product standards; (ii) how such interaction may affect the welfare justification of national treatment (NT) in product standards. Absent NT, tariff reductions can lead to more discriminatory standards against foreign firms....

Regional trade agreements have proliferated in the past two decades while multilateral trade negotiations have stalled. Both these agreements are governed by the WTO and have to abide by the non-discriminatory (Most-Favored Nation, MFN) clause to varying degrees-regional agreements to a lesser...

The success of GATT negotiations in lowering tariff barriers worldwide has shifted attention to the use of domestic policies as a secondary trade barrier, raising the question of how to deal with domestic policies within an international trade agreement. Currently, no theoretical basis exists...

This paper shows that governments have no incentive to introduce non-tariff barriers when they are free to set tariffs but they do when tariffs are determined cooperatively. We then show three results. First, with trade liberalization, there is a progression from u sing tariffs only to quotas,...