The TRIPs plus phenomenon (additional steps to strengthen the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) tends to be attributed to the regional and bilateral efforts of the United States. This paper suggests that such a perception is mistaken. The EU certainly seeks to...

Aid for Trade supports developing and least-developed countries in building their trade capacity and in increasing their exports by turning market access opportunities into market presence. It does so by addressing four key areas: trade policy & regulations; economic infrastructure; building...

This paper looks at the various trade policies WTO Members have put into place to foster women's economic empowerment. The analysis below is based on the information provided by WTO Members as part of their Trade Policy Review (TPRs) process from 2014 to 2018. Reports from the WTO Secretariat,...

Are market access commitments on services in Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs) reciprocal or simply unilateral? If reciprocal, do concessions granted in services depend on concessions received from the trading partner in other services or in non-services areas as well? In this paper we...

The WTO Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA) is a plurilateral Agreement, meaning that it comprises only a subset of the full Membership of the WTO. Currently, a number of WTO Members that are not Parties to the Agreement either are actively seeking accession to it, have commitments to...

The Africa Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries have benefited from unilateral preferential access to EU markets under various trade agreements. However, since agricultural trade is increasingly determined by food safety and quality standards, one of the main concerns of ACP countries is their...

The Russian Federation acceded to the World Trade Organization (WTO), and so became subject to its international trade dispute settlement procedures, on August 22, 2012. The mechanism was adopted by the WTO under the Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes...

Russia has been actively participating in the dispute settlement system handled by the WTO. As of the year-end of 2019, Russia had been involved in a total of 96 disputes: in 8 disputes as a complainant, in 9 disputes as a respondent, and in 79 disputes as a third party. In 2019, Russia became a...

The Russian Federation acceded to the World Trade Organization (WTO) on August 22, 2012, and was therefore authorized to participate in the WTO trade dispute settlement system. The WTO dispute settlement system is in place pursuant to the Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU) . Hence the...

Qatar became a contracting party to GATT 1994 at the end of the Uruguay Round pursuant to the procedures of Article XXVI:5(c), prior to which it applied the GATT on a de facto basis. Qatar confirmed its commitments on goods and services as part of the Uruguay Round, in which it bound all tariffs...