Some scientists and authorities are arguing that tariffs are growing more and more unimportant since eight GATT/WTO-Tariff-Rounds have resulted in tremendous reductions of the original tariff rates in the late 1940ies. The Non-Tariff-Measures however are gaining more importance. A...

Food occupies a central role within the World Trade Organization (WTO), certainly where litigation is concerned. By way of illustration, a cursory read of WTO disputes initiated by Members to date reveals the existence of a veritable dispute settlement 'menu': WTO tribunals have entertained...

On September 9, 2008, the European Court of Justice dismissed the appeals by two Italian companies – FIAMM Spa and Giorgio Fedon & Figli Spa – seeking compensation for damages suffered as a consequence of the US increased custom duties authorised by the WTO Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) in...

This paper examines whether the climate policy options policymakers are contemplating are compatible with core principles of the world trading system set forth in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the World Trade Organization (WTO), and Appellate Body decisions. The authors...

Economic theory has made considerable progress in explaining why sovereign countries cooperate in trade. Central to most theories of trade cooperation are issues of self-enforcement: The threat of reprisal by an aggrieved party maintains the initial balance of concessions and prevents...

This paper is a contribution to the literature on rational design of trade agreements. The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an incomplete contract among sovereign states. Incomplete contracts contain gaps. Ex post, contractual gaps may leave gains from trade unrealized; they may create...

This paper constitutes an attempt to reframe and eventually deflate the ongoing “compliance-vs.-rebalancing” debate which has permeated WTO scholarship for the last 10 years. Our main criticism concerns the substance of the entire debate. We find that scholars on both sides of the...

The WTO's Dispute Settlement Mechanism (DSM) has been hailed as a fundamental aspect of the Multilateral Trading System for developing countries. At the same time developing countries face many challenges to ensure their effective participation in the mechanism. This paper presents statistical...

Recent years have witnessed an ever-increasing resort to export restrictions in the markets for raw materials, causing heightened uncertainty about supply availability together with friction among trading partners. Poor transparency can amplify and compound the effects of restrictive trade...