Fossil-fuel subsidies are economically inefficient and harmful for the environment yet efforts to phase them out at the national and international levels have not been effective. The existing international legal framework is too weak and fragmented to support this process and an international...

This paper provides a review of the literature on competitiveness and leakage concerns associated with differentiated climate abatement commitments among countries. The literature reviewed is not exhausted, but it is sufficient to provide a balanced view of both academics and policy circles....

Das Augenmerk richtet sich auf das Dienstleistungsabkommen GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Services), das sich 1994 'in due course' dem GATT (General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs) anschloss und zu den folgenträchtigsten Abkommen innerhalb der Welthandelsorganisation WTO gezählt werden...

The international economic crisis which began in 2007 has limited developed countries’ growth rates and manifested debt crises in certain economies in the Eurozone. It is the aim of this article to analyze the role that the BRIC group of nations has played in international financial...

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is often accused of, at best, not paying enough attention to human rights or, at worst, facilitating and perpetuating human rights abuses. This book weighs these criticisms and examines their validity, incorporating legal arguments as well as some economic and...

The discussions on the Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP) have evolved in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings since 2004 when the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) presented a study suggesting a possible integration of the Asia-Pacific region. The most recent...

One of the goals of the multilateral trading system is to enhance the stability and predictability of the environment in which traders operate.Binding tariffs at the WTO reduces the scope for their discretionary use. But, countries have bound tariffs at ceiling levels often substantially above...

Policy commitment and credibility are important for inducing agents to make costly, irreversible investments. Policy uncertainty can delay investment and reduce the response to policy change. I provide theoretical and novel quantitative evidence for these effects by focusing on trade policy, a...

One of the main objectives of the Bretton Woods negotiations was to guarantee the firm control over competitive exchange rate devaluations, which had worsened the effects of the economic crisis of the 1930s. The par value exchange rate system was thus created, representing a link between the...

The unsustainable production and consumption patterns leading to a problem with waste management require technical and administrative solution on a local, regional or national level. Efforts may be challenged by processes of globalisation and international politics. The author discusses the...