There is a major split between developed and developing countries over the protection of the patents in pharmaceuticals in the TRIPS. This dispute is symptomatic of the difficulties of incorporating a non-trade issue into a trade organization. Incentives and threats are examined in the context...

In recent years the United States has actively begun to engage in the negotiation of bilateral and regional trade agreements, a significant change from its long-standing commitment to the exclusive use of multilateral institutions for trade liberalization. While the "unequal economic power"...

In January 2011, the US passed the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) which represents a major legislative initiative to revise and strengthen the regulatory regime pertaining to foodborne illness and contamination. The tightening of the regulatory regime was justified on the basis of a number...

Replaced with revised version of paper 07/11/06.

Environmental tariffs appear to be a politically necessary part of the climate change policies that are emerging in many countries. The appeal of level playing field arguments is seductive and difficult to dispute. Environmental policy makers, however, may be naïve, because they fail to account...

High transaction costs and an absence of institutional infrastructure in developing countries prevent comprehensive enforcement of intellectual property rights and generate obstacles to the adoption of genetically modified (GM) crop technology. Governments of developing countries that are...

"But sufficient justification is to be found in the usage of the most authoritative writers and in the considerations of economy and precision of terminology for confining the term dumping to "price-discrimination between national markets" (original emphasis). Copyright 2006 Canadian...

The relationship between labour standards in developing countries and trade flows has become a major trade policy issue with efforts in some developed countries to have labour standards provisions included in multilateral and regional trade agreements. This has been fiercely resisted by...