This Perspective discusses if globalization has stalled and what the implications for FDI decisions and policies are. Efficiency-seeking investments are being affected by protectionist policies and the retrenchment of global value chains, which favor market-seeking investments. More attention...

The multilateral trade system rests on the principle of nondiscrimination. The most-favored-nation (MFN) clause embodied in article one of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was the defining principle for a system that emerged in the post, Second World War era, largely in reaction...

In this paper, the authors explore the complex, long, and unique process of accession to the World Trade Organization, with its intertwined economic, legal, and political dimensions. Referring to country case studies and sector-specific issues, the paper organizes some of the current reflections...

Heavily indebted low-income countries benefited from significant debt relief over the past decade. Under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative and the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI), assistance of about $117 billion in nominal terms had been committed to 35 HIPC as of...

The first years of the 21st century were characterized by more prudent macroeconomic policies in the developing world, the positive impact of debt relief on low-income countries (LICs), and positive growth trends for the world economy, despite the puncturing of the high-tech "bubble" in...

In February 1997, sixty-nine governments of high-income and developing countries agreed to liberalize their basic telecommunications services under an agreement negotiated through the World Trade Organization. Most participants in the agreement have subscribed to procompetitive regulatory...

About 20 percent of the total production of tropical timber is traded internationally. But for Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, and some countries in West-Central Africa, tropical timber trade accounts for more than 50 percent of production. Although the tropical timber trade has often...