Until the IMF package on August 7, the financial markets showed great concern that Brazil might follow Russia, Ecuador, the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries, and Argentina in defaulting on its public debt. The yield spread of Brazilian debt over US Treasury securities ("Brazil risk") rose above...

Seattle leaves a huge question mark over the U.S. role in world trade policy. Faulty preparation and flawed tactics were abundant--both in the street and between the delegations. The Battle of Seattle may acquire the same instructive value for future diplomats as Pearl Harbor has for military...

The world economy will see a significant recovery of growth in 2002 and 2003, reversing the global slowdown of last year. The global economic recovery will be led by the United States where a vigorous cyclical rebound is already under way. Economic growth will also strengthen in western Europe...

The global economic recovery lost considerable momentum in late 2002 and appears likely to remain sluggish through the fi rst half of 2003 before accelerating again late this year and in 2004. The escalation of world oil prices and uncertainties surrounding the economic effects of the US-led...

Once again the steel industry is distressed. And once again Washington is looking for trade "solutions" when it should be searching elsewhere. There is nothing new about either story. But, can't we do something better this time?

On April 26, 2004, Senator John Kerry released his six-point trade program, "Trade Enforcement: Asleep at the Wheel," and conspicuously targeted China for violating worker rights, dumping, and supporting "illegal currency manipulation" (Kerry 2004). Five days earlier, senior Bush administration...

The debate over linking trade and worker rights is often a dialogue of the deaf, with advocates on either side paying little attention to the scope for positive synergies between labor standards, development, and globalization. Instead, each side views the other as promoting positions that will,...

This November, trade ministers from the United States and more than 100 other countries will gather in Doha, Qatar, with the goal of launching a new multilateral round of trade negotiations. Space permitting, hundreds or thousands of protestors will also gather to condemn the unwillingness of...

We construct the Korean Integration Model (KIM), a two-country computable general equilibrium (CGE) model linking the North and South Korean economies. Using KIM, we simulate the impact of a customs union and an exchange rate unification of the two economies both in the presence and absence of...

This Working Paper develops a simple method for calculating welfare benefits when the market structure is made more competitive through the removal of import barriers and investment restrictions. Classic instances where trade and investment restrictions serve to preserve monopolistic monopoly...