The Bretton Woods system, originally perceived as a trinity of institutions — the IMF, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and International Trade Organization — could barely survive the demise of the ITO, even with the resulting expansion of the General Agreement on...

This article examines the two-decade evolution of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and the future prospects for Asian regionalism. It argues that while APEC retains advantages over competing regional structures, it should undergo reforms to accelerate the Bogor Goals and ensure its...

There has been an explosive growth of free trade agreements (FTAs) in recent years. The World Trade Report 2011 of the World Trade Organization (WTO) shows Asian members to be among the most active in signing preferential trade agreements. This unprecedented growth has attracted much academic...

This paper explores and analyses the position of South Africa in relation to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) dispute Settlement system, especially as the most active African WTO member in the application of WTO rules to disputes in the municipal (domestic) context. Despite being a relatively...

This paper examines whether, in the current environment of international economic law, Geographical Indications (GIs) as an Intellectual Property (IP) system can be used to protect forms of Traditional Knowledge (TK) in developing countries and achieve economic development for local communities....

Numerical simulation exercises to analyze the impacts of potential changes in non-tariff policies commonly use ad valorem equivalent tariff treatment even though estimated impacts using explicit model representation and ad valorem equivalent treatments will differ. The difficulty for modellers...

Global trade contracted quickly and severely during the global crisis. This paper, using a unique dataset of French firms, matching together export data with firm-level credit constraints, shows that most of the 2008-2009 trade collapse is accounted by the unprecedented demand shock and by...

Trade regulation may never have been in more flux than it is nowadays. Apart from the emergence of ‘megaregionals’ (more recently, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership – RCEP, or the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-pacific Partnership–CPTPP) and the difficulties in...

National debates over policies that affect the flow of digital information are heating up as censorship, surveillance, control over personal data, and requirements to store data locally have emerged as contentious political issues. In the coming years, governments will need to carefully craft...