The developing countries are calling for a “New Economic Order” because they feel that the trading system discriminates against them. Whether GATT will emerge from the present negotiations better adapted to the needs of the Third World remains to be seen.

In spite of all protestations and exhortations it is a fact that trade liberalization, the modern version of free trade, is caught in a crisis. Professor Detlef Lorenz is here analysing the causes of this crisis and suggesting alternatives for a future liberalization policy.

The final package of the seventh round of multilateral GATT negotiations has been ready for initialling since April 11, 1979. What has been achieved in these negotiations, commonly known as the Tokyo Round, and what has been left undone?

Since the seventies the existing order of international economic relations has been exposed to ever stronger pressures. Access to foreign markets must once again be regarded as a scarce commodity, since the far-reaching removal of tariff barriers has been more than compensated for by non-tariff...

In cooperation with the World Free Zones Organization, the IfW Kiel has conducted a survey among special economic zones on the impairment of their economic activities by COVID-19. The survey reveals that the vast majority of the Free Zones have already been noticeably affected and that the...

The worldwide spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus from Wuhan, Hubei province, China, in 190 countries (according to WHO figures: 219 countries, territories and economic areas) represents an unprecedented threat to Global Health and Global Trade in the times of Globalization – a truly global...

This paper presents our data-base on world trade from 1800 to 1938. We have collected or estimated series of imports and exports, at current and constant (1913) prices and at current and at constant (1913) borders, for 149 polities. After a short review of the available series, we describe the...

Rapid trade-led economic growth in emerging Asia has been shifting the global economic and industrial centres of gravity away from the north Atlantic, raising the importance of Asia in world trade but also altering the commodity composition of trade by Asia and other regions. What began with...

In the context of the WTO, intellectual property rights (IPR) are codified in the TRIPS-agreement. While covering all the different types of IPR, landmark cases of the still young history of TRIPS have dealt with commercial copyrights. This paper summarizes the basic economics of the IPR branch...

The world economy in the last two decades is clearly marked by the integration of emerging countries in the international division of labor. To better understand the "globalization" effect, it is helpful to analyze the pattern and structure of world trade volume in the past, in order to draw...