Private standards are increasing in number, and they affect trade, but their status in the WTO remains problematic. Standards-takers are typically countries with little bargaining power, who cannot affect their terms of trade and thus, even if they possess domestic antitrust laws, will find it...

This paper begins with a puzzle about the differing contributions of the OECD and the WTO to the evolution of international trade law before suggesting that the resolution might lie in their differing capacity to support social learning and mutual obligation. The paper then looks back on the...

Carbon labels providing information about the carbon embedded in food might influence consumer purchases, which would have a differential effect on producers throughout global food chains. We first discuss why any labels work and then describe the mechanics of carbon labels. The novelty of the...

Since its inception, the WTO has significantly increased its transparency and active engagement with civil society, thereby enhancing the extent to which civil society can contribute to WTO accountability. Civil society has played an instrumental role in encouraging WTO to go further, through...

This paper explores the implications of recent developments in firm-based trade theory and empirics for trade policy and negotiations. While traditional trade theory focused on the country, and the new trade theory of the 1980’s adopted the industry as the unit for analysis, the newest theory...

Without transparency, trade agreements are just words on paper. Transparency as disclosure allows economic actors and trading partners to see how rules are implanted; transparency in decision-making ensures fairness and peer review. In the first section of this paper, I discuss the logic of...

Fossil fuel subsidies undermine efforts to mitigate climate change, and they damage the trading system. Multilateral discussion is hampered by inconsistent definitions and incomplete data, which could increase the risks of WTO disputes. Members do not notify such subsidies as much as they should...