A key market access issue for developing countries will be the inclusion of industrial products. Developing countries now depend on manufactures for an average of three quarters of their export revenues—the world is very different from that represented by

Poor countries are rarely challenged in formal WTO trade disputes for failing to live up to commitments, reducing the benefits of their participation in international trade agreements. This paper examines the political-economic causes of the failure to challenge poor countries and discusses the...

This Paper analyses what actions could be taken in the context of the WTO Doha negotiations to assist countries to benefit from deeper trade integration. It discusses the policy agenda that confronts many developing countries and identifies a number of focal points that could be used both as...

High levels of protection and domestic support for farmers in developed countries significantly affect many least developed countries (LDCs), both directly and through the price-depressing effect of agricultural support policies. High tariffs and domestic support may also lower the world price...

With the reintroduction of agriculture and textiles and clothing into the GATT, the absence of general rules on procurement has become the major `hole' in the coverage of the GATT. This paper provides an analysis of the new Government Procurement Agreement that was negotiated between a subset of...

It is commonly observed that international trade negotiations repeatedly fail to achieve outcomes that would appear to satisfy the criteria of efficiency and mutual advantage. It can be argued that this is due principally to the influence of interest groups. This paper develops an analytical...

This paper explores the economic impact of a free trade agreement (FTA) between Egypt and the United States, assuming that Egypt implements both the recently agreed Arab League FTA and a Partnership Agreement with the European Union. An Egypt-United States agreement would improve Egypt’s...

This paper assesses the possible impact of a Euro-Mediterranean Agreement (EMA) on Egypt and Jordan and identifies policy options that will increase the benefits of free trade with Europe. The extent to which these countries will benefit from an EMA depends greatly on the investment response and...

Little progress has been made since the creation of the WTO in expanding and deepening the coverage of services liberalization commitments. This paper identifies and discusses five hypotheses that may explain the absence of dynamism: (i) technological changes allow ever more services to be...

This paper assesses existing multilateral rules on government procurement from a developing country perspective. It summarizes the economics of discriminatory procurement and investigates to what extent data on procurement reported by members of the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)...