The future agricultural policy framework seems clear. Even though the present trends do not point in this direction there is a strong probability that in the long run Swiss agriculture will have to forfeit border protection, while domestic support will be restricted to fully Green Box-compatible...

Agriculture has been the unruly horse of the GATT/WTO system for a long time and efforts to halter it are still ongoing. This Research Handbook focuses on aspects of agricultural production and trade policy that are recognized for their importance but are often kept out of the limelight, such as...

<heading id="h1" level="1" implicit="yes" format="display">summary</heading><title type="document">How to Conclude the Doha Development Agenda</title>It is easier to launch a Round than to conclude it, and nice words won't do now. To save a trade negotiation which had already gotten off to a wrong start, and which has turned into a narrow lane focused on agriculture, is especially difficult...

Tariff preferences, which are authorized under the WTO Enabling Clause and autonomous waivers, are often withdrawn on dubious grounds and without due process. This reduces much of their potential value, because traders and investors lack the predictability and security necessary to make...

The WTO Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) is the predominant multilateral legal framework governing agricultural trade. The objective of the AoA is to liberalize trade in agriculture through reductions in tariffs, domestic support and export subsidies. The AoA has not, however, ‘leveled the...

The global food crisis of 2007–08 seems to be forgotten. Media attention at the time focused on food riots in Haiti and Mozambique, while world leaders and more than a dozen international organizations gathered for several food summits, calling for immediate relief measures. But not a single...

The introduction of the so-called “duty free quota free” treatment (DFQF) for all products from least developed countries (LDCs), in particular by the European Communities (EC) and by Switzerland, raised expectations of increased agricultural exports for these 49 countries. Despite the high...

This paper asks how World Trade Organization (WTO) panels and the Appellate Body (AB) take public international law (PIL) into account when interpreting WTO rules as a part of international economic law (IEL). Splendid isolation of the latter is not new; indeed it is intended by the negotiators...

To say that regionalism is gaining momentum is an understatement. To mourn the lack of progress in multilateral trade rule-making is a commonplace in the discourse of politicians regretting the WTO negotiation standstill, and of “know-it-all” academics. The real problem is the uneven playing...