Small economies rarely embrace free trade, a fact that is commonly explained as a consequence of the government's use of trade policy to redistribute income. But why is this redistribution typically biased in favor of import-competing sectors and is consequently trade restricting rather than...

Leamer (1995), Rodrik (1997) and Wood (1995) have suggested, without qualification, that the demand-for-labor curve is more elastic when an economy is open than when it is closed. I demonstrate that this proposition is not valid in general. The proposition can be violated in both the 2x2 and...

This document presents a descriptive overview of issues related to trade and sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures, as observed during the implementation of the SPS Agreement. It aims to provide background information on activities in the WTO's SPS Committee during the period 1995-2001,...

· The report contains positive references to profit, capital, liberty and freedom (including free-market economy), and the struggle of the world’s poor in the developing world – if we dared, and cared to ask them, that is, to achieve these. These references might be too sacrilegious to be...

Agriculture accounts for USD 547 billion (approximately) of international trade, which means 9.1% of world merchandise trade and it constitutes 40.9% of world exports in primary products.In the coming decades the agricultural sector faces many challenges stemming from growing global populations,...

This paper presents the correlation between the annual fluctuations of the terms of trade of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. The period under analysis is 1980-2001 and the main findings are that the four countries have a high to moderate synchronization of their export prices, a...

In this paper authors have made an effort to take a stock of various FTAs in South Asia from the point of view of incorporation of TF measures in the text of FTAs. Authors also look into the individual initiatives being made by the South Asian countries for advancement of trade facilitation...

This paper presents the findings and results of an exploratory ARTNeT study on the needs for and costs of implementation of selected trade facilitation measures (TFMs) related to GATT Articles V, VIII and X. This summary paper is based on six ARTNeT working papers issued between January and...

The overall objective of the movement of natural persons (MNP) in the ASEAN region is to contribute to expanding trade in services and to deepening economic integration. However, the regional movement of human resources has proceeded beyond the expansion of trade and has persisted in response to...