Posts tagged…Services
Why the Doha Round is failing
Sat, Jul 10 2010The usually well-informed ITSCD Bridges Newsletter tries to explain it with a bit of tabloid alliteration: 'Political Paralysis Poisons WTO Agriculture Talks'. Nah! It's a political choice to put the talks on life-support and it will be a political choice to pull the tubes. It's Doha that's in rigor, not the pollies.
The Doha Round fizzer is an embarrassment. The past sixty years of GATT and WTO…
Read more…Razzing the Congress party
Thu, Apr 16 2009"[The Indian election] exposes the do-nothing, zero-reform record of Manmohan Singh, prime minister, and his government. More generally, it lays bare India’s huge reform gaps and its brittle, decaying institutions. Finally, it deflates the ‘India hype’ peddled by smooth-talking upper-caste politicians, ambassadors, businessmen, management consultants and some academics"
Extract from an Op Ed by…
Asean-Australia-NZ Free Trade Agreement
Fri, Mar 13 2009ASEAN accounts for just under 20 percent of Australia's trade ($81bn in 20087-8), so the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (AANZFTA) that has now been submitted to parliaments for ratification is potentially a big deal.
How big it is difficult to say from a quick review. This is an extensive agreement with a lot of details that will take careful evaluation. It is apparently the…
Next round of trade protection (Part II)
Sun, Feb 22 2009In this earlier post, I looked at three of the 'old standbys' that are likely to provide governments with all the 'wiggle-room' they need to increase protection while remaining nominally compliant with their WTO obligations.
This time, two more oldies but goodies that are still more likely, in my view, to figure in the coming round of trade protection. These two threaten high levels of…
The next round of trade protection
Thu, Feb 19 2009
Will there be one? You bet! The only questions are: how soon and how big?
With employment numbers in both industrialized and industrializing countries falling, world markets seizing up as a consequence of the credit squeeze, icons of globalization like Dubai bleeding debt (and emigrants) and governments rushing out 'stimulus' packages to prop up domestic demand, the scene is set for some…