Posts tagged…Trade Framework
Another small step
Fri, Jul 03 2009But it's impossible to ignore the significance of this continuing internationalization of the remminbi.
"Although it has no short-term implications for the full convertibility of the renminbi, the announcement provides ballast to the volley of political signals Beijing has been sending in recent months over its dissatisfaction with the US dollar." Extract from Financial Times
Critical mass agreement vs the Doha Round
Thu, Jul 02 2009
We'll cut to the chase, shall we, in this fourth of my posts on modeling the impact of a 'critical mass' agreement in agriculture? Click on the tags at the left-side or at the bottom of this article to find the earlier posts.
A 'critical mass' agreement among 38 countries that account for 80 percent of world trade in the 30 top-traded agricultural products (all of them food) to eliminate import…
Read more…Opening food markets in a CM agreement
Wed, Jun 24 2009
The immediate net global gains from a 'Critical Mass' (CM) trade agreement to open markets for some 30 products in 38 of the world's largest markets would be about $10 billion. World trade in these products would expand by a third with most of the export gains won by developing countries.
This is the third post in a series of five intended to share with you the results of some simulations of an…
A Critical Mass Agreement on cereals trade
Wed, Jun 17 2009
In this post I'll describe the simulated impacts of a Critical Mass (CM) trade liberalization agreement on global trade in cereals. This is the second of five posts about some simulations I've created to investigate whether CM agreements could be an alternative to the standard WTO approach to opening up world markets for agriculture.
The bottom line: an improvement in global welfare of between…
Modeling ‘critical mass’ trade agreements
Mon, Jun 15 2009
In the past couple of weeks, I've been modeling the economic impacts of an alternative way to open up world agricultural markets using 'critical mass' trade agreements.
I thought I would share some of the results of the modeling with you, here on my website, over the next couple of weeks.
The simulations run inside the trade model suggest that there would be huge wins from adopting a new, more…
What if WTO forgot about the rules?
Thu, May 14 2009If you can't agree on what to do, then don't agree. Just, um… do it™.
This—believe it or not— is the latest idea from the bored squad of WTO delegates who find themselves with nothing much to negotiate while trade is in an unprecedented slump and the Doha Round lies on a slab in the cool room.
Their thinking—which they tested with new US Trade Representative Ron Kirk during his recent visit to…
Summary of the copyright trade agreement
Wed, Apr 08 2009The participants in the proposed Anti-counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)—one of the few plurilateral (non-regional) trade agreements ever negotiated outside the multilateral trade framework of GATT and WTO—have lifted the veil of secrecy surrounding their negotiations just a little by publishing a "Summary of key elements under discussion".
Although apparently intended to calm civil-liberties…
Trade agreements and trade policy
Tue, Feb 03 2009Yesterday, I noted that for all the changes that have taken place in the trading system since the world last faced such a dramatic downturn in trade and production, there remains one question now that is more or less the same as the questions posed in the 1930s:
"… will trade agreements help to forestall these policy mistakes and encourage collaborative solutions? Or does our experience of the…
A better way ahead for WTO
Thu, Dec 18 2008"As we have argued before, governments need to look for other options such as smaller, more manageable standalone multilateral deals." extract from: FT Editorial - The broken promise of DohaA 'smaller, stand-alone' deal is almost certain to lead to a plurilateral agreement among a sub-set of WTO's 153 members because it will probably not offer sufficient gain to all of them. But that's OK in my…
A better way to negotiate on agriculture
Thu, Dec 04 2008Next week, at the Institute for International Trade in Adelaide, Andrew Stoler (Institute Director, former Deputy Director-General of WTO) and I are presenting a conference in our project on future frameworks for WTO agriculture agreements.
In addition to our own research (some linked here) we've commissioned the help of leading agriculture and trade policy research centers in Brazil, China,…
The WTO’s objectives
Wed, Nov 26 2008On 11-12 December, the Institute for International Trade will host a conference that Andrew Stoler (its Director) and I have arranged as part of our year-long research project to find a better way to negotiate WTO agriculture agreements.
In a paper he has prepared for the conference on 'Variable Geometries', Professor Peter LLoyd of Melbourne University poses a question about WTO's objectives.…
A modest proposal for the ‘G-20’ summit
Sun, Nov 09 2008
The IMF's Managing Director should not try to talk down expectations for next weekend's summit. We deserve much more from these leaders that, so far, have done little to match their promises of reform of global governance over the past decade.
The G-20's role should be to set up the best conditions for a recovery in real markets, not just in financial markets. But, on their past behavior, it is…