Posts tagged…Wto

Are the BRICS ready to lead?

Wed, Jan 20 2010

BRICS graphic from the FT

Reflecting on the greater influence of the BRICS, recently, in global forums, the always-interesting Alan Beattie asks:

"Is this a pivot point such as the second world war, where the confident, innovative US muscled aside the weakened, debt-laden economies of Europe and remade the global financial architecture? " Extract from FT.com

His guess? "No, not yet". He points out the BRICS are…

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Elaborating the Ag. travesty

Thu, Jan 14 2010

It is difficult to believe that the complex, weak, confusing, rent-preserving, ponderous white-elephant being proposed for an agreement on agriculture in the WTO Doha negotiations could be more bloated or further compromised…but that's exactly what seems to be happening.

According to a report* from ITCSD, developing countries and the EU want to further slow the pace of change where opening…

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Lamy’s assessment of Copenhagen

Thu, Jan 14 2010

It's called whistling in the wind.

"The outcome of the conference in Copenhagen represents a step forward. The Kyoto Protocol addresses about 30% of global carbon emissions. In contrast, the framework accord hammered out in Copenhagen last week may encompass the majority of world emissions. " Extract from WTO | 2009 News items - Lamy praises Copenhagen efforts, calls for more to be done

The…

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Multilateralism not a ‘single undertaking’

Wed, Jan 06 2010

More commentary—this time from the President of the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations—on the significance of the Copenhagen meeting as one of the first signs of whatever-it-turns-out-to-be that follows the pax atlantica

"Multilateralism in the 21st century is, like the century itself, likely to be more fluid and, at times, messy than what we are used to." Extract from Richard Haass in the Global governance in the aughties Sun, Dec 27 2009

First, bodice-ripping as political theory

"We live in an era in which unprecedented globalization and economic interdependence, liberal-democratic hegemony, nanotechnology, robotic warfare, the 'infosphere,' nuclear proliferation and geoengineering solutions to climate change coexist with the return of powerful autocratic-capitalist states, of a new Great Game in Central Asia, of imperialism in…

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What explains tariff levels?

Fri, Dec 04 2009

It's not economic policy (or even necessity) as much as the political economy that drives trade policies.

"The relationship between the overall tariff policy (considering all product groups together) and the socio-economic variables is even more diffuse, and no strong relationship emerges between tariff policy clusters and the socio-economic context. Consequently, we can conclude that trade…

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Will the G-20 save Doha?

Sun, Sep 27 2009

Probably not. The discount on this, the lastest of their promises, is deservedly steep according to the Global Trade Alert website.

It's not a problem of mendacity or lack of 'political courage'. There is simply no consensus on the liberalizing mandate of Doha among this group; we've tested that proposition to exhaustion in the past eight years. The G20 is effectively the same group that has been…

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Modeling a Doha agreement on agriculture

Tue, Jul 07 2009

Building an ATPSM simulation

To conclude my series of posts on modeling a critical mass agreement on agriculture, I would like to show you how I set up UNCTAD's Agricultural Trade Policy Simulation Model (ATPSM) to project the economic impacts of an agreement to liberalize agricultural trade based on WTO's December, 2008, draft 'modalities'. In my previous post, I compared the results of this simulation with the results of…

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Critical mass agreement vs the Doha Round

Thu, Jul 02 2009

Projected welfare impacts of a CM agreement on agriculture

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…

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Modeling ‘critical mass’ trade agreements

Mon, Jun 15 2009

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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…

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Two tracks out of the Doha wasteland?

Thu, May 28 2009

Pascal Lamy wants to stir up more action in the WTO's Doha negotiations —at least its appearance—by opening up a 'second front' for the exchanges. One group will battle on to refine the technical rules and one will start a 'show and tell' exploration of the implementation of the rules.

"My own sense is that there is scope to work on these two areas along two simultaneous tracks. One would see…

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What if WTO forgot about the rules?

Thu, May 14 2009

If 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…

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