W hen then European Union Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy returned from the 1999 World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial in Seattle, where gas-choked streets overflowing with tens of thousands of protesters had signaled the emergence of a worldwide movement against ‘‘corporate-led globalization,’’ he expressed support for broadening the input taken on trade-rules formation. One lesson of the ...

Using a CGE model, PRCGEM, with an updated 2002 I/O table, this paper explores how earnings will be affected in each of 40 separate industries across 31 regions (or 8 regional blocks) of China for the period 2002–07. Labour movement between regions within China is considered. It is found that the direct contribution of WTO membership is small to the whole economy in terms of growth and developm...

The trade and environment debate arose as result of pressure from environment groups in the industrialized economies to introduce environmental issues in the WTO. Along with the demand to include labor rights in the WTO and the insistence that NGOs have greater rights of participation in NGO processes, this marked a change in the pattern of deliberation in the WTO and its predecessor, the GATT ...

During September 10-14, 2003, WTO members met in Cancún for a mid-term review of the Doha Round of trade negotiations, launched in November 2001. Trade ministers entered the 5 WTO Ministerial divided on agricultural and non-agricultural negotiating modalities, on whether to launch negotiations on the so-called Singapore issues and their possible scope, on the approach to take towards strengthen...

This paper analyzes the main economic issues of intellectual property rights (IPRs) protection in the context of the World Trade Organization (WTO). A retrospective view on the establishment of the TRIPS (traderelated aspects of intellectual property rights) Agreement, a still controversial accomplishment of the Uruguay Round of trade liberalization, is provided. The paper reviews the economic ...

Participation in international trade potentially brings huge benefits to developing countries. However, the design and setup of the international trade regime, most importantly the rules and regulations stipulated in the agreements of the World Trade Organization (WTO), often make it difficult for developing countries to fully tap this potential. As will be argued in this paper using descriptiv...

The World Trade Organization ("WTO") has been heavily criticized since its inception for its potentially destructive influence on other policy domains, particularly environmental and labor policies. The public debate with respect to the WTO was structured, to a large extent, by this negative stance. "Linkage" emerged over the last decade as an alternative framework for thinking about the relati...