The governments of numerous low- and middle-income countries are currently instituting rules that strengthen changes in domestic intellectual property legislation, often made to conform to the mandates of "free" trade agreements signed with the United States. These measures frequently include intellectual property provisions that extend beyond the patent law standards agreed upon in recent Worl...

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) which became operational on 1 January 1995 is the successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The WTO provides the legal framework for world trade, and it has been given extensive regulatory and supervisory powers. Whereas the GATT was solely concerned with trade liberalization based on tariff concessions, the WTO’s approach embraces discus...

Most Canadians expected that the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States would herald an era of trade peace between the two countries. Instead, our trading relationship since 1989 has bordered on disharmonious at times with high profile and protracted countervailing duty cases involving softwood lumber and pork and a host of antidumping actions over steel, carpets, beer, and other pro...

I nternational trade has become a contentious topic in many industrial democracies, including the United States. In sharp contrast to earlier periods, President Bush was barely able to secure fast track or trade promotion authority in the Trade Act of 2002. In the end, the act survived three votes in the House of Representatives, twice by a one-vote margin and once by three votes. Trade has als...

Will continual expansion of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) lead to global free trade? In the presence of multilateral negotiations, are PTAs necessary for, or will they necessarily lead away from, global free trade? This paper shows both answers depend crucially on a commitment problem faced by PTA members. Because the commitment problem revolves around a desire to commit to not form futu...

The inherent tension between trade preferences and the Most-Favoured Nation (MFN) principle has been mainly examined in the context of regional free trade agreements and customs unions. Much less attention has been given to non-reciprocal special trade preferences given by developed countries to developing countries. WTO rules on these special preferences are less explicit than WTO rules govern...

Abstract Developing countries coalitions form an integral part of tariff negotiations that take place under the aegis World Trade Organization. While there was only a single coalition in 70s, their number increased to 31 year 2005. Despite apparent proliferation negotiations, little research on theoretical and empirical implications has been produced. In particular, we lack understanding effici...

Bargaining is ubiquitous. Married couples are almost constantly negotiating over a variety of matters, such as who will do which domestic chores, who will take the kids to the local park on a wet Sunday afternoon, and whether or not the wife should take a part-time job, now that the kids are grown up. Government policy is typically the outcome of negotiations amongst cabinet ministers. Whether ...