IN 1995 when the WTO was established, it seemed to be final confirmation of the success of a system that had managed multilateral trade relations since 1947. It provided an institutional framework within which governments were not only able to negotiate reductions in trade barriers but also to bind themselves to rules of conduct that, in principle, were both universal and nondiscriminatory. Abo...

" International integration is a process by which countries remove the barriers to free trade and the free movement of people across national borders, with the goal of reducing the tensions that can lead to international conflict " .

It is a well-known problem that small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) have difficulty to participate in electronic commerce. In particular, the SME participation in business-to-business electronic commerce is seriously lagging behind compared to the very active participation of large companies. We discuss several barriers that could explain why SMEs have problems to participate in electronic...

Mercosur has achieved important advances like the removal of intrabloc tariff and non-tariff barriers and the establishment of a common external tariff for most products. However, its ambitious plans to deepen the integration process comprising harmonisation of policies in areas like competition policy, government procurement, technical barriers and phytosanitary measures have not been implemen...

This article, which closely follows a paper that REIL was asked to prepare by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), considers the question of non-tariff barriers and renewable energy primarily from the perspective of the law of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Further work that REIL is engaged in will also consider regional and bilateral trade and investment agreem...

the concept of virtual water trade refers to transact of the water consumed for production of goods and agricultural products through international trade. the anthony allan introduced this concept to improve global water used efficiency. in this paper, the original theory of allen has been investigated through incorporating virtual water as a factor of production in heckscher-ohlin internationa...

In models with heterogeneous firms trade integration has a positive impact on aggregate productivity through the selection of the best firms as import competition drives the least productive ones out of the market. To quantify the impact of firm selection on productivity, we calibrate and simulate a multi-country multi-sector model with monopolistic competition and variable markups using firm-l...

This paper develops a new model of a trade agreement that puts at center stage the competing interests between firms within a sector. Larger firms favor trade liberalization whereas smaller firms favor protection. Lobbying by firms for or against the agreement is modelled as an all-pay auction, thus incorporating the feature that binding contracts over contributions for policies cannot be writt...

This report reviews aspects of trade agreements that challenge tobacco and alcohol control policies. Trade agreements reduce barriers, increase competition, lower prices and promote consumption. Conversely, tobacco and alcohol control measures seek to reduce access and consumption, raise prices and restrict advertising and promotion in order to reduce health and social problems. However, under ...