The History and Future of the World Trade Organization is a comprehensive account of the economic, political and legal issues surrounding the creation of the WTO and its evolution. Fully illustrated with colour and black-and-white photos dating back to the early days of trade negotiations, the publication reviews the WTO's achievements as well as the challenges faced by the organisation, and identifies the key questions that WTO members need to address in the future. The book describes the intellectual roots of the trading system, membership of the WTO and the growth of the Geneva trade community, trade negotiations and the development of coalitions among the membership, and the WTO's relations with other international organisations and civil society. Also covered are the organisation's robust dispute settlement rules, the launch and evolution of the Doha Round, the rise of regional trade agreements, and the leadership and management of the WTO.
This book argues for a balanced approach to ‘greening’ the World Trade Organization (WTO) ban on China’s export duties without opening the floodgates to protectionism. As a result of the China—Raw Materials and China—Rare Earths decisions, China is largely prohibited from using export duties to address environmental problems, including those associated with climate change. This is despite a number of climate studies having suggested that Chinese export duties could be useful for reducing carbon leakage, an issue of international concern. This book puts the case for a more balanced approach. It shows that a harsh ban on China’s export duties constrains its policy space to protect the environment, particularly in the context of climate change. The work presents feasibility tests for various legal solutions that have been discussed for adjusting the ban, and it accordingly proposes a more feasible approach that would allow China to help protect the environment without advancing protectionism. The proposed legal option provides a less protectionist alternative to export duties, namely ‘export duties plus’: export duties in combination with supplementary restrictions on Chinese consumption. This analysis also yields insights regarding ways to correct WTO precedents, which suggests a moderate alternative response to an important issue behind the Appellate Body crisis. The book will be a valuable resource for academics, researchers and policymakers in the areas of International Trade Law, Environmental Law and China.
This new edition of Trade in Goods is an authoritative work on international trade by one of the most influential scholars in the field. It provides a comprehensive and detailed analysis of every WTO agreement dealing with trade in goods. The focus of the book is on the reasoning behind the various WTO agreements and their provisions, and the manner in which they have been understood in practice. It introduces both the historic as well as the economic rationale for the emergence of the multilateral trading system, before dealing with WTO practice in all areas involving trade in goods. It contests the claim that the international trade agreements themselves represent 'incomplete contracts', realized through interpretation by the WTO and other judicial bodies. The book comprehensively analyses the WTO's case law, and it argues that a more rigorous theoretical approach is needed to ensure a greater coherence in the interpretation of the core provisions regulating trade in goods. This second edition readdresses and moves beyond the discussion of the GATT presented in the first edition to assess in significant detail every trade in goods agreement at the WTO, both multilateral as well as plurilateral. The book is written to be accessible to those new to the field, with an authoritative level of detail and analysis that makes it essential reading for lawyers and economists alike.
This research explores how multilateralism in trade has worked over the past twenty years - and provides some lessons about how it can work in the future. It describes the WTO's achievements across a number of key areas, including: strengthening the institutional foundations of the trade system; widening its membership and increasing participation; deepening trade integration through lower barriers and stronger rules; improving transparency and policy dialogue; strengthening dispute settlement; expanding cooperation with other international organizations; and enhancing public outreach. It concludes that the WTO has achieved much over its first twenty years but the success of the WTO has inevitably given rise to new challenges.