Market Access Advances And Retreats

Uruguay Round negotiations on market access were a success. Tariff cuts covered a larger share of the world trade than those of the Kennedy or Tokyo Rounds and will save importers some $50 billion a year.

An analysis of developing countries' current trade policies and market access problems is used as a basis for recommending positions for these countries in the new round of multilateral negotiations under the World Trade Organization.

Uruguay Round negotiations on market access were a success. Tariff cuts covered a larger share of world trade than those of the Kennedy or Tokyo Rounds and will save importers some $50 billion a year.In the Uruguay Round negotiations, trade distorting agricultural policies were taken up substantively for the first time in any round of multilateral trade negotiations. Voluntary export restraints outside the Multifibre Arrangement (MFA) were in fact eliminated.Developing countries became equal partners with developed countries. Their tariff cuts covered as large a share of imports as those of the developed countries and were deeper. Because developing country tariffs were higher to start with, their cuts will save importers more (per dollar of imports covered) than will cuts by developed countries. Tariff bindings for most developing countries, although often above applied rates, were extended to 90 percent or more of imports.Few countries agreed to give foreigners unlimited market access in services, or full national treatment in more than a few service activities. But developed countries agreed to some liberalization of cross-border provision for 70 percent of service activities (compared with 25 percent in developing countries).Less positively, although trade restrictions on agricultural products were converted to tariffs, border protection was reduced less on agricultural than on industrial products, and there was little agreement on reducing trade-affecting subsidies.The textiles and clothing agreement binds developed countries to eliminate all MFA-sanctioned restrictions but allows them to largely put off doing so until 2005. Concessions to which developing countries agreed are due now. Reciprocal concessions of particular interest are either due in the future (elimination of the MFA) or yet to be negotiated (liberalization of agricultural trade).Also disquieting, since the Uruguay Round, developing countries have undertaken antidumping cases at a rate (per dollar of imports) three times higher than that for the United States - mostly against other developing countries.This paper - a product of Trade, Development Research Group - is part of a larger effort in the group to assess the amount of liberalization which resulted from the Uruguay Round. The research was supported by the Global and Regional Trust Fund component of the World Bank/Netherlands Partnership Program. Michael Finger may be contacted at [email protected].

This work is a comprehensive collection of cutting-edge scholarship on the economic, international business, political, legal, and environmental ramifications of globalization—one of the hottest topics of the day. International trade is as old as nations. During the last five decades, however, advances in technology and transportation have changed the scope and method of international trade. Disputes rage about the effects of these changes; advocates for different positions offer argument, but little factual or theoretical analysis. Globalization offers all the information readers need to sort out the arguments. Written with the highest degree of scholarship, intended for college students or working professionals, the encyclopedia provides both introductory material to broad economic, legal, political, and environmental theory, and in-depth analysis of how theory interacts with practice in the framework of global trade. A trader in New York can, in a matter of seconds, execute a billion-dollar currency transaction in Hong Kong. What does this transaction mean to New Yorkers, to residents of Hong Kong, and to the rest of the world? This book gives readers the tools to answer those questions.

Beginning with a detailed discussion of the World Trade Organisation and the Uruguay Round and its achievements, this book delves into the causal factors behind the failure to launch the new round of multilateral trade negotiations in Seattle in December 1999. Dilip K. Das tries to determine the precise point reached by the global trading system an

"This paper examines whether the Sub-Saharan African economies could gain from multilateral trade reform in the presence of trade preferences. The World Bank's LINKAGE model of the global economy is employed to examine the impact first of current trade barriers and agricultural subsidies, and then of possible outcomes from the WTO's Doha round. The results suggest moving to free global merchandise trade would boost real incomes in Sub-Saharan Africa proportionately more than in other developing countries or in high-income countries, despite a terms of trade loss in parts of the region. Farm employment and output, the real value of agricultural and food exports, the real returns to farm land and unskilled labor, and real net farm incomes would all rise in the region, thereby alleviating poverty. A Doha partial liberalization of both agricultural and nonagricultural trade could significantly benefit the region." -- Cover verso.

This book draws together key issues resulting from the World Trade Organization's planned 'Millennium Round' and the hope that it will lead to freer trade as we begin this new century.

Many people still think first of economic growth in relation to poverty reduction. Indeed, their correlation is one of the mostdiscussed issues of combating poverty. The relationship is of great importance because if there is a clear causal dependency, reducing poverty could fundamentally be limited to measures to promote growth. However, if there was low growth or stagnation it would not be possible to reduce poverty decisively. In the opposite case, that of the phenomena having no causal relation, promising measures to reduce poverty could be taken up even without economic growth. Hardly anyone now explicitly expresses the view that economic development trickles down automatically to the poor. Practical experience has refuted this assumption dating from the early days of development policy in the 1960s. However, a number of studies show development of growth and a decline in poverty running parallel. On the other hand, there are also examples which show that despite high economic growth poverty is not reduced markedly. The common answer to the question this raises is thus: Yes, growth can reduce poverty, but only if additional measures oriented on the poor are taken up. This is often termed pro-poor-growth. But what that means in detail and whether economic growth as such plays a causal role at all, is not clarified. It is worth taking a look at the arguments on the basis of more recent empirical and theoretical knowledge. Among the many indicators of poverty, the income of the poor (income poverty) has the closest relationship to economic growth. An increase in gross domestic product and thus national income could, if other factors come into play be linked with an increase in the per capita income of the poor.

Contents: Sustainable Tourism Development, Sustainable Tourism Illusion or Realistic Alternative?, Sustainable Tourism and the Environment, The Tourism Juggernaut, Ecotourism or Ecocide?, The Biggest Industry the World Has Ever Seen, Pro-poor Tourism, Tourism and the Environment, Biodiversity, Population Growth and Natural Recreation Areas, Economics and Sustainable Development, Living with Diversity, Fresh Water and the Environment, Ecosystems, Our Unknown Protectors, Forests, Forests: The Earth s Lungs, International Trade with the Consumer s Money, World Trade, Free Trade as Peacemaker, Export Subsidies, Add Value, Go Global, Revisiting Bretton Woods, Give Developing Countries A More Favourable Deal, The Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (Trips) Agreement and the Developing Countries, New Agenda of the WTO, Beyond the Uruguay Round, Developing Countries and the Uruguay Round, Developing Countries and the WTO Agricultural Negotiations, Trading Towards Peace, The Role of Financial Markets and the IMF, Richer of Poorer? Achievements and Challenges of Ethical Trade, What s Driving Migration?, Solving the Unemployment Problem by Looking Beyond the Job, The Population Challenge, Aid Effectiveness as a Multilevel Process, Crisis and New Orientation of Development Policy, Technological Entrepreneurship, The Truth About Global Competition.

In the 26 years since market-oriented reforms were introduced, China has emerged onto the world stage as a major economic presence, particularly since her accession to the World Trade Organisation in 2001.This book is a collection of papers on the effects of globalisation on China's growth prospects and of China's growth on the wider economy. The issues explored include the sustainability of China's continuing economic reform and the necessary reforms to sustain that growth; the considerable effects of her integration into the global economy and its implications for the conduct of Chinese economic policies, including the exchange rate regime; and the influence of China on the regional and world economy. China's competitiveness in exports has also begun to challenge the market share of developing and developed economies; this role in promoting intra-regional trade is also explored.