Legal Aspects Of Trade Preferences For Developing States

Lovett (Tulane Law School), Eckes (a former commissioner of the U.S. International Commission during the Reagan and Bush I administrations), and Brinkman (international economics, Portland State U.) evaluate the evolution of U.S. trade policy, focusing on the period from the establishment of the Gen

The Handbook offers an introduction to the key elements of Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs), addressing the practical economic and legal aspects of the regulatory policies in PTAs.

Congress has created multiple trade preference programs designed to foster economic growth, reform and development in less developed countries. These programs give temporary, non-reciprocal, duty-free U.S. market access to select exports of eligible countries. Congress conducts regular oversight of these programs, repeatedly revising and extending them. This book discusses the major U.S. trade preference programs, their possible economic effects, stakeholder interests and legislative options

WTO law sets the global minimum standards for trade regulation, while allowing some regulatory flexibility for developing countries. The exact scope of regulatory flexibility is often unclear and, at times, flexibility may be counterproductive to sustainable economic growth in developing countries. Undisputedly, developing countries would have some flexibility with respect to tailoring preferential services trade agreements to their individual economic needs and circumstances, but empirical data from over 280 preferential services trade agreements worldwide shows that this flexibility is rarely used. This volume clarifies the regulatory scope of flexibility for preferential services trade agreements between developing countries by linking the legal interpretation of WTO law with evidence from research in economics and political sciences. The book suggests that the current regulatory framework leaves room for meaningful flexibility for developing countries, and encourages policymakers and scholars to take these flexibilities into consideration in their design and study of trade policies.

Special and differential treatment (SDT) for developing countries has always been a central, but controversial, element of the GATT/WTO multilateral trading system. A large literature on the subject of SDT has emerged in the last 50 years by both proponents and opponents. The contributions to this volume focus on the rationale, institutional features and economic effectiveness of SDT. The editors have carefully selected a number of key articles with a special emphasis on evaluations of the impact of SDT, especially preferential market access. The book also includes more recent contributions which discuss whether there is a continued need for such special treatment and how it might be designed both from a development objective and from the perspective of the trading system generally. This volume is an essential source of reference for those who follow economic and legal debates on the future of the multilateral trade regime and the role of the developing countries in it. The editors have written an authoritative new introduction which illuminates their choice and highlights the contribution of each article.