Food Safety Issues,Trade and WTO Rules: A Developing Country Perspective

The SPS Agreement and the related WTO dispute settlement mechanism are an important first step in strengthening the global trade architecture, bringing in greater transparency and orderly conditions to world food trade. However, implementation of the new trade rules has turned out to be a more complex task than the traditional market access issues handled by the WTO. Several factors, including inadequate financial and technical resources, have constrained devel‐oping countries from becoming effective participants in the implementation process, and there is widespread suspicion that SPS regulations are being used as hidden protectionist devices by developed countries. However, despite all the problems, some developing countries have been quite successful in penetrating developed country food markets; they have done so by accepting the consumer preferences and standards in quality‐sensitive high‐income markets and implementing domestic supply‐side measures. While making full use of available international assistance initiatives, developing countries should view the task of complying with SPS standards not just as a barrier but also as an opportunity to upgrade quality standards and market sophistication in the food export sector.     

从WTO与“文化例外”看国际文化贸易规则

本文首先厘清了中国等发展中国家在研究国际文化贸易规则中应秉持的价值倾向是"文化例外",重点分析的管理机制为WTO,然后结合三个经典的国际文化贸易案例对在WTO中体现"文化例外"精神的国际文化贸易规则进行了详细的分析,并归纳了相关的主要争议点和难点,最后进行了总结并就中国在国际文化贸易争端解决策略及其规则制定参与上提出了自己的建议。     

Preference Erosion,Government Revenues and Non‐tariff Trade Barriers

Developing countries benefiting from developed country unilateral trade preferences fear that Doha Round tariff cuts will erode the value of those preferences. That these programmes confer significant benefits, however, is not clear. Studies indicate that the impact of preference erosion would be minimal for most developing countries. But for a small subset of middle‐income and least‐developed countries, concern may be warranted. WTO members, should address affected countries’ concerns, perhaps by tailoring WTO tariff negotiations to lessen adjustment pressures and providing development assistance. Developing countries also are anxious that lower tariffs will reduce government revenues. Dependence on tariff revenue is diminishing and trade liberalisation need not result in lower total tax revenues or even lower customs revenues. Much depends on a country's current tariff and trade regime, its tax structure and its overall economic structure. At some point, a country does need to broaden its tax base and look to other revenue sources to offset declining tariff revenues. Tax reform, therefore, complements trade reform. A third area of developing country concern is non‐tariff barriers (NTBs), which may limit market access even after tariffs are reduced. Despite prior WTO work in this area, NTBs remain a thorny issue for all WTO members.     

Bilateral ‘WTO‐Plus’ Free Trade Agreements: The WTO Trade Policy Review of Singapore 2004

The World Trade Organisation's 2004 Trade Policy Review of Singapore (WTO‐TPR Singapore 2004) depicts the small and outward‐oriented economy as one of the most open countries to international trade and investment. The review highlights the benefits of the outward‐oriented strategy that has enabled the Singapore economy to weather recent external shocks such as the Asian financial crisis to the SARS and to the recent unfavourable conditions in the Middle East. In particular, the report commended Singapore's efforts on its liberalisation of the services sector and its economic benefits to consumers and global trade. However, the WTO‐TPR Singapore 2004 highlights several key areas of concerns: (a) the commitment to multilateral agreements with the rising number of bilateral free trade agreements signed by Singapore and (b) the lack of growth of total factor productivity, a key indicator for long‐run efficiency of the economy. The paper addresses the above key concerns raised in the WTO's TPR of Singapore in terms of its commitment to global trade in terms of WTO‐plus bilateral FTAs, which intends to support a multilateral trading system, and its overall industrial strategies to raise its competitiveness.     

WTO贸易援助制度构建的必要性研究

贸易援助作为WTO的一项倡议,在其实施4年以来暴露出许多不足之处,且该倡议实施期限具有不确定性。贸易援助可以帮助发展中国家克服各种阻碍贸易的限制性约束,充分发挥贸易对于经济增长和降低贫困的重要作用,必须长期开展贸易援助。WTO作为全球性贸易组织,决定贸易援助只有在WTO体系内才能更为有效、全面、根本的展开。为使贸易援助长期实施并解决目前贸易援助倡议中存在的问题,必须在WTO体系内构建贸易援助制度。     

印度对华贸易保护新趋势及原因分析

中国和印度作为两个发展中大国,在国际政治经济舞台上发挥了重要作用。近年来,中印双边贸易增长迅速,中国成为印度的第一大贸易伙伴,但随之而来的却是印度对华贸易保护呈现愈演愈烈之势。在WTO成员国中,印度是金融危机以来对我国发起贸易救济案件最多的国家。分析中印双边贸易概况以及印度对华贸易保护的新趋势,从国际收支理论、保护就业论、产业结构竞争性、国际生命周期理论四个角度深入阐述印度对华贸易保护的诱因并有针对性改进,以改善中印贸易关系。     

FTA网络化发展中的“轮轴-辐条”模式:福利效应与中国的参与战略

由不同类型、不同规模的"轮轴—辐条"结构组成的错综复杂的FTA网络成为区域经济一体化的新模式,相关国内外文献较少从微观视角涉及这种新模式的福利效应分析。本文在一般均衡垄断竞争模型基础上,分析了"轮轴-辐条"及其扩展结构下不同地位国家的福利和FTA收益以及影响因素。结果发现:(1)轮轴国与辐条国之间存在不对称收益,轮轴国取得的福利大于辐条国,轮轴有自我强化效应;(2)辐条拓补和多轮轴-辐条结构的福利分配情况复杂,受到产品替代性、贸易互补性、市场份额以及规模报酬递增水平等共同影响;(3)从轮轴-辐条结构进化到全球自由贸易将会增加辐条国的福利和贸易额,降低轮轴国的福利和贸易额。在深入考察FTA网络的构建及其稳定性基础上,墨西哥、韩国、日本、俄罗斯及南非是优先的可选FTA合作伙伴。     

欧盟原材料贸易战略述评

欧盟推出原材料贸易战略的背景是,欧盟原材料需求对外依存度高,国际范围内原材料获取竞争加剧,原材料贸易限制措施日益盛行。主要目标是确保欧盟在世界市场可持续地、可预见地获取原材料。实施途径包括:借力双边和多边协定,确立贸易规则;利用争端解决机制,应对贸易限制措施;开展对话协商,与相关利益方建立良好关系,推动形成原材料自由贸易的氛围。欧盟原材料战略体现综合应对的特点。欧盟原材料战略对中国有重大影响,需认真研究。     

A South–South Survival Strategy: The Potential for Trade among Developing Countries

Trade between developing countries, or South–South trade, has been growing rapidly in recent years following reductions in tariff barriers. However, significant barriers remain, and there is currently reluctance in many developing countries to undertake further reductions, with a preference instead for focusing on opening up access to developed country markets, or maintaining the status quo given that multilateral liberalisation may result in the erosion of preferential access enjoyed by some developing countries. This emphasis on Northern markets represents a missed opportunity for developing countries. To assess this we compare the potential effects of the removal of barriers on South–South trade with the gains from developed country liberalisation and from regional free trade areas within Africa, Asia and Latin America. A general equilibrium model, the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) model, containing information on preferential bilateral tariffs, is used to estimate the impacts. The results indicate that the opening up of Northern markets would provide annual welfare gains to developing countries of $22 billion. However, the removal of South–South barriers has the potential to generate gains 40 per cent larger. The results imply that giving greater emphasis to removing barriers between as well as within continents could prove a successful Southern survival strategy.     

The Impact of Bilateral Free Trade Agreements on Bilateral Foreign Direct Investment among Developed Countries

Previous studies find that a trade treaty positively impacts foreign direct investment (FDI). But does a trade treaty always have positive effects on FDI? What is the effect of bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) on bilateral FDI among developed countries? Based on the Knowledge‐Capital model, I hypothesize that bilateral FTA has negative effects on bilateral FDI in developed–developed country pairs, but positive effects in developed–developing country pairs. To test this hypothesis empirically, I conduct the within estimator, the Difference‐in‐Difference estimator and the Arellano–Bond estimator with panel data of bilateral FTA and outward FDI in 30 OECD countries and 32 non‐OECD countries between 1982 and 2005. The result supports the hypothesis. The existence of bilateral FTA decreases bilateral FDI in the OECD–OECD country pairs but increases bilateral outward FDI in the OECD–non‐OECD country pairs. The finding of negative effects of bilateral FTA on FDI is robust to different country classifications by gross national income (GNI) per capita and secondary school enrolment. Hence, the results are consistent with what Carr et al. (2001) predicts about the effects of trade cost on FDI in developed–developed country pairs and in developed–developing country pairs.     

Special and Differential Treatment of Developing Countries in the WTO: Moving Forward After Cancún

The issue of special and differential treatment (SDT) for developing countries in the WTO has become a source of tension in North‐South trade relations. The absence of an effective SDT regime clearly contributed to the failure of the Cancún Ministerial meeting of the WTO. This paper argues for a new approach that puts the emphasis on efforts to improve the development relevance of WTO rules and create mechanisms which allow greater differentiation across WTO members in determining the applicability of WTO disciplines; complemented by non‐discriminatory liberalisation of trade in goods and services in which developing countries have an export interest. The former is key in allowing the WTO to expand its reach to new ‘behind the border’ policies; and the latter is important to establishing a development dimension in multilateral trade negotiations.     

Trade openness,tax reform and tax revenue in developing countries

This article investigates empirically whether the effect of tax reform (involving the progressive replacement of trade tax revenue with domestic tax revenue) in developing countries' tax revenue performance (measured by tax revenue‐to‐GDP ratio) depends on the degree of trade openness of these countries. The analysis has used an unbalanced panel data set of 95 developing countries over the period 1981–2015 and the two‐system GMM approach. Results suggest that tax reform is positively and significantly associated with tax revenue performance in developing countries, with the magnitude of this positive effect increasing as countries experience a higher development level. Additionally, and more importantly, countries that further open up their economies to international trade enjoy a higher positive effect of tax reform on tax revenue than countries that experience a lower degree of trade openness. Therefore, these findings should help dissipate the concerns of policymakers in developing countries that greater openness to international trade would further erode their tax revenue, including by lowering their international trade tax revenue. In fact, the implementation of an appropriate tax reform in the context of greater trade openness would generate higher tax revenue, while concurrently allowing countries to reap the well‐known benefits of international trade.     

Multilateral stability and efficiency of trade agreements: A network formation approach

We study the endogenous network formation of bilateral and multilateral trade agreements by means of hypergraphs and introduce the equilibrium concept of multilateral stability. We consider multicountry settings with a firm in each country that produces a homogeneous good and competes as a Cournot oligopolist in each market. Under endogenous tariffs, we find that a multilateral trade agreement governing the rules and norms of tariff setting, that is the WTO/GATT regime itself, together with a bilateral preferential trade agreement (PTA) is multilaterally stable. We also find that the existence of the WTO is necessary for the stability of the trading system. We further analyse the impact of PTAs on multilateral tariffs within the WTO. We find that the formation of PTAs increases countries' incentives for multilateral tariff reduction.     

WTO在环境保护中的作用及环境谈判对我国的影响

尽管WTO不是环保组织,但WTO同贸易在三个层次上产生交集。WTO原则和规则对应对气候变化也非常重要。贸易与环境谈判是正在进行的WTO多哈回合多边贸易谈判中的一个重要内容,各成员正致力于削减或取消环保和服务的关税和非关税壁垒。目前关于削减环保产品的关税和非关税壁垒的方法是各方关注和争论的焦点。中国尽管作为发展中国家的一员,但却位列全球环境货物贸易大国之列。这种双重性决定了中国在贸易和环境谈判中的独特立场。     

地理标志多哈回合谈判进程及对我国农业的影响

由于世界贸易组织(WTO)的《与贸易相关的知识产权协定》(TRIPS协定)以及世界知识产权组织(WIPO)的众多国际条约的广泛而深入的影响,包括地理标志在内的知识产权法律制度已经进入了全球化的时代。对发展中国家而言,如何在国际知识产权相关问题谈判中为自身的发展赢得空间,已经不单单是一个技术问题,这将对其经济利益产生越来越重要的影响。本文认为在传统知识产权领域核心技术大部分被发达国家占据,国际知识产权保护标准主要由发达国家制定的情况下,发挥我国的传统优势,加大地理标志的保护将有利于我国参与贸易全球化,提升产品国际竞争力。因为地理标志的保护往往最能够发挥我国的资源优势,对增强我国产品的核心竞争力起到"四两拨千斤"的放大作用。文章介绍了多哈回合地理标志的最新谈判情况,以及我国目前有关地理标志的立法及保护现状。文章呼吁我国对地理标志的保护应该采取"内外兼修"的方法。即对"内",将保护地理标志作为支持农村经济发展的重要组成部分,在国内建立起一套管理统一、权利义务分明的地理标志法律体系;对"外",合理运用多边谈判和双边谈判的国际场合,在给予别国进一步市场准入的同时,大力地推动有利于我国农业发展的地理标志国际保护制度。     

The WTO promotes trade, strongly but unevenly

This paper furnishes robust evidence that the WTO has had a strong positive impact on trade, amounting to about 120% of additional world trade (or US$ 8 trillion in 2000 alone). The impact has, however, been uneven. This, in many ways, is consistent with theoretical models of the GATT/WTO. The theory suggests that the impact of a country's membership in the GATT/WTO depends on what the country does with its membership, with whom it negotiates, and which products the negotiation covers. Using a properly specified gravity model, we find evidence broadly consistent with these predictions. First, industrial countries that participated more actively than developing countries in reciprocal trade negotiations witnessed a large increase in trade. Second, bilateral trade was greater when both partners undertook liberalization than when only one partner did. Third, sectors that did not witness liberalization did not see an increase in trade.     

低碳经济趋势下贸易摩擦及WTO机制困境

国际贸易活动以间接的方式影响着能源消耗以及碳排放的程度,各国在促进贸易发展与实现低碳经济的双重战略要求下,势必会引发新的贸易摩擦,WTO机制在双重目标的要求下陷入困境,如何实现世界低碳经济发展模式和减少贸易领域的摩擦是未来WTO和各国政府亟待研究的课题。     

中国入世10周年与全球多边贸易体制的变化

本文回顾了中国加入世界贸易组织10年来的改革与发展历程,指出中国对全球多边贸易体制的主要贡献在于推动国际经贸发展、反对贸易保护主义、忠实履行多边贸易规则、努力协调多边贸易谈判、积极参与多边贸易机制建设以及切实维护发展中国家利益。10年来,多边贸易体制的变迁主要表现为力量结构、议题结构及外部透明度的变化。展望未来,多边贸易体制的改革应重在制度建设与反对贸易保护主义。基于加入世界贸易组织以来的实践经验,本文得出了我国参与全球经济治理的几点启示。     

Multilateral,Regional and Bilateral Trade‐Policy Options for the United States and Japan

We have used the Michigan Model of World Production and Trade to simulate the economic effects on the United States, Japan, and other major trading countries/regions of the Doha Round of WTO multilateral trade negotiations and a variety of regional/bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) involving the United States and Japan. We estimate that an assumed reduction of post‐Uruguay Round tariffs and other barriers on agricultural and industrial products and services by 33 per cent in the Doha Round would increase world welfare by $686.4 billion, with gains of $164.0 billion for the United States, $132.6 billion for Japan, and significant gains for all other industrialised and developing countries/regions. If there were global free trade with all post‐Uruguay Round trade barriers completely removed, world welfare would increase by $2.1 trillion, with gains of $497.0 billion (5.5 per cent of GNP) for the United States and $401.9 billion (6.2 per cent of GNP) for Japan. Regional agreements such as an APEC FTA, an ASEAN Plus 3 FTA, and a Western Hemisphere FTA would increase global and member country welfare but much less so than the Doha multilateral trade round would. Separate bilateral FTAs involving Japan with Singapore, Mexico, Chile and Korea, and the United States with Chile, Singapore and Korea would have positive, though generally small, welfare effects on the partner countries, but potentially disruptive sectoral employment shifts in some countries. There would be trade diversion and detrimental welfare effects on some non‐member countries for both the regional and bilateral FTAs analysed. The welfare gains from multilateral trade liberalisation are therefore considerably greater than the gains from preferential trading arrangements and more uniformly positive for all countries.     

TRIPS-plus扩张情势下非违反之诉在TRIPS协议中的适用探析

后TRIPS时代TRIPS-plus强势扩张,其适用的效果加速了高标准知识产权保护规范的全球化,形成了知识产权保护的棘轮效应,又缩减了发展中国家利用TRIPS协议弹性条款的自由选择空间,对发展中国家造成诸多不利影响。非违反之诉如能适用于TRIPS,有助于重申和发扬协议的利益平衡精神,匡正TRIPS-plus条款。发展中国家可以重新考虑TRIPS协议下非违反之诉的适用问题,在规则细化完善的基础上,将其作为一种极好的防御措施来应对不断升温的TRIPS-plus扩张压力,使之成为维护自身合法权益的武器。