Developing Countries as Plaintiffs and Defendants in GATT/WTO Trade Disputes

Developing countries have been increasing their participation in the formal institutions and proceedings of the multilateral trading system. A prominent example is their more frequent involvement as defendants and plaintiffs in GATT/WTO trade disputes. This paper provides an initial economic appraisal of developing country performance in the GATT/WTO dispute settlement system. We measure the economic resolution of these disputes through trade liberalisation gains, and our results suggest that developing country plaintiffs have had more success under WTO disputes than was the case under the GATT. We also document evidence on potential determinants of this success: the capacity for plaintiffs to make credible retaliatory threats and the guilty determinations by GATT/WTO panels. Finally, there is also some evidence that developing countries have recognised the importance of retaliatory threats and have responded by changing their pattern of dispute initiation under the WTO to better take advantage of the instances in which they have sufficient leverage to threaten retaliation and induce compliance with GATT/WTO obligations.     

GATT/WTO与管理贸易

现实中的国际贸易不是自由贸易，国际贸易体制中一直都是自由贸易和贸易保护同时并存，以1GATT／WTO也不是自由贸易组织。管理贸易是指介于纯粹自由贸易和完全贸易保护之间的各种情形，其特点是规则导向、有较大兼容性以及可塑性。管理贸易的发展可以有两个完全相反的方向，而GATT／WTO倡导的贸易自由化实质上是在自由贸易和贸易保护两种成分并存的国际贸易体制中抑制贸易保护、提高贸易自由的程度。     

国际贸易政策的两难问题与GATT/WTO体制--GATT/WTO的政治经济学

国际贸易是受政治因素影响最大的经济领域之一，GATT／WTO的规则和体系实际上也反映了这种经济与政治交织的复杂性。国家利益的驱动使得各国政府在贸易政策运用方面处于选择偏向自由贸易或贸易保护的“两难境地”。GATT／WTO在倡导贸易自由化、建设开放的多边贸易体制过程中也不得不兼顾保障各国国家利益的要求，从而形成了以务实、折衷以及规则导向为特征的GATT／WTO理念，来支持和推动国际贸易发展中渐进的但又是持续的贸易自由化取向。     

WTO Negotiations and Other Agricultural Trade Issues in Japan

This paper examines the current developments in WTO negotiations on agriculture and discusses the issues of greatest concern to Japan as well as agricultural issues in free trade area (FTA) negotiations relating to Japan. With regard to agricultural policies in Japan it is stressed that: (1) structural reform in Japanese agriculture is essential to promote the WTO agricultural negotiations and to make negotiations on FTAs more effective and prompt; (2) Japan must consider various measures to increase the investment of capital from outside agriculture and the accumulation of new human capital; and (3) there should be increased market competition in Japanese agriculture so that productive resources can be better concentrated in efficient farms and farm businesses. On international issues, it may be desirable to establish an international forum, particularly among Asian countries, to discuss important agricultural issues in the region. This forum should consider not only agricultural tariff reductions, but also sanitary and phyto‐sanitary (SPS) measures that might be addressed in working toward a broader FTA in Asia. The objective would be for Japan to play a strong leadership role in seeking wider cooperation on agricultural policies and agricultural resource management together with potential FTA partners in the Asian region.     

WTO最新服务贸易谈判简讯

2009年3月30日至4月8日，WTO迎来了6个月来第一个“服务贸易会议周”——既有GATS工作组会议（含金融服务工作组、国内规制工作组、规则与减让表工作组等），也有成员之间双边、诸边市场准人会谈。不少代表团都有意了解各成员于去年7月在“信号大会”上作出的市场开放的临时出价是否存在变数——当时不少与会成员方均表示愿意改善此前的出价，但日益恶化的全球经济是否会使各代表团对进一步开放持审慎态度？——拭目以待。     

WTO谈判中的发展中大国与发展中国家谈判联盟——兼论中国参与发展中国家谈判联盟的策略

发展中国家谈判联盟在历次GATT/WTO谈判中都发挥着重要作用,已成为决定多边贸易谈判成功与否的重要力量。发展中大国往往成为谈判联盟的领导者,成为联盟公共产品的主要供应者,促使大国如此行动的原因在于大国在追求经济利益的同时,也在一定程度上追求大国威望、领导权等政治利益。印度作为发展中大国在所有参与的谈判联盟中都成为主要的领导者,对印度的研究有助于我们加深对发展中大国与发展中国家谈判联盟关系的理解。从我国的国家利益出发,本文提出了我国参与发展中国家谈判联盟的策略。     

Fairness in International Trade and Investment: North American Perspectives

In this article, we examine an important but relatively under-researched form of corporate social responsibility, namely, employer support for employee voluntary activity. Using Canadian data, we examine two questions. First, we analyze the impacts of employer support on the total number of hours volunteered and on the voluntary activities which are undertaken. Second, we examine how employer support is distributed between male and female employees. Our results indicate that employer support is associated with a greater amount of volunteer activity by both men and women employees and in a wide range of voluntary activities. However, we also find that women are less likely to receive employer support than men and are less likely to receive support in the form of flexible work hours and time-off. These results are puzzling given that women typically face more binding time constraints than men. We conclude the paper by discussing how employer policies might be changed to address this finding.     

Modelling the Extensive Margin of World Trade: New Evidence on GATT and WTO Membership

Recent literature has argued that, contrary to the results of a seminal paper by Rose (2004), General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)/World Trade Organization (WTO) membership does promote bilateral trade, at least for developed economies and if membership includes non‐formal compliance. We review the literature to identify open issues. We then develop a simple extension of the gravity model that gives rise to an extensive country margin of trade separating positive trade from zero trade country pairs. The model is used to identify WTO membership effects at both the intensive and the extensive margins. Empirical estimation of this model, based on Poisson pseudo‐maximum likelihood methods with exporter and importer fixed effects, allows us to readdress the empirical issue of whether GATT/WTO membership does or does not promote trade. We find that GATT membership was successful on the extensive margin of world trade but not on the intensive margin. For the recent WTO episode (1995–2008), we find consistent and robust evidence for a substantial trade‐creating role of membership which is driven primarily by the intensive margin. WTO membership results in higher bilateral trade of about 40 per cent.     

论WTO新一轮多边贸易谈判中的“贸易便利”

“贸易便利”是1996年12月新加坡召开 WTO 第一届部长级会议上提出的新议题之一。为了掌握这一问题的动态,本文就该议题所涉及的基本框架作初步的探讨,以此希望引起国内政府部门、行业协会、企业和研究人员的关注。