Trading Out of the Global Food Crisis? The World Trade Organization and the Geopolitics of Food Security

The geopolitics of the Global Food Crisis and international trade has received limited scholarly attention, a significant omission given the major roles of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in structuring world food production and trade flows and as a principal inter-state governing mechanism of the global agro-food system. Analysing recent international policy actions framing the WTO as a ‘fix’ to the Global Food Crisis, this article points to the value of a critical geopolitics of agro-power sensitive to the spatial reconfiguration of production and power in the global agro-food system, problematising geospatial categories such as ‘North’ and ‘South’, and that takes seriously contests for control of geopolitical agents such as the WTO.     

Do external interventions work? The case of trade reform conditions in IMF supported programs

Trade reform conditions are common in IMF supported programs. Of the 99 countries that had IMF programs during 1993-2003, 77 had trade reform conditions in their programs. Since the WTO has not been found especially effective in promoting trade openness for most developing countries, it is of great interest to see if the IMF has been more effective as it combines carrots and sticks not available to the WTO. Yet, the effectiveness of these trade conditions has not been systematically studied. Using a unique dataset, this paper provides such an assessment. It finds that trade conditions are indeed associated with an increase in trade openness on average, but the effect comes mostly from countries that can be characterized by a high degree of “willingness to reform.”     

应正确理解与运用WTO金融审慎措施

WTO框架内以GATS及其金融附件等多边协定组成的有关金融服务贸易的规则体系,是推行金融服务贸易自由化的最重要的国际协定.而金融监管与金融自由化看似矛盾的两者在WTO框架之中是通过金融审慎措施进行协调的.金融审慎措施的正确理解和运用既是履行WTO义务的要求,也是维护一国利益的需要.     

Trade policy under the GATT/WTO: empirical evidence of the equal treatment rule

Abstract. A fundamental difference between multilateral trade agreements like the GATT and WTO and a preferential agreement is the multilateral agreements’ inclusion of a most‐favoured‐nation principle. Though MFN requires that members implement policies that provide equal treatment to all GATT/WTO countries, how far do members actually follow the MFN principle when so required? We empirically investigate a sample of GATT/WTO trade disputes and the effect of successful dispute settlement negotiations on the disputed product trade of third country exporters to the defendant country. We document evidence of trade liberalization consistent with defendant countries successfully applying the equal treatment rule. JEL classification F13     

Production Networks and Patterns of Trade: Evidence from Taiwan

This paper investigates the role of production networks in determining the pattern of international trade. Using Taiwan's trade data for 1991, production networks are found to have a discernible impact on the pattern of trade, aside from the variables typically envisaged by conventional and new trade theories, including factor proportions and technological difference. Taiwan's industries are shown to be relatively strong in horizontal networks, but weak in vertical ones. However, the strength in horizontal networks can be undermined by high wages, and the weakness in vertical networks can be strengthened by high R&D intensities. Both networks are conducive to intra-industry trade, which means that networks are useful devices for product differentiation.     

Manipulable behavior in international trade

In this paper, we present a Cournot duopoly model to analyze the manipulated behavior in international trade. The WTO is assumed as an arbitrator for the exchange in an oligopolistic industry and sets tariff rules according to the SDT principles; a firm's cost is private information both for the WTO and the foreign rivalries. Subsequent to our analysis of several cases we find that a firm may misreport to the WTO for more production revenue and the government may collude with a firm for higher welfare. It is shown that the misreporting and collusion incentives are related to the WTO tariff rule, the misreported cost and market size. Furthermore, a strategy proof tariff rule has been designed in which firms can never make his revenue better off by misreporting production cost.     

Reconciling the WTO Effects on Trade at the Extensive and Intensive Margins

Empirical studies examining the impact of World Trade Organization (WTO) membership have produced disparate results. These studies, however, have focused on total aggregate trade flows. In this paper, we utilize disaggregated product level data to examine the impact of WTO membership on the product level extensive and intensive margin of imports. Utilizing the Poisson Pseudo-Maximum Likelihood (PPML) estimation that allows for heteroskedasticity in trade data and accounting for several estimation issues, we do not find a positive impact on either margins between WTO member country-pairs. Once we examine asymmetries in trade flows across countries based on their level of development, we find that developing WTO members experience an increase in the extensive margin from industrial member countries. Additionally, the industrial WTO members also experience an increase in the extensive margin from developing WTO members. Results suggest that WTO facilitates the North–South trade relationship, which has been largely absent in trade literature.     

THE WTO AND ANTIDUMPING IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Since the 1995 inception of the World Trade Organization (WTO), developing countries have become some of the most frequent users of the WTO-sanctioned antidumping (AD) trade policy instrument. This paper exploits newly available data to examine sector-level use of nine of the major "new user" developing countries, matching data on production in 28 different three-digit ISIC industries to data on AD investigations, outcomes, and imports at the six-digit Harmonized System product level. We present economically significant evidence consistent with theory that developing-country industries that seek and receive AD import protection are responding to macroeconomic shocks, exhibit characteristics consistent with endogenous trade policy formation, and face some changing market conditions consistent with requirements of the WTO Antidumping Agreement. However, the evidence also suggests substantial heterogeneity in determinants of AD use across developing countries, which highlights the flexibility of this policy as a protectionist tool responsive to many different types of political-economic shocks.     

How Important is APEC to China?

APEC is an important forum for China to show its commitment to economic openness. Concerted trade liberalisation in the APEC region reduces the adverse terms of trade effect of China's own trade liberalisation. These help maintain the momentum of reform by reducing domestic resistance. APEC is not a stepping stone to WTO membership, but it gives China an opportunity to rally international support for its early entry into the WTO. However, APEC cannot substitute for WTO membership. This is not only because the WTO framework provides greater security for market access for Chinese exports as well as potentially larger gains to the Chinese economy, but also because it imposes legal bindings on China's trade policy once it becomes a member. In facilitating China's trade liberalisation, APEC and the WTO seems to be mutually re-enforcing. APEC prepares China for the WTO and the WTO accession pushes China to go along with the APEC process. Both APEC and WTO accession push forward domestic reform.     

WTO与竞争政策的冲突--论WTO下个人权利的缺失

尽管关税壁垒已经被大大消除,但反竞争行为如果得不到规制将会成为阻碍国际贸易自由化发展的新壁垒,使得贸易政策和竞争政策的冲突和矛盾愈发突出。由于贸易政策和竞争政策调整对象的不同以及基本理念和价值取向不同,尤其是对个人权利的不同关注,决定了两者在最终追求目标相互补之外的不完全相容性。现有的世界贸易组织所规范的贸易行为并没有涉及和考虑竞争政策尤为重视的经济活动参与者及其商业行为,尽管世界贸易组织协定中已有一些初步的竞争规则,但贸易政策和竞争政策的协调前景并不乐观。     

The impact of cultural exceptions: audiovisual services trade and trade policy

Audiovisual services such as music and movies in digital formats have gained substantial importance over the last decade, while remaining one of the sectors with the lowest number of commitments by WTO members. Based on a novel data set, this article analyses the role of trade restrictions on audiovisual services in a gravity model. We find that countries with WTO commitments trade more audiovisual services, while both exports and imports are lower for countries which impose policies to curb inflows of foreign cultural services.     

The Environmental Conundrum of Rare Earth Elements

Clean technologies, such as solar panels and wind turbines, help to curb global emissions, but they require dirty inputs for their production—i.e., mining rare earth elements (REEs) pollutes local environments. REEs are also the object of rent-shifting strategic trade policies, as highlighted by a recent WTO ruling against China’s quotas and tariffs on exports of REEs. We construct a three-country trade model with an environmental damage function, in order to examine the effects of three policies with different implications for the equilibrium quantities of dirty inputs and clean technologies: a downstream subsidy, an upstream export tariff, and an upstream pollution tax. We relate the welfare implications of the policies to the parameters of the damage function and to the number of downstream competitors. The effects of a unilateral policy switch from an export tariff to a domestic pollution tax, as suggested by China’s reaction to the WTO challenge, are also examined.     

Trade Wars and the World Trade Organization: Causes,Consequences, and Change

The rise in trade tensions and launch of a trade war by the USA is in part a result of World Trade Organization (WTO) working practices that have impeded the ability to use the organization to address the underlying sources of conflict through dialogue, analysis, and rule‐making. Open plurilateral agreements between the major protagonists offer an avenue for revitalizing the ability of the WTO to resolve trade conflicts. More generally, reform of WTO working practices is needed for the organization to be more effective in providing a platform for members to cooperate on trade policy matters.     

Impacts of RMB devaluation on China’s trade balances: a time-varying SVAR approach

ABSTRACT

In this article, I empirically examine time-varying effects of real renminbi (RMB) devaluation on China’s trade balances. To this end, I estimate a time-varying structural vector autoregression model with monthly data. Results demonstrated that effects of real RMB devaluation on China’s trade balances are time varying. In a few months after devaluation of RMB, trade balances worsen as predicted in J-curve theory in most sample periods. However, subsequent improvements of trade balances predicted in J-curve theory appear only in certain periods, particularly in 2000s. Finally, devaluation of RMB positively affects China’s GDP and OECD industrial production, although the size of effects varies across sample periods. Joining WTO, the global financial crisis and endogenous feedbacks induced by price effects seem to be important to understand these time-varying patterns.     

Global Trade Liberalisation: Coordination and Coherence

Globalisation is a major issue in international debate. The demonstrations in Seattle in 1999 showed that there is a high level of public concern over the growth of world trade and the institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation (WTO), that have key roles in global trade and development. Much of the concern relates to developing countries and their place in the international economy. This article is an edited version of a paper presented by His Excellency Dr Supachai Panitchpakdi as the 2000 David Finch Lecture at the University of Melbourne on 5 July 2000. Dr Supachai is a key player in the development of the international economy and is the next Director General of the WTO. In his article, Dr Supachai addresses many of the concerns relating to globalisation and developing countries. He discusses the key issues facing the WTO and world trade in general, focusing on the need for both coordination and coherence in the development of international economic relations. In particular, he highlights the need for an inclusive approach to international trade liberalisation.     

低于成本倾销的经济学解释

WTO<反倾销协议>扩展了倾销原有的界定范围,规定低于成本出口属于非正常贸易行为,可以通过实施制裁来维护公平竞争.本文认为,低于成本倾销在绝大多数情况下属于正常的商业行为,其产生具有合理性,同不公平竞争没有必然的联系.恰恰是对这种行为的抵制,反映了目前的反倾销措施被滥用的倾向.     

Endogeneity of WTO in the gravity model： China and ASEAN

This paper studies the endogeneity of WTO dummy variable in the gravity model about the trade in the region of China and ASEAN. We first present a two-stage test approach for the endogeneity of WTO dummy, then transform the endogeneity problem to a simultaneous system about WTO and trade, and construct an MLE estimation approach to the simultaneous model. The estimate of the coefficient of WTO dummy is positive, as opposed to the negative sign in the exogeneity case. From the estimation of the endogenous model, WTO has creation fold effect and strong trade diversion effect on export model in the region.     

论贸易技术壁垒的性质及其经济效应

贸易技术壁垒本身具有针对性和隐蔽性强、一定的合法性以及影响面广等特点，使得贸易技术壁垒成为国际贸易中使用最广泛、效果最显著的非关税壁垒措施之一。无可争辩的事实是：有些贸易技术壁垒措施具有合理性，也为国际贸易发展创造了新的机遇，但也有一些贸易技术壁垒措施从科学技术、卫生、检疫、安全、环保、产品质量和认证等方面入手，披上合法外衣，灵活多变，使得国外厂商难以应付，实际上已经成为推行新贸易保护主义的手段，从而影响着各国经济政策的制定，因而也就直接或间接地制约着国际贸易的发展速度，并在一定程度上影响着国际贸易的商品结构、地理方向，引起不同国家间、集团问的贸易摩擦和冲突。     

“入世”后县域农业经济的发展与应对策略

我国加入WTO在即,对外开放市场、大幅度降低关税等一系列承诺的实现,必然会对我国农业和农村经济造成严重而又深刻的影响,在此背景下,本文认为,我国农业发展观必须由传统农业观向现代农业观转变;农业发展战略必须从过去的以追求数量为主的“增产”战略尽快向以追求质量和效益为主的”增收“战略转移,为此,本文提出县域农业发展迎接”入世“挑战的七项应对策略。