Trade and Environment in the World Trading System: A Decade of Stalemate?

2001 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Williams
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
World Trade Organization ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Trade And Environment ◽  
Trading System ◽  
The Past ◽  
System A ◽  
The World ◽  
World Trading System

This article assesses the first decade of the trade-environment debate, and explores the possibilities for reconciliation of competing positions on trade-environment issues. It explores three aspects of the continuing conflict over trade and environment in the World Trade Organization. Rejecting both optimistic and pessimistic accounts of the past and future of the trade-environment debate it argues that important changes have occurred that have transformed the debate. But, despite the normalization of the trade-environment debate around the concept of sustainable development significant points of contention remain among the various participants.

scholarly journals The World Trade Organization and the Future of Multilateralism

2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Baldwin
Keyword(s):  
World Trade Organization ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Production Networks ◽  
Trading System ◽  
International Production ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
World Trading System ◽  
Tariff Liberalization ◽  
Pillar Structure

When the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade was signed by 23 nations in 1947, the goal was to establish a rules-based world trading system and to facilitate mutually advantageous trade liberalization. As the GATT evolved over time and morphed into the World Trade Organization in 1993, both goals have largely been achieved. The WTO presides over a rule-based trading system based on norms that are almost universally accepted and respected by its 163 members. Tariffs today are below 5 percent on most trade, and zero for a very large share of imports. Despite its manifest success, the WTO is widely regarded as suffering from a deep malaise. The main reason is that the latest WTO negotiation, the Doha Round, has staggered between failures, flops, and false dawns since it was launched in 2001. But the Doha logjam has not inhibited tariff liberalization—far from it. During the last 15 years, most WTO members have massively lowered barriers to trade, investment, and services bilaterally, regionally, and unilaterally—indeed, everywhere except through the WTO. For today's offshoring-linked international commerce, the trade rules that matter are less about tariffs and more about protection of investments and intellectual property, along with legal and regulatory steps to assure that the two-way flows of goods, services, investment, and people will not be impeded. It’s possible to imagine a hypothetical WTO that would incorporate these rules. But the most likely outcome for the future governance of international trade is a two-pillar structure in which the WTO continues to govern with its 1994-era rules while the new rules for international production networks are set by a decentralized process of sometimes overlapping and inconsistent mega-regional agreements.

No More Strategical Neutrality on Technological Neutrality: Technological Neutrality as a Bridge Between the Analogue Trading Regime and Digital Trade

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Dongchul Kwak
Keyword(s):  
World Trade Organization ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Legal Issues ◽  
Neutral Position ◽  
Trading System ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
The World ◽  
World Trading System ◽  
Digital Nature ◽  
Trading Regime

Abstract The World Trade Organization (WTO), a unique multilateral trading regime, has failed to establish its relevance to the digital nature of trade. This article revisits the ‘principle of technological neutrality’ to make the cross-border supply of services by electronic means subject to the current rules-based trading regime. I argue that the principle of technological neutrality could help resolve a number of thorny legal issues: confirming the applicability of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) rules to the delivery of services by electronic means; providing a guideline to determine the likeness of services in the era of digital trade; and backing up an evolutionary approach to interpreting the GATS schedules of commitments. However, the WTO adjudicatory bodies have been reluctant to rely on the principle of technological neutrality, which is referred to as strategic neutrality in this article. This article urges the WTO adjudicatory bodies to abandon their strategically neutral position on technological neutrality immediately. It also explores ways to incorporate the principle of technological neutrality into the world trading system at the bilateral, plurilateral, and multilateral levels.

Do We Still Need the World Trade Organization?

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (03) ◽  
pp. 2050012
Author(s):  
Silvia Nenci
Keyword(s):  
International Trade ◽  
World Trade Organization ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Critical Reading ◽  
Trading System ◽  
The Past ◽  
Multilateral Trading System ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future

The recent explosion of bilateral and regional deals, President Trump’s policy against multilateralism, and, lastly, the restrictions to international trade because of the COVID-19 pandemic have highlighted the issue of the need for a multilateral trading system, currently embodied by the World Trade Organization (WTO). Although the WTO has achieved most of its goals over the last two decades, it is undeniable that it is facing major challenges that question its relevance, effectiveness, fitness and responsiveness to contemporary issues. Is the lack of multilateralism worrisome? What will be the future of the WTO? By summarizing the past and current debate and proposing a critical reading of the WTO, this paper aims to answer these crucial questions.

Conclusion

2020 ◽  
pp. 315-322
Author(s):  
Douglas A. Irwin
Keyword(s):  
International Trade ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Trade Policies ◽  
Trading System ◽  
The World ◽  
World Trading System ◽  
And Function ◽  
Open Markets ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Role And Function

This chapter concludes that international trade and trade policies are frequently the object of condemnation rather than approbation. It explains how the condemnation are often the result of misconceptions about the benefits of international trade, the impact of trade policies, and the role and function of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Though the last few decades have been marked by a general reduction in trade barriers, the matter is not settled because the pressures to weaken the commitment to open markets never abate. The chapter emphasizes on difficult policy choices at the intersection of trade policy and climate change that could hold key battles over the world trading system in coming years. It also highlights the several benefits of world trade and the contribution of trade to the welfare and prosperity of billions of people around the world.

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