Overlap Management in the World Trade Organization: Secretariat Influence on Trade-Environment Politics

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 54-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sikina Jinnah
Keyword(s):  
World Trade Organization ◽  
Capacity Building ◽  
Global Governance ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Document Analysis ◽  
Knowledge Brokering ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Combining Data ◽  
The World ◽  
The Way

This article builds on recent scholarship that explores the nature of secretariat influence in global governance. By combining data from interviews with WTO delegates and secretariat staff with document analysis, this study examines how the WTO secretariat is shaping trade-environment politics by using its bureaucratic authority to influence overlap management in the WTO. This study argues that secretariat influence is present, but varies in form across cases. It shows up in the forms noted by previous scholars in their examinations of UNEP secretariats (i.e. negotiation-facilitation, capacity building, and knowledge-brokering), but also in previously un-discussed forms of influence such as marketing convention norms, and litigation facilitation. It further argues that secretariat influence matters in that the WTO secretariat plays an important role in shaping the way trade-environment issues evolve within the WTO, shaping its own identity as a hybrid administrative-judicial organ, as well as in enhancing WTO legitimacy with the broader public.

scholarly journals Improving the effectiveness of the special and differential treatment of the World Trade Organization

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Fitria Anindhita H. Wibowo
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
World Trade Organization ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Differential Treatment ◽  
Preferential Treatment ◽  
The World ◽  
Slow Progress ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Way

<p>This paper deals with the subject of Special and Differential Treatment (SDT) of the World Trade Organization (WTO), a special right that allows developing countries preferential treatment by other member countries, particularly developed countries. The paper more specifically discusses the ineffectiveness of the SDT owing to its structure and formulation, and explores the factors that have caused such ineffectiveness. It touches upon the provisions and the ways in which they are formulated and implemented, which deemed to have lead to the ineffectiveness. An observation of the way that negotiations are conducted and the underlying interests that direct those negotiations also contribute to the slow progress of introducing changes to the provisions. Furthermore, this paper analyses and identifies steps that may be taken to improve the concept, formulation, and implementation of SDT, inter alia through amendments of the provisions and conduct of negotiations. The paper also looks at several dispute cases which highlight the ineffectiveness of the existing provisions in advancing the interests of developing countries in particular and in fulfilling its purpose in general.</p>

Perpetual Peace or Perpetual Process: Global Civil Society and Cosmopolitan Legality at the World Trade Organization

2003 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 673-699 ◽  
Author(s):  
RUTH BUCHANAN
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
World Trade Organization ◽  
Global Governance ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Global Civil Society ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Perpetual Peace ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Preceding Discussion

This article argues that a contemporary form of ‘cosmopolitan legality’ serves as an animating force behind contemporary practices of global civil society and global governance. The first part provides an account of the recent history of civil society engagement with the World Trade Organization. It observes that civil society groups have focused their collective efforts on issues relating to procedural legitimacy, including accountability, openness, and transparency, potentially to the detriment of efforts to bring about more fundamental change. In the second part of the article, various theoretical approaches to cosmopolitan legality are discussed, including their claimed Kantian origins, and are mapped on to the preceding discussion of the place of a global public sphere in global governance. Programmatic approaches that purport to mobilize cosmopolitanism in the service of either a political or legal project are ultimately rejected, and a provisional alternative reading is suggested.

scholarly journals CAN INDONESIA INVOKE PUBLIC MORALS EXCEPTION UNDER THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION (WTO) FOR PROHIBITING CROSS-BORDER GAMBLING?

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 261
Author(s):  
I Gusti Ngurah Parikesit Widiatedja
Keyword(s):  
World Trade Organization ◽  
Money Laundering ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Member States ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
The World ◽  
The Way

<p>Under the WTO, Indonesia is obliged to liberalize its markets through establishing the schedule that comprise a list of services that can be either opened or closed to foreign suppliers.  However, Indonesia’s schedule is vague as to whether gambling services are closed to foreign suppliers. Through this loophole, the practice of cross-border gambling services has been rampant, resulting in some consequences, especially those related to money laundering and underage gambling. Tackling this problem, Indonesia could apply public morals exception that allows member states to impose trade prohibition. By using public morals exception that was applied in some WTO cases, this article explores the way in which Indonesia could justify prohibiting cross-border gambling services. This article claims that Indonesia has a justification to impose public morals exception under the WTO to prohibit cross-border gambling services within its territory because the prohibition would be designed to protect public morals; it would be necessary to protect public morals; and the prohibition would equally apply  to both foreign and local suppliers in cross-border gambling services in Indonesia.<strong></strong></p>

scholarly journals Improving the effectiveness of the special and differential treatment of the World Trade Organization

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Fitria Anindhita H. Wibowo
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
World Trade Organization ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Differential Treatment ◽  
Preferential Treatment ◽  
The World ◽  
Slow Progress ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Way

<p>This paper deals with the subject of Special and Differential Treatment (SDT) of the World Trade Organization (WTO), a special right that allows developing countries preferential treatment by other member countries, particularly developed countries. The paper more specifically discusses the ineffectiveness of the SDT owing to its structure and formulation, and explores the factors that have caused such ineffectiveness. It touches upon the provisions and the ways in which they are formulated and implemented, which deemed to have lead to the ineffectiveness. An observation of the way that negotiations are conducted and the underlying interests that direct those negotiations also contribute to the slow progress of introducing changes to the provisions. Furthermore, this paper analyses and identifies steps that may be taken to improve the concept, formulation, and implementation of SDT, inter alia through amendments of the provisions and conduct of negotiations. The paper also looks at several dispute cases which highlight the ineffectiveness of the existing provisions in advancing the interests of developing countries in particular and in fulfilling its purpose in general.</p>

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