Multilateral Trade Bargaining: A First Look at the GATT Bargaining Records

This paper empirically examines recently declassified tariff bargaining data from the GATT/WTO. Focusing on the Torquay Round (1950–1951), we document stylized facts about these interconnected high-stakes international negotiations that suggest a lack of strategic behavior among the participating governments and an important multilateral element to the bilateral bargains. We suggest that these features can be understood as emerging from a tariff bargaining forum that emphasizes the GATT pillars of MFN and multilateral reciprocity, and we offer evidence that the relaxation of strict bilateral reciprocity facilitated by the GATT multilateral bargaining forum was important to the success of the GATT approach. (JEL C78, F13)

Download Full-text

Negotiating Global Change: Progressive Multilateralism in Trade in Telecommunications Talks

International Negotiation ◽

10.1163/138234003769590668 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

pp. 43-78 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Paula Murphy Ives

Keyword(s):

Political Economy ◽

Global Change ◽

Information Exchange ◽

World Trade ◽

International Negotiations ◽

Position Change ◽

Multilateral Trade ◽

Unilateral Action ◽

Loss Avoidance ◽

Predominant Factor

AbstractThis article provides an analysis of negotiated change within the global telecommunications regime. It examines how agreements are achieved in the area of trade and telecommunications, particularly within the aegis of the Geneva-based World Trade Organization (WTO). It argues that, in the negotiations examined, the interplay between unilateral action, bilateral, plurilateral and multilateral processes and the ensuing alchemy of coercion and concord led to an overall reframing of the central problem and thereby facilitated multilateral consensus. Drawing upon evidence from Japan-U.S. bilateral, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and multilateral trade and telecom talks, this research tests the proposition that coercive pressure is the predominant factor in bringing about negotiated change. It also considers the alternate thesis that integrative reframing, involving the search for mutual gains, was paramount in facilitating change. Qualitative observations signal the phenomenon of progressive multilateralism, or the sequential interplay of unilateral action, bilateral, and multilateral processes, wherein undercurrents of coercion reorient perceptions of the outcome from uncertain gains towards loss avoidance. Together with information exchange and interaction, one observes position change. Understanding the dynamics at important impasse points facilitates a critical, political-economy reading of these international negotiations as well as more general conclusions about the nature of governance in this area.

Download Full-text

Common values for the development round

World Trade Review ◽

10.1017/s1474745604001971 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 3 (3) ◽

pp. 495-506 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

JOSEPH E. STIGLITZ ◽

ANDREW H. CHARLTON

Keyword(s):

Trade Agreements ◽

International Negotiations ◽

Traditional Theory ◽

Special Interests ◽

Multilateral Trade ◽

Domestic Trade ◽

Positive Externalities ◽

Trade Offs ◽

Practical Operation ◽

National Governments

In the traditional theory of international trade, multilateral trade agreements should be easy because self-interested governments unilaterally commit to reduce their own protection and, as a bonus, they reap positive externalities from liberalization by other nations. In practice national governments do not behave as though they are maximizing the welfare of a representative citizen, but instead they respond to pressure from a diverse mix of constituencies and competing special interests. Governments attempt to manage domestic trade-offs within international negotiations, so progress is slow and protection persists. The practical operation of trade negotiations, emblemized by the infamous ‘green rooms’, is characterized by factionalism, horse-trading, and brinkmanship.

Download Full-text

Formal Leadership in Multilateral Negotiations: A Rational Institutionalist Theory

The Hague Journal of Diplomacy ◽

10.1163/187119006x149517 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 1 (2) ◽

pp. 117-141 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Jonas Tallberg

Keyword(s):

Process Control ◽

Theoretical Approach ◽

International Negotiations ◽

Privileged Information ◽

Sociological Institutionalism ◽

Multilateral Bargaining ◽

Multilateral Negotiations ◽

Power Resources ◽

Formal Leadership ◽

The Chairs

AbstractThe exercise of leadership by the chairs of multilateral negotiations has so far received limited systematic attention in scholarship on international cooperation. This article addresses this gap by presenting a rational institutionalist theory of formal leadership that provides answers to three central questions: Why do states delegate powers of process control to the chairmanship of international negotiations? What are the power resources of formal leaders? And when, why and how do negotiation chairs wield influence over the outcomes of multilateral bargaining? The theory suggests that chairmanships are empowered to fulfil functions of agenda management, brokerage, and representation in international bargaining; identifies procedural control and privileged information as essential power resources of negotiation chairs; and isolates the conditions under which formal leaders shape the efficiency and distributional implications of multilateral bargaining. The article ends by outlining an alternative theoretical approach to formal leadership, drawn from sociological institutionalism.

Download Full-text

Democrazy—Dem Go Craze, O: Monitoring the 1999 Nigerian Elections

Issue A Journal of Opinion ◽

10.1017/s1548450500005862 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 27 (1) ◽

pp. 29-33

Author(s):

Darren Kew

Keyword(s):

Transition Program ◽

The Political ◽

High Stakes ◽

Political Class ◽

Soccer Match ◽

The Public ◽

The Military

In many respects, the least important part of the 1999 elections were the elections themselves. From the beginning of General Abdusalam Abubakar’s transition program in mid-1998, most Nigerians who were not part of the wealthy “political class” of elites—which is to say, most Nigerians— adopted their usual politically savvy perspective of siddon look (sit and look). They waited with cautious optimism to see what sort of new arrangement the military would allow the civilian politicians to struggle over, and what in turn the civilians would offer the public. No one had any illusions that anything but high-stakes bargaining within the military and the political class would determine the structures of power in the civilian government. Elections would influence this process to the extent that the crowd influences a soccer match.

Download Full-text

School Success and School Engagement of Immigrant Children and Adolescents

European Psychologist ◽

10.1027/1016-9040/a000139 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 18 (2) ◽

pp. 126-135 ◽

Cited By ~ 42

Author(s):

Frosso Motti-Stefanidi ◽

Ann S. Masten

Keyword(s):

Academic Achievement ◽

Academic Success ◽

Children And Adolescents ◽

School Engagement ◽

School Success ◽

Immigrant Children ◽

Integrative Model ◽

High Stakes ◽

The Individual

Academic achievement in immigrant children and adolescents is an indicator of current and future adaptive success. Since the future of immigrant youths is inextricably linked to that of the receiving society, the success of their trajectory through school becomes a high stakes issue both for the individual and society. The present article focuses on school success in immigrant children and adolescents, and the role of school engagement in accounting for individual and group differences in academic achievement from the perspective of a multilevel integrative model of immigrant youths’ adaptation ( Motti-Stefanidi, Berry, Chryssochoou, Sam, & Phinney, 2012 ). Drawing on this conceptual framework, school success is examined in developmental and acculturative context, taking into account multiple levels of analysis. Findings suggest that for both immigrant and nonimmigrant youths the relationship between school engagement and school success is bidirectional, each influencing over time the other. Evidence regarding potential moderating and mediating roles of school engagement for the academic success of immigrant youths also is evaluated.

Download Full-text