What's at Stake for the LDCs, Now that the Uruguay Round Talks have been Suspended? (The Distinguishedl Lecture)

1991 ◽  
Vol 30 (4I) ◽  
pp. 579-599
Author(s):  
Robert E. Baldwin
Keyword(s):  
Multinational Firms ◽  
Uruguay Round ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Trade In Services ◽  
Trade Negotiation ◽  
Multilateral Trade Negotiation ◽  
Industrial Countries ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Foreign Affiliates ◽  
Merchandise Trade

Until negotiations collapsed in early December, the Uruguay Round gave promise of being the most significant multilateral trade negotiation since 1947, when the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GA TI) was implemented and tariffs levels of the industrial countries were sharply cut. There are at least three reasons for this conclusion. First, by agreeing at the outset to bring both agriculture and textiles under GATT discipline, the participants created the opportunity for both rich and poor agricultural exporting nations and relatively low-wage, newly industrializing LDCs to benefit significantly from GATT-sponsored trade negotiations. Prior to the Uruguay Round, the benefits to these countries of such negotiations had been limited, since these two sectors were excluded from any significant liberalization. Second, by agreeing to formulate new rules relating to trade in services, trade-related aspects of· intellectual property rights, and trade-related investment issues, members took an important step in modernizing the GATT. As economic globalization has accelerated, there is a growing realization that arms-length merchandise transactions, the traditional concern of the GATT, are only one aspect of the real-side economic relations of current concern to national policy-makers and the economic interests they represent Now international commercial activities also involve merchandise trade among multinational firms and their foreign affiliates, international trade in services among independent agents as well as among affiliated enterprises, foreign direct investment activities, production nf goods and services in foreign affiliates for sale either abroad or at home, international flows of technology, and temporary movements of labour across borders. Although the so-called new issues in the Uruguay Round do not cover all of these matters, they go a considerable way in making the GATT more relevant for dealing with the problems of increasing internationalization.

scholarly journals The U.S. Position in the Millennium Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiation

2000 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-213
Author(s):  
Cathy S. McKinnell
Keyword(s):  
Uruguay Round ◽  
Critical Factor ◽  
The United States ◽  
Global Markets ◽  
Trade Negotiation ◽  
Multilateral Trade Negotiation ◽  
Agricultural Exports ◽  
Multilateral Trade ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Potential Customers

Soon after the implementation of the Uruguay Round, U.S. agricultural exports reached their highest level. Now many things, including exchange rates, factor into any rise in exports, but almost all economists agree that lowering trade barriers through trade agreements has been a critical factor. The vast majority— 96 percent—of potential customers for U.S. products, including agricultural products, live outside the United States. We must work to increase our opportunities to sell into these global markets.

Impact of WTO's AOA on India's Trade in Agriculture

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 48
Author(s):  
Sunil Kumar Niranjan
Keyword(s):  
World Trade Organization ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Uruguay Round ◽  
Trade Negotiation ◽  
Multilateral Trade Negotiation ◽  
Multilateral Trade ◽  
Fair Competition ◽  
The World ◽  
Gatt Round ◽  
History Of

The agreement on agriculture (AOA) forms a part of the final act of the Uruguay round of multilateral trade negotiation, which was signed by the member's countries in April 1994 at Marrakesh, Morocco and came into force on 1st January 1995.for the first time, agriculture features in a major way in the GATT round of multilateral trade negotiations. Although the original GATT- the predecessor of the World Trade organization (WTO) applied to trade in agriculture, various expectations to the disciplines on the use of non-tariff measures and subsidy meant that it did not do so effectively. The Uruguay round agreement sought to bring order and fair competition to this highly distorted sector of world trade by establishment of a fair and market oriented agriculture trading sector. Therefore the formation of the world trade organization (WTO) in January 1, 1995 as a successor organization for the General Agreement of Tariff and Trade (GATT) was watershed event in the history of global trade reform.

scholarly journals The Uruguay Round Agreement: Implications for Pakistan’s Textiles and Clothing Sector

1999 ◽  
Vol 38 (4II) ◽  
pp. 823-833 ◽  
Author(s):  
Musleh-ud Din ◽  
Kalbe Abbas
Keyword(s):  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
Uruguay Round ◽  
Developing Economies ◽  
World Trade Organisation ◽  
Clothing Industry ◽  
Major Advance ◽  
Industrial Countries ◽  
Multilateral Trade ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Textiles And Clothing

The Uruguay Round (UR), which marked the conclusion of protracted multilateral trade negotiations, resulted in comprehensive agreements on multilateral trade in goods and services within the framework of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The newly created World Trade Organisation (WTO) provides an institutional framework that encompasses all the agreements and legal instruments negotiated in the UR as well as the dispute settlement procedures and provisions for the regular monitoring of policies of the member countries. The UR agreement has been widely perceived as constituting a major advance in the process of multilateral liberalisation of trade in goods and services and, when fully implemented, is expected to improve economic efficiency and welfare from the global, national and sectoral standpoints. An important feature of the UR agreement is the incorporation of new sectors like textiles and clothing within the ambit of the GATT/WTO framework. In view of the fact that the textiles and clothing industry is one of the few sectors in which developing countries enjoy a distinct comparative advantage over industrial countries, the UR agreement holds considerable significance for developing economies like Pakistan

When should new areas of rules be added to the WTO?

2005 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 275-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
PETER LLOYD
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Competition Policy ◽  
Uruguay Round ◽  
Trade Policies ◽  
Trade In Services ◽  
Multilateral Trade ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Labour Standards

When the WTO was created as an outcome of the Uruguay Round, one of the major differences from its predecessor, the GATT, was the addition of new areas of rules of trade. The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), the Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS), and to some extent also the Agreement on Trade-related Investment Measures (TRIMs) added sets of rules that were entirely new. By adding trade in services, the rules of the multilateral trade organization now encompass trade in all produced goods and services. The WTO rules, however, encompass neither the international movements of capital or labour, nor other non-trade policies, such as those relating to the environment, labour standards, and competition policy, with minor exceptions.

scholarly journals Information related service trade within firms: evidence from firm-level data in Germany

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kurt A. Hafner ◽  
Jörn Kleinert
Keyword(s):  
Multinational Firms ◽  
Economies Of Scope ◽  
It Services ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
It Service ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Related Service ◽  
Foreign Affiliates ◽  
Knowledge Intensive ◽  
Parent Companies

AbstractMulti-unit firms have productivity advantages over competitors because of their use of a non-rival asset—firm-specific knowledge—in several units. Using knowledge-intensive services leads to economies of scope in production by multi-unit firms. Such headquarter are usually supplied by parent companies and serve to link different firm units. Headquarter services are difficult to quantify in statistics or surveys, except when they cross-borders and the exchange of services between MNEs and their offshore subsidiaries becomes apparent. This study therefore focuses on IT service imports to explain productivity differences among foreign affiliates of multinational firms in Germany. The authors base the analysis on the population of foreign multinational firms active in Germany and analyze what effect the import of IT services has on their productivity. They find that IT headquarter service flows have significant impacts on foreign affiliates’ productivity in general and US affiliates in particular. As the average IT-service flows (per firm and partner) from parent countries are significantly higher for US affiliates than non-US affiliates, they conclude that the import of IT services from the parent-company is a source of the productivity advantages of US affiliates in Germany.

scholarly journals Substitution across profit shifting methods and the impact on thin capitalization rules

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gideon Goerdt ◽  
Wolfgang Eggert
Keyword(s):  
Multinational Firms ◽  
Transfer Pricing ◽  
Multinational Firm ◽  
Profit Shifting ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Internal Goods ◽  
Transfer Prices ◽  
Debt Shifting ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Thin Capitalization

AbstractThin capitalization rules limit firms’ ability to deduct internal interest payments from taxable income, thereby restricting debt shifting activities of multinational firms. Since multinational firms can limit their tax liability in several ways, regulation of debt shifting may have an impact on other profit shifting methods. We therefore provide a model in which a multinational firm can shift profits out of a host country by issuing internal debt from an entity located in a tax haven and by manipulating transfer prices on internal goods and services. The focus of this paper is the analysis of regulatory incentives, $$(i)$$ ( i ) if a multinational firm treats debt shifting and transfer pricing as substitutes or $$(ii)$$ ( i i ) if the methods are not directly connected. The results provide a new aspect for why hybrid thin capitalization rules are used. Our discussion in this paper explains why hybrid rules can result in improvements in welfare if multinational firms treat methods of profit shifting as substitutes.

The WTO Bananas Decision: Cutting Through the Thicket

1998 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce R. Hirsh
Keyword(s):  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
Trade In Services ◽  
Allocation System ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Appellate Body ◽  
Wto Dispute Settlement ◽  
Quota Allocation ◽  
The Eu

The Bananas decision demonstrated that WTO dispute settlement panels and the Appellate Body are capable of effectively and clearly analyzing whether extremely complex measures are consistent with WTO rules. The trade-liberalizing decision established the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) as a meaningful constraint on discriminatory measures with an impact on both goods and services and clarified the nature of the GATS Most-Favoured Nation (MFN) obligation. The decision also severely constrained the ability of the EU to justify non-tariff discriminatory measures such as the quota allocation system at issue in Bananas based on the Lomé waiver.

scholarly journals Ukrainian-Polish trade and economic relations in modern conditions

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (10) ◽  
pp. 36-46
Author(s):  
Borys Sulym
Keyword(s):  
Free Market ◽  
Trade In Services ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
Trade Relations ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Polish Economy ◽  
Trade And Investment ◽  
Cross Border Cooperation

The main directions of development of Ukrainian-Polish trade relations are considered in the article. The positive and negative effects of cross-border cooperation in trade and investment are substantiated, as well as a number of recommendations for building mutually beneficial relations on the basis of national interests.The purpose of this article is to assess the Ukrainian-Polish trade and economic relations in modern conditions in order to form scientifically sound recommendations for the development of mutually beneficial cross-border cooperation, taking into account national interests.Research methods. Methods of scientific analysis are used in the critical assessment of the concept of free market and free trade; comparison in the study of the dynamics of Ukrainian-Polish trade relations; graphical method for displaying and comparing trade in goods and services and investment between Poland and Ukraine; method of generalization in the development of proposals to improve the efficiency of cross-border trade and investment between countries, taking into account national characteristics and interests.Results. An assessment of Ukrainian-Polish trade and economic relations over the past ten years is given. It is proved that Ukrainian-Polish relations in the field of trade in goods do not have significant benefits for the Ukrainian economy, as their balance is negative during the period under study. Emphasis is placed on mutual exits in the field of trade in services, where the Polish side actively uses Ukrainian enterprises to order services for processing material resources through cheap labor, which stimulates the inflow of funds into Ukrainian business, job creation and more. There is a significant predominance of Polish investment in the national economy over Ukrainian investment in the Polish economy, due to the higher development of the Polish economy and interest in building branches and subsidiaries of Polish enterprises.A number of measures have been proposed to increase the economic complexity of the domestic economy in order to increase technological exports to Poland and equalize the trade balance between the countries; the directions of development of trade in services (in particular medical services in the conditions of COVID-19), as well as measures to increase the volume of Polish investment are substantiated.

scholarly journals A Conceptual Forecasting Analysis of International Trade Aspects Based on Globalization Impact Issues

2022 ◽  
Vol 10 (01) ◽  
pp. 2881-2887
Author(s):  
Stamatis Kontsas ◽  
Stavros Kalogiannidis
Keyword(s):  
Industrial Production ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Fast Pace ◽  
Forecasting Analysis ◽  
Merchandise Trade ◽  
The Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Trade Partners ◽  
Similar Depth

Global GDP is really important for trade, since the larger the global economy, the more goods and services available for trade. Global GDP grew by around two-thirds in real terms between 2000 and 2020 – or 2.6% per year on average.2020 saw some of the largest trade reductions and output volumes for both industrial production and goods trade since WWII. The year 2020 was marked by some of the largest reductions in trade and output volumes since WWII. The declines in both world industrial production and goods trade in the first half of 2020 were of similar depth to those at the trough of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). In addition, trade and production impacts across specific goods, services and trade partners were highly varied. Initial pandemic-era expectations for a double-digit decline in world merchandise trade in 2020 did not materialise. Global trade turned out to recover from the shock at an extraordinarily fast pace from around mid-2020.

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