The Multilateral Trading System

Endogenous Free Trade Agreements and the Multilateral Trading System

I evaluate in this paper the impact of free trade areas (FTAs) on the world trading system. I use an oligopolistic-political-economy model where the external tariffs of FTA members, as well as the decision to form FTAs, are endogenously determined. In this context, I show that FTAs are primarily beneficial to the multilateral trading system. This conclusion is based, first, upon the finding tha...

Rebalancing the Rules of the Multilateral Trading System in Favour of the Poor

When establishing the World Trade Organisation, the founding parties were "Recognizing that their relations in the field of trade and economic endeavour should be conducted with a view to raising standards of living, ensuring full employment and a large and steadily growing volume of real income and effective demand, and expanding the production of and trade in goods and services, while allowin...

D Sixty Years of the Multilateral Trading System: Achievements and Challenges

Earlier Sections in this Report have sought to understand why international cooperation in trade matters seems to make sense to governments and how such cooperation translates into institutions and rules. We will now focus on the main achievements of multilateral trade cooperation over the last six decades and explore some of the core challenges and issues that the system faces today. The Secti...

Preferential Rules of Origin and the Multilateral Trading System: Pro-Development Policy Options

4 Multilateral and bilateral trade policies in the world trading system: an historical perspective

Events of the past two decades have generated increasing concern about the direction of the world trading system. While the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) helped orchestrate the substantial reduction in tariffs after World War II, the multilateral approach to trade liberalisation has encountered difficulty in stemming the proliferation of non-tariff trade barriers and in extendin...