IN 1995 when the WTO was established, it seemed to be final confirmation of the success of a system that had managed multilateral trade relations since 1947. It provided an institutional framework within which governments were not only able to negotiate reductions in trade barriers but also to bind themselves to rules of conduct that, in principle, were both universal and nondiscriminatory. Abo...

Are states constrained by international law? Recent studies suggest that the legal regime of the World Trade Organization (WTO), in particular, has no independent effect on members’ trade policies. We argue, in contrast, that the WTO’s “rule of law” is likely to deter protectionist practices against other members, including those lacking the ability to retaliate. The WTO accomplishes this by cl...

although intellectual property rights (iprs) in this era specially after the constitution of world trade organization (wto) have been concerned from economic and commercialization point of view, human rights perspective to iprs has been increased and so, human rights groups have highlighted certain challenges between iprs and human rights, have tried to adjust economic perspective and have soug...

Using bilateral trade data for 210 countries over the period 1948-2003, this paper attempts to shed some light on the relationship between the WTO and members' trade volatilities. We find that the trade among WTO members tends to be more stable than the trade outside the WTO, and there is strong evidence of interdependence of trade volatilities. The results show comovement of trade volatilities...

In several African regions, economic integration has successfully reduced tariff protection by freezing the opportunity to raise applied tariffs against fellow partners above those promised. this paper, we examine whether regional commitments on continent have come at expense of adverse side-effects prevalence other - nontariff trade barriers. More specifically, not only amplified overhangs dif...

With the creation of the World Trade Organization (“WTO”), an area of international law may have become more like law as we commonly perceive it. Yet it is not necessarily the neutral technocratic process some of its proponents make it to be. Whatever is one’s perspective on trade liberalization and its enforcement, developing countries and developing country constituents are at a disadvantage ...

Participation in international trade potentially brings huge benefits to developing countries. However, the design and setup of the international trade regime, most importantly the rules and regulations stipulated in the agreements of the World Trade Organization (WTO), often make it difficult for developing countries to fully tap this potential. As will be argued in this paper using descriptiv...

In examining the effect of membership in World Trade Organization (WTO) on amounts Aid for (AfT) that accrue to developing countries, Lee et al. (2015) (The Economy, 38, 2015 and 1462) have found country members received higher AfT flows than non-WTO members. The present paper deepens analysis by investigating duration WTO recipient countries. captures both time spent a organization. main argum...