Negotiations among nations on policies to promote international economic integration have widened in recent years to cover new issues; for example, foreign direct investment rules, policies to promote competition, the international movement of labor, the environment and monetary union. In these negotiations, a consensus among the parties negotiating is usually lacking and many of these negotiat...

The remaining questions relate to practical implementation. What are the political and legal measures to preserve and promote cultural diversity? This question has to be answered primarily on the regional and national planes but is also relevant on the European and global levels. Moreover, what consequences arise from this for the ongoing negotiations on trade liberalization within the World Tr...

The advent of biofuels offers a new opportunity for agriculture to contribute to society by reducing trade rivalry. Biofuel production gives farmers a new source of income while helping to reduce external energy dependence. European farm support is also an impediment to global trade negotiations, and we believe a new food-fuel perspective can help overcome this by reconciling the needs of EU fa...

The second part of this special issue on trade and the environment is a policy forum based on a paper by Jagdish Bhagwati that argues strongly against ‘burdening trade treaties and negotiations with social agendas’. The paper is not just a critique of the environmentalists’ case for linking trade and the environment in the millennium round of the WTO. It is also the rationale for a number of po...

Small State Regional Cooperation, South-South and South-North Migration, and International Trade This paper provides a different basis than previous analyses for regional bloc formation and regional migration. Due to low bargaining power and fixed costs, small states face a severe disadvantage in negotiations with the rest of the world and might benefit by forming a regional bloc. The study a) ...

A further round of negotiations on agricultural trade liberalisation began in the WTO in March 2000. This paper discusses the interests of developing countries in these negotiations. Compared to the developed countries, developing countries have relatively few ‘rights’ to agricultural support under the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture and thus have an interest in pressing for a significan...

The objective of this study is to measure the effect of global policy reforms on rice trade, prices, and economic welfare. The Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations aims to increase market access, and reduce or eliminate export subsidies and trade distorting domestic price supports. Two modeling frameworks are used to estimate trade, price and economic welfare effects of policy reforms....

Agricultural expansion is a major driver for loss of biodiversity; changes in land use or intensity associated with trade liberalisation can therefore have major consequences. Assessments of the impacts of agricultural trade have tended to neglect biodiversity, despite its crucial role in maintaining productive agro-ecosystems. Advice on assessment of biodiversity impacts is required to support...