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Why Europe Needs to Take TPP Seriously
There's no point any longer in pretending: The geo-economic race over the Asia-Pacific is now on - and in the open. Will the TPP coalition declare victory at the next week's APEC summit – and...
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Behind Global Trade Statistics
Do you sometimes wonder about the world trade statistics, published by the WTO? Behind the headline numbers, there is a lot to explore … Until 1995, when the GATS was added to the corpus of...
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India, the WTO Bali Package, and Global Value Chains
India’s economy has become much more liberal over the last 20 years. Its applied tariff rate has gone down from a high 113% in 1990-91 to a low 13.7 by taking a simple average although some tariff...
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The World Economy – Running on One or Two Engines?
The image of the world economy in the past years has been one of a slowing tanker, running only on one engine. The developing part of the world, or what in today’s language is called the fast...
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Unwelcome Benefits of the WTO Bali Deal?
After twelve years of tedious negotiations, only a fraction of the original Doha mandate remains. One is filled with certain surprise and relief, as the news of the Bali agreement reach us on...
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Bang or a Whimper? The Doha Round and the Bali Ministerial Meeting
The paradox of modern trade policy is that it is painfully difficult to stitch together a global trade deal despite economies being ever more densely integrated with another. The WTO is the premier...
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A Funeral l(ITA)ny for Technology Trade
It has been called the mother of all plurilaterals – or the only evidence of any trade liberalisation since the creation of the WTO. Nonetheless, the renegotiation of the Information Technology...
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From the Swiss Formula to the Swiss Cheese Approach to Trade
It is a sign of times that many government officials today spend considerable time thinking about what products that should not be embraced by efforts to liberalise trade and subject to trade...
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Open Trade and Its Discontents
The following article was also published as an op-ed in the December 6th issue of the European Voice under the title ’Open trade is a two-way street’ The decision by the EU trade ministers to...
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The New EU Strategy for Trade and Development
There are some interesting ideas and proposals in the European Commission’s new Communication on trade and development. After a decade as leader of aid for trade, the EU now wants to reform its...