International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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Trade and Development

21 posts

Using Free Trade to Promote Development

Over at vox, Kimberly Elliott says the U.S. should lower tariffs on imports from poor countries: ... the Doha Round, under the best of circumstances, will take some time to conclude, and the US and other rich countries should move as quickly as possible to further open their markets to

Dani Rodrik on Policy Space

Dani Rodrik argues: Developing nations also need to enshrine the notion of "policy space" in the World Trade Organization. The goal would be to ensure that developing countries can employ the kind of trade and industrial policies needed to restructure and diversify their economies and set the stage

Market Access for Small, Developing Countries

Following-up on this old post, apparently the WTO can work for the little guy: Fiji Kava Council chairman, Ratu Josateki Nawalowalo said the removal of the restriction on kava trade in European countries was a result of a 10-day roundtable consultation between Pacific Island ambassadors, European Commission leaders based in

Ha-Joon Chang Argues for Infant Industry Protection

In an interview related to his (somewhat) new book, Ha-Joon Chang makes the case for infant industry protection: When you are trying to get into a more difficult and thereby higher return activity, developing countries have to invest in it. The investment comes in the form of protection, which makes,

Policy Space for "Smart Protectionism"

We've talked before about policy space for developing countries, often in response to Dani Rodrik blog posts, but other times as well. The following piece seemed like a great case study of the issue: http://www.policyinnovations.org/ideas/commentary/data/000082 In a nutshell, the piece makes

Policy Space

From a letter to the editor in the Economist, written by Robert Wade of LSE, commenting on the Doha negotiations: Several developing countries now have big enough markets to give them leverage over rules of access to their markets, and their governments could take the lead in revising current rules

New Paper on Development and Human Rights under WTO law

Here's a new paper from Gillian Moon of University of New South Wales, entitled "The WTO-Minus Strategy: Development and human rights under WTO law." The abstract: International trade law, human rights law and development studies share the common objective of promoting higher standards of living in

GSP Plus in Sri Lanka

From a Tamil Star editorial arguing that Sri Lanka should sign on to certain human rights treaties in order get access to preferential tariffs under the EU's GSP program: The regime appears to be suggesting in a communiqué that something in the nature of a conspiracy encompassing a

Classification of Developing Countries at the WTO

A reader of this blog is doing research on the classification of developing countries at the WTO, and asked me to pose the following question: Does anyone have any suggestions for resources that discuss the classification of WTO Members as developed, developing, or least-developed? Any thoughts on this can be

Tariff Discrimination Against Poor Countries

From Ben Muse: The Progressive Policy Institute points out that: The United States Collects More Tariff Money from Cambodia than from Britain (Trade Fact of the Week, February 20): Some of our highest tariff rates are imposed on goods from some of the poorer countries. "...countries which make cheap