Developing Countries and a New Round of wto Negotiations

Authors: Hertel T.W.¹; Hoekman B.M.²; Martin W.³

Source: World Bank Research Observer, Volume 17, Number 1, 2002 , pp. 113-140(28)

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Abstract:

This article summarizes some of the results and findings emerging from an ongoing World Bank research and capacity-building project that focuses on the World Trade Organization (wto) negotiating agenda from a developing country perspective. Recent research suggests that the potential gains from further multilateral liberalization of trade remain very large. The payoffs associated with attempts to introduce substantive disciplines in the wto on domestic regulatory regimes are much less certain. This suggests that the focus of current and future negotiations should be primarily on the bread and butter of the multilateral trading system—the progressive liberalization of barriers to trade in goods and services on a nondiscriminatory basis. In addition, priority should be given to ensuring that rules are consistent with the development needs of poorer countries and to helping developing countries implement wto obligations.

Document Type: Original article

Affiliations: 1: The Department of Agricultural Economics at Purdue University; e-mail hertel@agecon.purdue.edu 2: The Development Research Group at the World Bank and Centre for Economic Policy Research in London; e-mail bhoekman@worldbank.org 3: The Development Research Group at the World Bank; e-mail wmartin1@worldbank.org

Publication date: 2002-01-01

• The World Bank Research Observer seeks to inform nonspecialist readers about research being undertaken within the Bank and outside the Bank in areas of economics relevant for development policy. Requiring only a minimal background in economic analysis, its surveys and overviews of key issues in development economics research are intended for policymakers, project officers, journalists keeping up to date, and teachers and students of development economics and related disciplines. Papers for the Observer are not sent out to referees, but all articles published are assessed and approved by the Editorial Board, which includes three to four distinguished economists from outside the Bank. The Observer has nearly 1,500 subscribers in OECD countries and nearly 10,000 subscribers in developing countries.
  
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