The World Trade System: Trends and Challenges (Mit Press) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0262035235 ISBN 13: 9780262035231

Publisher: MIT Press, 2016

Synopsis

Leading trade esperts examine the world trading system today, from the multilateralism of the WTO to explosive bilateralism and the mega-regionals TPP and TTIP.

When the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) metamorphosed into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1994, it seemed that the third pillar of the international economic superstructure was finally in place. And yet with the failure of member countries to close the Doha Round of trade negotiations and the emergence of bilateral and plurilateral preferential trade arrangements (PTAs) such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the future of the multilateral WTO seems uncertain. In this volume, leading economists examine issues in trade policy that have arisen during this shift.

The contributors discuss such topics as the effect of trade on poverty and inequality, PTAs and litigation between trading partners, the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement, and the relationship of food security and trade liberalization. They also offer regional perspectives on the TPP and trans-Atlantic free trade.

Contributors
Rahel Aichele, Jagdish Bhagwati, Steve Charnovitz, Gabriel Felbermayr Dimitar Gueorguiev, Bernard Hoekman, Jonas Kasteng, Pravin Krishna, Mary Lovely, Petros Mavroidis, Devashish Mitra, Arvind Panagariya, Tom Prusa, Andre Sapir, Stefan Tangermann

About this title

About the Author

Jagdish N. Bhagwati is University Professor of Economics, Law, and International Relations at Columbia University and former Adviser to the Director General of GATT, Arthur Dunkel. He is the author (with Arvind Panagariya) of Why Growth Matters: How Economic Growth in India Reduced Poverty and the Lessons for Other Developing Countries.

Review

With multilateral and regional trade agreements under attack today as never before, this book could not come at a better time. These accessible chapters written by economists and lawyers can serve to educate all interested persons about the institutions of world trade, and counter ill-conceived notions that we must renegotiate agreements.

―Robert Feenstra, C. Bryan Cameron Distinguished Professor, University of California, Davis; author of Offshoring in the Global Economy and Product Variety and the Gains from International Trade

The world trading system is under stress once again. This book provides some of the latest thinking on many hotly debated issues from agriculture to antidumping, the Trans-Pacific Partnership to trade and inequality. Wide-ranging and accessible, this collection will be of interest to practitioners and scholars alike.

―Douglas Irwin, John Sloan Dickey Third Century Professor in the Social Sciences, Dartmouth College; author of Free Trade under Fire

This collection brings together a group of the world's leading economic and legal scholars who set forth wide-ranging analyses of the central issues and challenges faced by the multilateral trading system and the World Trade Organization. The depth of scholarship is outstanding. Yet the issues are presented with a minimum of professional jargon and with commendable clarity. Thus, both general readers with a keen interest in global trade as well as research scholars will benefit immensely from the wisdom imparted in the disparate chapters. Given the highly emotional and divisive debates over globalization and trade in the United States and Europe, these careful analyses will provide an indispensable antidote to the calculated misinformation and simple ignorance that governs so much of current discourse.

―Claude Barfield, Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute; author of Free Trade, Sovereignty, Democracy

Edition details

• Publisher: MIT Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0262035235
• ISBN 13: 9780262035231
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 416
• Editor: Bhagwati University Professor Senior Fellow In International Economics At The Council On Foreign Relations Jagdish N, Krishna Pravin, Panagariya Professor Of Economics And Indian Political Economy Arvind