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Opening up of Services Sector
The government is believed to have committed to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to further open up its services sector for foreign services providers without assessing its impact on the domestic market. Pakistan’s permanent mission to the WTO has sent a draft offer to commerce ministry for approval. In the year 2005, Pakistan made an initial offer for liberalisation of nine out of 12 sectors. This has been followed up in revised offers for remaining areas of the sector.
http://worldtradereview.com/
A Structural Theory of WTO Dispute Settlement: Why Institutional Choice Lies at the Center of the GMO Case
The regulation of agricultural biotechnology (the use of genetically modified organisms, GMOs) is of great importance. Opponents maintain that it can irreparably harm the environment and threaten human health. Supporters contend that it can significantly increase food yields and enhance nutrition in a world where almost a billion people go hungry every day. Disputes over this technology threaten to trigger a trade war among the world’s two economic powers, the United States and European Union ………
http://www.law.uga.edu/intl/shaffer.pdf
Trade Liberalization & WTO: Impact on Developing Countries
The international movement towards open markets prompted by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has its premise that trade liberalization will benefit all those who are concerned. Each country will be able to exploit its position of comparative advantage, once a free and fair trade regime has been implemented. After the Second World War, world trade has been growing continuously due to a number of factors. In particular, the liberalization of trade restrictions and advent of WTO in recent times ………
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1084394
Bilateralism in Services Trade: Is There Fire Behind the (Bit-) Smoke?
Far less attention is given to the even more rapid proliferation of bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and their overlap with obligations assumed by WTO Members under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). About 60 per cent of world foreign investment stocks are in services and, thus, covered by mode 3 (commercial presence) of the GATS. A closer look reveals that BITs generally apply across a far wider range of sectors, in particular in the case of LDCs and developing countries, than those scheduled under the GATS.
http://www.wto.org/english/res_e/reser_e/ersd200801_e.htm
Special and Differential Treatment Problems: Scope and Limits
Special and differential (S&D) treatment for developing and the least developed countries (LDCs) is an important characteristic of the multilateral trading system put in place by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and its predecessor the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). However, opinions are divided over the usefulness of S&D treatment. The two major forms of S&D treatment are provisions for preferential tariffs on imports from the developing countries and LDCs ………
http://worldtradereview.com/
Regionalism and Trade Facilitation: A Primer
This paper investigates when trade facilitation reform should be undertaken at the regional level. First, looking at both efficiency and implementation considerations, it confirms the perception that the regional dimension matters. Investigating where efficiency gains can be made, this research explains why national markets alone fail to produce the full scale economies and positive externalities of trade facilitation reform. Second, because trade facilitation policies need to address ………
http://www-wds.worldbank.org/
Can a Preferential Trade Agreement Benefit Neighbor Countries without Compensating Them?
PTAs are generally negotiated without any tariff concessions or transfers to non-member countries. Can such a PTA benefit the neighbors’ welfare? In a two-good competitive equilibrium model in the absence of an entrepot, a PTA without concessions to the outsider will hurt the outsider’s welfare when goods are normal. If one of the member countries is an entrepot, however, it definitely improves the neighbors’ welfare.
http://econpapers.repec.org/paper/egcwpaper/961.htm
Tread Warily on China RTA
It’s not often that lack of progress is reason for cheer, however cautious. But then the India-China Regional Trade Agreement (RTA) is a bit of an exception. RTAs, it is commonly accepted, are a poor substitute for multilateral rules-based trade. They are complex to negotiate and despite detailed rules of origin, could well lead to trade diversion, with serious implications for domestic industry and debatable benefits overall. More so in the case of an RTA with China.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/
EPA Negotiations in The CARIBBEAN Region: Some Issues of Concern
This Analytical Note explores some of the main challenges related to the EPA negotiations in the CARIFORUM ACP region, particularly with respect to Market Access and regional integration, Agriculture, Manufacturing, and trade in Services. This note highlights some of the region’s main concerns and explores some possible positive linkages between the EPAs and the WTO Doha Round of negotiations in an effort to increase negotiators’ understanding about the EPA developmental implications.
http://www.southcentre.org/
Asian Textile and Apparel Trade: Moving Forward with Regional integration
This paper evaluates the competitive position of the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the members of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), and the PRC in terms of growth in volume and value of apparel and textile shipments, market shares, and unit prices for the period 2004–2007 in the US market. The results indicate that although the PRC is a strong competitor in world markets, this does not preclude other developing nations from succeeding.
http://www.adb.org/Documents/ERD/Working_Papers/WP111.pdf
Gender Expertise of Family and Labour Codes of The Republic of Uzbekistan
Among the numerous social problems which are taking place in the centre of attention of our society and the state, special value is got with a problem of improvement of women position, wide involving them in process of active participation in sociopolitical life of the country. Women, who make a half of population, render huge influence on a society. Development of women is a sensitive parameter of progress of mankind as a whole.
http://www.adb.org/Documents/Books/Gender-Expertise-Family/gender-en.pdf
Evaluating Alternative Approaches to Poverty Alleviation: Rice Tariffs versus Targeted Transfers in Madagascar
This paper uses a partial equilibrium framework to evaluate the relative efficiency, distributional and revenue implications of rice tariffs and targeted transfers in Madagascar, especially in the context of identifying their respective roles for poverty alleviation. Although there are likely to be substantial efficiency gains from tariff reductions, these accrue mainly to higher income households. In addition, poor net rice sellers will lose from lower tariffs.
http://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2016/12/31/Evaluating-Alternative-Approaches-to-Poverty-Alleviation-Rice-Tariffs-Versus-Targeted-21548
Education Exclusion and Inclusion: Policy and Implementation in South Africa and India
In South Africa and India, the patterns of inequality in education correlate consistently and significantly with race and caste, and further, with gender and poverty, and suggest the complex intersections between each in the production of persistent education exclusion. In both countries, further constitutional and other policy commitments and efforts have explicitly addressed the issue of race and caste disadvantage. This report focuses on the qualitative experiences of these excluded groups.
http://www.dfid.gov.uk/pubs/files/Researchg-the-Issues-No.72.pdf
How Can Farmers’ Attitudes to Innovation be Improved?
TThis paper presents results of an analysis of farmers’ behaviour, based on two case studies in Bolivia. It discusses how knowledge management modalities affect innovation behaviour among small farmers. It also examines how schemes, which involve multiple agents, can influence farmers’ attitudes towards innovation.
The authors explore two hypotheses. Firstly that multiple-agent knowledge management enhances the adoption of innovations among farmers; and ………
http://www.eldis.org/
New data on African Health Professionals Abroad
The paper finds that approximately 35,000 African-born physicians and 70,000 African-born professional nurses were working overseas in a developed country in the year 2000. This represents about one fifth of African-born physicians in the work, and about one tenth of African-born professional nurses. The fraction of health professionals abroad varies enormously across African countries, from one per cent to over 70 per cent according to the occupation and country.
http://www.human-resources-health.com/content/pdf/1478-4491-6-1.pdf
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