Annotated Bibliography on Development, Trade, and the WTO

Hockman, Bernard, Aaditya Mattoo and Philip English, eds. "Development, Trade, and the WTO, A Handbook," World Bank, June 2002.

The World Trade Organization was formed in 1995 after the Uruguay Round trades negotiations amongst the world's trading nations. WTO being the successor of the Global Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT that was formed in 1948) it is the international organization that works son the rules of trade between countries. The organization had 144 members on around January 1, 2002, many of the countries were entangled in the negotiation of the WTO agreements, and the agreements were signed being the most part approved by the parliament of the involved nations. The World Bank made it formal by publishing a booklet in 1987 that reflected on the multilateral negotiations and the trade policy to promote the integration of the countries' into the world trade system. This new handbook by Hockman, Bernard, Aaditya Mattoo and Philip English was published to update and expound on the previous work, stressing on the scope of the developments of the trade policy. As mention in the handbook's Forward section by Nicholas Stern, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank, in the not less than two decades ago, the developing countries that boosted their integration into the world economy advanced better economically and socially compared to the ones that did not. A joint thread among such countries is the application of the development approach that institute on both enhancements of investments climate together with the empowerment of their poor to benefit from the economic expansion. As shown by the authors, the November 2001 Doha meeting, members recognized that growth against poverty needs the opening of markets of both the poor and rich countries. As the trade issues go past mechanism of quota and tariffs, the handbook is intended to help the developing countries advance the desired infrastructure institutions and governance to facilitate the contribution in the trading economy and advance from such participation. The handbook suits the practitioners who desire to take part in the real-world trade policy-making process. According to the Forward found in the handbook, there is a Tribute to J. Michael Finger (Lead Economist for Trade Policy and also co-authored the original handbook), which comprises some of the fascinating backgrounds on the five components of good trade policymaking together with the application of their policy formulation, as well as the introduction into the report. The introduction of the handbook analyzes the intricacies of multilateral trade negotiation contrary to the customary bilateral agreements. The previous stress needs to be based on the particular rules to be implemented whereas the latter can utilize the "concessions" between the two parties to mutually commit to a mutually beneficial agreement. The booklet examines the trends that have occurred in the multilateral trading, and the structure, the entire book is made up of 150mpages.

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Weisbrot, Mark, and Dean Baker, The Relative Impact of Trade Liberalization on Developing Countries", Center for Economic and Policy Research Briefing Paper, June 11, 2002.

The Center for Economic and Policy Research is a US-based non-profit funded mainly by various notable foundations. Its webpage is www.cepr.net. This report formed by the Co-directors of the organization focuses on the problems that the organization encounters, but it does not arrive at the accurate recommendation on how the problems need to be resolved. The authors of the report pursue on numerous sets of data and run economic models to demonstrate that amplified trade liberalization is not the ultimate remedy to the issue of the developing world. As suggested, such matters as the repeal of the patent protection and copyright agreements together with the reformation of the international financial system will so as much as an increase in trade liberalization. In any circumstance, for instance how change negatively influence some counties are applied as the argument that the change is neither completely beneficial. The examples of the two are the statements that some of the developing countries take advantage from the low price of the subsidized agricultural products and because the tariffs denote the wide section of the income of the governments of various developing countries. The implications are that subsidizing agriculture is among the best policies of the US and the EU while the tariffs on the imports of the manufactured items are valuable to the people who hail from those nations. In various examples, the deductions on the advantages of having an economic integration to the developing countries are contrary to the ones the authors have referenced as a,b,d,g, and h, though the database is similar. Some recommendation strongly differs from the ones presented.

Centre for Economic Policy Research, "Making Sense of Globalization: A Guide to the Economic Issues," CEPR Policy Paper No. 8, July 2002.

The Centre for Economic Policy Research is a U.K.-based none profit organization that conducts researchers in the economic matters as well as policies that have an impact the results in a positive direction. Many of the works conducted by this research organization are based on the European Union together with its respective members. The research staffs are gathered from the universities and other none profit organization in various countries. The webpage for Centre for Economic Policy Research is www.cepr.org (Different from cepr.net in reference f). The report is respective to the study conducted by the European Commission Group of Policy Advisors that attempt to seek CEPR to research on the economic advantages that arise from the economic cost of globalization. Furthermore, the report endeavors to focus on the concerns of critics of globalization and to recommend on how to upsurge the wellbeing to developing counties. The Forward has covered comments given by the CEO of CEPR, and the President of the European Commission, the disclaimers are given by the two executives are interesting. The report has an Executive Summary, Chapter 1 titled "Globalization and its discontents: a response" which gives a concrete summary of the entire report. Evidence regarding globalization has been pointed out by the authors and how it has benefited the participants by not resulting into an increase of inequality or the development of the percent of the world's population living under poverty. The total number of people in poverty is still high. They are stimulated by the pointers of success instead of the purely economic benefits, such as life expectancies. They discuss the welfares of developing countries that have participated in economic integration (India and China) as well as the countries (sub-Sahara Africa) that have not. Difficulties with the latter might be as a result of the limit (or lack ) of the fundamental institutions that let people take part in the globalization. How institutions (civil societies, governments, corporations,)

The way institutions that include the civil based societies, corporations and governments exist and also show response towards issues are part of the discussion. Certain policy-oriented recommendations are formulated such as those directed towards the EU. The list of policy actions covering on the way globalization needs to be handled entails the suggestions on matters of education, regulations, financial objectives, trade and even the aid. The eight chapter on 'The concerns touching on the street based protestors; what constitute then answers?' is indeed a very balanced concise type of statement and also the amicable response towards the twelve normally stated globalization criticisms. The most notable one to me are the suggestions that they reach in solving problems that they concur are existing. I realized that this report was for sure very levelheaded and easy regarding reading the summary of the major issues associated with globalization. Despite the study having been carried out by the European Commission and very many institutions comprising of authors offered the confidence in the group's objectivity.

Savona, Paolo. "Can Economic Growth Coexist with Social Justice in Globalization? Reflections on the Failure of the WTO Summit in Seattle", Banca di Roma Review of Economic Conditions in Italy, 2000, No.1.

Savona holds a profession in the field of Economics where he acquired from Luis, Guido Carli University situated in Rome. From this piece, he offers an outline of the related social problems that emanate from poverty. He then proceeds with the identification of benefits economically of the globalization aspect towards the reduction of poverty. However, he concurs that simple way of opening the markets via the bilateral or the multilateral form of agreements may not just itself result in marketing globally. In this regard, he avers that there must be agreements that entail the ways of managing distortions towards competition. Part of these distortions are the varieties of the forms of social abuse and also those economic cases of abuses that may emerge due to the uncontrolled forms of monetary summations and also the unbridled type of play on the foreign type of exchange. All these marked the major elements during the financial crisis in Asia during the period of the late 1990s.

Smith, Fiona. (2008) "The Limitations of a Legal Approach to the Regulation of Cultural Diversity in the WTO: The Problem of International Agricultural Trade." Asian Journal of WTO & International Health Law and Policy 3(1): 51-80.

Based on the fact the cultural form of diversity is a facet that is multilayered, then this problem may be adequately described in several ways. Smith pays attention to a single description, that the cultural values contribute towards the shaping of the manner by which people see objects and again also has impacts on their regulatory ways of responses as well as the rules of construction. The other argument is that disagreements entailing the WTO mediators on the agenda of Doha Development Round topic are indeed inevitable due to the perception of the people on the subject, regulations, and amendments in a different manner. The same also implies that culture is significant to every aspect covering on the regulations governing the international trade. On top of this, the three rules of the WTO based on international trade on agriculture are; decrement in the trade barriers or fiscal reductions, dif...