RESOURCES
AGRICULTURE AND THE WTO: CREATING A TRADING SYSTEM FOR DEVELOPMENT. Edited by John Nash and Merlinda Ingco (World Bank, March 2004). This book explores the key issues and options in agricultural trade liberalisation from the perspective of developing countries. Experts in trade and agriculture from both developed and developing countries provide key research findings and policy analyses on a range of issues that includes market access, domestic support, export competition, quota administration methods, food security, biotechnology, intellectual property rights, and agricultural trade under the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture. For further information visit http://publications.worldbank.org/ecommerce/catalog/product-detail?product_id=2297276&
FOOD REGULATION AND TRADE: TOWARD A SAFE AND OPEN GLOBAL SYSTEM. By Tim Josling, Donna Roberts and David Orden (Institute for International Economics, Washington D.C., March 2004). With the increased complexity of the global food system, technical regulations addressing food safety and quality are critical factors affecting production and markets. This book assesses food regulation and highlights reforms to achieve more open trade with sustained or enhanced food safety and quality. The authors document positive effects from adoption of the multilateral WTO agreements on sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) and other technical barrier to trade. Selected cases of newly-emerging or longstanding trade-frictions over food regulation are examined, and the limits to what the existing WTO disciplines can accomplish in resolving these frictions are analysed. For further information see http://bookstore.iie.com/
MOVEMENT AND PRESENCE OF NATURAL PRESENCE AND DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: ISSUES AND PROPOSALS FOR THE GATS NEGOTIATIONS. South Centre T.R.A.D.E. Working Paper 19 (May 2004). This working paper discusses the interests of developing countries and least developed countries in the movement of natural presence or mode 4 within the GATS agreement. Building on proposals and ongoing discussions on mechanisms to facilitate further movement in negotiations on mode 4, this paper takes these ideas forward to assess their feasibility, prioritise among them and provide a set of feasible and practical ways to achieve progress in the mode 4 discussions. Its larger aim is to inform developing and least developed countries’ negotiating strategies on mode 4. To download a copy visit http://www.southcentre.org/publications/workingpapers/paper19/wp19.pdf
FROM CANCÚN TO HONG KONG: LESSONS FROM THE FIFTH MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE OF THE WORLD TRADE ORGANISATION. South Centre T.R.A.D.E. Working Paper 20 (May 2004). This working paper is the product of collaboration between the South Centre and the World Institute (WRI). It is the third in a series intended to provide readers with an analytical overview of the on-going negotiations at the WTO from the perspective of the potential impact of WTO decisions on local communities and the natural resources upon which they depend. This paper, the last of the series, looks at the outcomes of the Cancun Ministerial Conference of the WTO in September 2003, with a particular focus on the processes and dynamics of Cancun to identify lessons that could be learned. To download a copy visit http://www.southcentre.org/publications/workingpapers/paper20/wp20.pdf
SOUTH-SOUTH COOPERATION IN THE MULTILATERAL TRADING SYSTEM: CANCÚN AND BEYOND. South Centre T.R.A.D.E. Working Paper 21 (May 2004). This working paper attempts to look at how developing countries cooperate and work with each other in the context of the multilateral trading system, especially in relation to the WTO. It contains information and an overview of events of the WTO’s Cancun Ministerial Conference. The information and analysis contained in this paper seeks to provide greater clarity and understanding — especially in connection with South-South dynamics in the run-up to and at Cancun — with respect to the continued and strengthened cooperation and interaction among developing countries in the WTO. To download a copy visit http://www.southcentre.org/publications/workingpapers/paper21/wp21.pdf