WORLD TARIFF PROFILES. By the World Trade Organisation, the UN Conference on Trade and Development, and the International Trade Centre, June 2007. Numbers play a fundamental role in key areas of trade negotiations; perhaps more than in any previous multilateral round of talks, tariffs and formulas are at the core of the Doha negotiations. Up to now, access to these data was often limited to a closed circle of trade specialists. The present publication attempts to fill that gap by offering a comprehensive picture of tariff profiles of the 150 WTO Members in an abridged format. The full publication is available at http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/tariffs_e/tariff_profiles_2006_e/tariff_profiles_2006_e.pdf.
FAO BIOTECHNOLOGY GLOSSARY ON CD-ROM. By the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, June 2007. The FAO has released a CD-ROM containing the Arabic, English, French, and Spanish versions of the FAO Glossary of Biotechnology for Food and Agriculture, with cross-referencing among the four languages. The glossary provides definitions of over 3,000 terms and acronyms that are used regularly in biotechnology and related fields. To request a copy of the CD-ROM, contact sandra.tardioli@fao.org. The glossary is also available online at http://www.fao.org/biotech/index_glossary.asp.
THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF REGIONAL TRADE AGREEMENTS: 2006 UPDATE. By Roberto V. Fiorentino, Luis Verdeja, and Christelle Toqueboeuf (WTO, June 2007). The number of Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) as well as the world share of trade covered under them has been steadily increasing over the last ten years; this trend is being further strengthened by the many RTAs currently under negotiation. The promotion of free trade through preferential agreements can foster trade liberalization and help integrate developing countries into the world economy, yet the development of such trade networks will increase discrimination and may well undermine transparency and predictability in international trade relations. This paper provides an update of recent developments and trends relating to RTAs and analyses the WTO-RTA relationship and its systemic implications for the multilateral trading system. The paper is available at http://www.wto.org/english/res_e/booksp_e/discussion_papers12a_e.pdf.
BIOTECNHOLOGY IN CROP PRODUCTION AND THE BIOSAFETY PROTOCOL - IMPLICATIONS FOR CEREAL TRADE. By the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, 2007. This paper, which was prepared for a recent joint meeting of the Intergovernmental Group on Grains and the Intergovernmental Group on Rice, describes international legal instruments that regulate or offer guidelines on genetically modified crops and highlights challenges and implications for the global trade in cereal crops. The paper maintains that the adoption of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety has created a strong demand in many developing countries for establishing effective biosafety systems and concludes that there is a need to provide long-term, continuous technical and financial support to allow the full development of national capabilities in this sector. The paper is available online at ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/meeting/011/J9312E.pdf.
"Scale, Technique, and Composition Effects in the Mexican Agricultural Sector: the Influences of NAFTA and the Institutional Environment" by Silvina J. Vilas-Ghiso and Diana M. Liverman in INERTNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL AGREEMENTS 7(2), 2007. More than a decade after NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) entered into force, the environmental effects of agricultural trade liberalization in Mexico are still controversial, emerging, and not fully understood. This paper contributes to the literature that aims to explore trends in input use in the agricultural sector in Mexico during the post-NAFTA period among both commercial/industrial and traditional farmers, and examines the influence of the national and multilateral institutional framework on these outcomes.