When designing a world trading system for the twenty-first century, “Keep calm and carry on” beats “Move fast and break things.”
Global trade is in trouble. Climate change, digital trade, offshoring, the rise of emerging markets led by China: Can the World Trade Organization (WTO), built for trade in the twentieth century, meet the challenges of the twenty-first? The answer is yes, Robert Staiger tells us, arguing that adapting the WTO to the changed economic environment would serve the world better than a radical reset.
Governed by the WTO, on the principles of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), global trade rules traditionally focus on “shallow integration”—with an emphasis on reducing tariffs and trade impediments at the border—rather than “deep integration,” or direct negotiations over behind-the-border measures. Staiger charts the economic environment that gave rise to the former approach, explains when and why it worked, and surveys the changing landscape for global trade. In his analysis, the terms-of-trade theory of trade agreements provides a compelling framework for understanding the success of GATT in the twentieth century. And according to this understanding, Staiger concludes, the logic of GATT's design transcends many, if not all, of the current challenges faced by the WTO.
With its penetrating view of the evolving global economic environment, A World Trading System for the Twenty-First Century shows us a global trading system in need of reform, and Staiger makes a persuasive case for using the architecture of the GATT/WTO as a basis for that reform.
Conditions of Use
This book is licensed under a Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-ND). You can download the ebook A World Trading System for the Twenty-First Century for free.
- Title
- A World Trading System for the Twenty-First Century
- Publisher
- The MIT Press
- Author(s)
- Robert W. Staiger
- Published
- 2022-12-20
- Edition
- 1
- Format
- eBook (pdf, epub, mobi)
- Pages
- 304
- Language
- English
- ISBN-10
- 0262047306
- ISBN-13
- 9780262371292
- License
- CC BY-NC-ND
- Book Homepage
- Free eBook, Errata, Code, Solutions, etc.
Contents Preface 1. Introduction 1.1 A Roadmap for the Book I. The World Trading System of the Twentieth Century 2. The GATT/WTO 2.1 The Design of the GATT/WTO 2.2 The Purpose of Trade Agreements 3. What Do Trade Negotiators Negotiate About? 3.1 Preliminaries 3.2 Evidence from WTO Accession Negotiations 4. Tariff Bargaining in the GATT/WTO 4.1 Theory 4.2 Torquay Round Bargaining Records 5. Tariff Bargaining without GATT/WTO Rules 5.1 Theory 5.2 Quantitative Trade Modeling of Uruguay Round Tariff Bargaining 5.3 Interpreting Trump's (One-Sided) Trade War 6. The GATT/WTO as an Incomplete Contract 6.1 Rules 6.2 Disputes 6.3 The Non-Violation Clause II. Meeting the Challenges of the Twenty-First Century 7. The Rise of Large Emerging Markets 7.1 Rebalancing Market Access Commitments 7.2 Reconsideration of the Level of Market Access Commitments 7.3 The Latecomers Problem 8. Climate Change 8.1 Climate Policy and Trade Agreements 8.2 Carbon Border Adjustments 8.3 Negotiation Linkage 9. Digital Trade 9.1 What Is Digital Trade? 9.2 What Are the Policies That Affect Digital Trade? 9.3 Digital Trade in Goods 9.4 Digital Trade in Services 9.5 Digital Trade and the Design of the WTO 10. The Rise of Offshoring and Global Value Chains 10.1 GVCs and Deep Integration 10.2 What the Rise of GVCs Means for the Design of Trade Agreements 11. The Push toward Regulatory Convergence 11.1 A Model of Regulatory Heterogeneity and Firm Delocation 11.2 Mutual Recognition When Consumption Externalities Are Absent 11.3 Deep Integration in the Presence of Consumption Externalities 11.4 The Push for Regulatory Convergence and the Design of the WTO III. The Future of the Rules-Based Multilateral Trading System 12. The Elephants in the Room 12.1 The Clash of Sovereignty and Globalization 12.2 The Declining Hegemon 12.3 The WTO's Role in Preparing for the Next Pandemic 13. A World Trading System for theTwenty-First Century 14. Conclusion References Index
