Overview

Following the Doha Ministerial Declaration in November 2001, the developed countries catapulted the WTO into an intensive, three-year round of further international trade negotiations. In this concise guide to the issues involved, B L Das, one of the world‘s leading authorities on the WTO, explains the new Work Programme which guides these negotiations. Far from constituting a ‘development agenda‘ as the North touted it to be, he argues that issues of great importance to developing countries like textiles and balance of payments do not even figure in the Work Programme. Instead, it gives special attention to those areas which are of interest to the major developed countries, thereby further increasing the imbalance in the WTO system between North and South. Indeed the Work Programme looks set to benefit these countries who have given nothing in return to the developing countries. The author explains and assesses the implications of each issue likely to figure in the new negotiations. These include not simply the major items that were the subject of the Uruguay Round - agriculture, services, subsidies, anti-dumping, regional trade arrangements, dispute settlement, industrial tariffs, intellectual property rights ; but also new areas (the so-called Singapore issues) like investment, competition policy, transparency in government procurement and trade facilitation as well as electronic commerce. He makes concrete policy proposals for the revision of the existing WTO Agreements in order to remedy their manifest defects from the point of view of protecting and improving the development prospects of those poor countries who are already so disadvantaged in the global economy.

Full Product Details

Author:   Bhagirath Lal Das
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint:   Zed Books Ltd
Dimensions:   Width: 13.50cm , Height: 0.70cm , Length: 21.50cm
Weight:   0.230kg
ISBN:  

9781842772997

ISBN 10:   1842772996
Pages:   128
Publication Date:   01 May 2003
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Out of Stock Indefinitely
Availability:   Awaiting stock  

Table of Contents

Preface 1. The New Work Programme of the WTO Introduction Implementation Issues Agriculture Services Market Access for Non-Agricultural Productions TRIPS Relationship between Trade and Investment Interaction between Trade and Competition Policy Transparency in Governmental Procurement Trade Facilitation WTO Rules and Dispute Settlement Trade and Environment Electronic Commerce Trade, Debt and Finance Trade and Transfer of Technology 2. Some Suggestions for Improvements in the WTO Agreements Introduction Dispute Settlement Understanding Agreement on Agriculture General Agreement on Trade in Services Agreement on TRIMS (Trade-related Investment Measures) Agreement on TRIPS (Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) Agreement on Textiles and Clothing Understanding on Balance of Payment Provisions Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures Agreement on Anti-Dumping Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade Agreement on Rules of Origin Annex: The WTO Doha Ministerial Declaration, adopted 14 November 2001

Reviews

Author Information

Bhagirath Lal Das served in the Indian Administrative Service, from where he retired as a Secretary to the Government of India. He was India's Ambassador and Permanent Representative to GATT and Deputy Permanent Representative to UNCTAD in Geneva. During that period he also functioned as Chairman of the GATT Council and of the GATT Contracting Parties. Later he spent five years with UNCTAD as its Director of International Trade Programmes.

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

No review item found!

Add your own review!

Countries Available

All regions