Bulletin n. 2-3/2012
October 2012-February 2013
CONTENTS
  • Section A) The theory and practise of the federal states and multi-level systems of government
  • Section B) Global governance and international organizations
  • Section C) Regional integration processes
  • Section D) Federalism as a political idea
    • Klein-Bernard, Pablo - Huerta-Goldman, Jorge A.
    The Cushioned Negotiation: The Case of WTOs Industrial Tariff Liberalization
    in Journal of World Trade , volume 46 n.4 ,  2012 ,  847-878
    This article is about the World Trade Organization's Doha Round negotiation on industrial tariffs - i.e., WTO law making process. We make a number of observations on the most recent negotiating text, the December 2008 modalities, based on simulations of its implementation for different types of WTO members. The imports of developed countries and advanced developing countries, which represent one third of the WTO membership but 95% of world trade, are liberalized to a small degree. The other two thirds of the WTO membership are covered under a complex web of special categories and exceptions that calls into question their future participation in the international trading system. Moreover, the tariff reductions are to be achieved in a highly differentiated manner across WTO members. All the different cases and carve outs in the text are like cushions that members use to avoid undertaking a more significant trade liberalization, but in doing so they also defeat the Doha mandate in terms of the degree of ambition required.
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