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
    • Basra, Hardeep
    Increased Legalization or Politicalization? A Comparison of Accession under the GATT and WTO
    in Journal of World Trade , volume 46 n.4 ,  2012 ,  937-960
    An important task the WTO faces in pursuit of universality is the integration of non-members. Yet, becoming a member of the multilateral trade system is not easy. Accession to the WTO is a complicated and cumbersome process which, on average takes ten years to complete. Drawing from historical institutionalism, the article claims the current politics of WTO accession is better understood with an appreciation of GATT accession. The establishment of the WTO did not bring with it a change in accession procedures. Consequently, it is argued the difficulties and haphazardous process associated with WTO accession is best valued in light of how original accession procedures developed and evolved under the GATT. The paper finds that the current politics of WTO accession have been shaped by a rigid asymmetric path dependency.
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