By the year 2000, world trade in merchandise goods and commercial services will probably exceed $8 trillion, or $2 trillion more than in 1995. By that date, the World Trade Organization (WTO) may well have more than 130 member countries that account for about 95 percent of world trade. The millennium also will mark an important milestone for the WTO: new WTO negotiations on agriculture and services will be under way with the goal of achieving the progressive liberalization of remaining barriers to trade.

This monograph explores how WTO members should prepare for these negotiations. It...

Trade experts from around the world discuss challenges confronting the World Trade Organization (WTO) as it charts its course for the years ahead. The authors offer recommendations to deal with important issues such as investment, competition and antidumping policy, environment and trade, labor standards, and Chinese accession to the WTO. Analysis of the implementation of the Uruguay Round accords, the breadth and scope of remaining barriers to trade that could be the subject of new liberalization efforts, the compatibility or inconsistency of regional and multilateral initiatives, and the...

Negotiations on a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) were officially launched at the Santiago Summit in April 1998. This study examines the prospects for the FTAA in light of recent economic and political turmoil in Latin America and the continuing impasse over US "fast-track" authority. The study evaluates progress to date in the trade talks and proposals for accelerating the target date of January 2005 for concluding negotiations, and it takes into account the results of the April 2001 Quebec Summit. It surveys regional interests in the wide-ranging negotiating agenda and assesses the...

Free trade agreements (FTAs) are proliferating in the Asia-Pacific region. For the first time, Korea is pursuing such accords as part of a strategy to restructure its economy and sustain the recovery from its 1997-98 economic crisis. Should it open talks with its largest trading partner, the United States? This study examines the economic and political benefits and challenges of pursuing bilateral FTA negotiations, the impact of a prospective pact on other trading partners, on the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, and on the multilateral trading system.

NAFTA entered into force in 1994 after a bitter Congressional debate. But NAFTA in operation has proved no less controversial than NAFTA before ratification, for both supporters and opponents of trade liberalization have cited experience with the agreement to justify their positions. To provide a factual basis for this ongoing debate, the authors evaluate NAFTA's performance over the first seven years, comparing actual experience with both the objectives of the agreement's supporters and the charges of its critics. They then examine future challenges and opportunities in the trade and...

In this conference volume, distinguished economists and trade policymakers address the US initiatives to enter into free trade negotiations with a broad range of countries in the Asia-Pacific region, the Western Hemisphere, and Africa. The sheer number of these initiatives is unprecedented and has provoked major policy questions concerning US interests in the negotiations, the setting of priorities among the many contenders for concluding free trade agreements (FTAs) with the United States, the objectives of those trading partners, and the implications that these agreements could have for...

This volume analyzes the economic effects of a prospective free trade agreement between the United States and Colombia. The study uses the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) model of world trade and economic activity to analyze the expected trade and other economic impacts of the prospective FTA and to examine bilateral trade and investment flows, bilateral trade frictions, and implications of the prospective accords for the bilateral, regional, and global trade relations of the two countries.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a big deal in the making. With the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations at an impasse, the TPP negotiations have taken center stage as the most significant trade initiative of the 21st century. As of December 2012, negotiators have made extensive progress in 15 negotiating rounds since the talks began in March 2010, though hard work remains to finish the deal in the coming year or so. Despite this effort, however, the TPP is not well understood. In part, the reason lies in the dynamism of the TPP initiative. Unlike other free trade pacts, the...

NAFTA remains a centerpiece of US trade-policy debate, but its provisions have sacrificed environmental concerns for the sake of trade liberalization. This timely volume analyzes the national policies of the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The authors explain how the competing priorities of province, state, or government agendas can slow coordination measures to curtail emissions throughout North America. But, North American cooperation could serve as a model for how developed and developing countries can mutually benefit from an international climate change agreement. Emission reduction...

Negotiations toward a North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA) began in June 1991. This book assesses both the substances and the form of a prospective NAFTA. Part One examines the objectives of the United States, Mexico, and Canada in the NAFTA negotiations; the potential shape and contents of the agreement (including dispute-settlement and institutional issues); its possible extension to third countries; and its implications for multilateral trade negotiations and the GATT.

Part Two examines the broad economic implications of a NAFTA for trade, investment, and employment; labor and...