Guide To the WTO and GATT: Economics, Law and Politics

In this very thorough but highly accessible book an eminent legal scholar clearly explains today's system of international trade law and international economic relations as it has evolved over the last six decades. Focusing inevitably on the major innovations that came with the inception in 1994 of the World Trade Organization (WTO) with its various agreements, the analysis also provides in-depth commentary on the intense debate over important matters than remain unsettled. Among the aspects of the subject treated in depth are the following:

• the WTO dispute settlement mechanism;
• services the General Agreement on Trade in Services (OATS);
• investments the Agreement on Trade-Related Investment Measures (TRIMS);
• intellectual property rights -the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS):
• areas still covered by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1947;
• the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) concept;
• special provisions relating to agriculture and textiles;
• sanitary and phytosanitary measures:
• technical barriers to trade;
• pre-shipment inspection: and import licensing procedures.

The author describes all the major precedent-setting cases in WTO jurisprudence and analyzes their effect to date and the trends they have set in motion, particularly as they relate to perceived discrimination against developing nations which must balance their WTO commitments with the structural adjustments demanded by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) regimes.

Arguments within the WTO and among scholars over such controversial matters as regulation of competition, setting of labour standards, and environmental controls as well as thorny concerns raised by enforcement of intellectual property rights and limitation on investments are held up to close scrutiny for their legal merits. This rigorous approach, in addition to its uncompromising detail and revealing clarity, assure this book of a place in the practice library of lawyers, officials, and policymakers in the field for many years to come.