Multilateral Trade Cooperation: What Next?

Bernard Hoekman () and David Vines

No 6458, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: This paper first briefly describes the role of the WTO and its history. It then lays out a simple bargaining model of international negotiations, which can be used for understanding the Doha round of talks. This simple framework is used to distil and discuss a number of potential explanations for the difficulties that have arisen in concluding these talks, as well as a number of systemic questions that confront WTO members. A key question is whether the WTO should concentrate primarily on market access or on further expanding its coverage to deal with regulatory issues or with other domestic policies that may have an impact on trade. Given the difficulties that arise in agreeing on ‘behind the border’ disciplines, we argue that a continued focus on market access and enforcement of market access commitments is likely to prove most fruitful.

Keywords: Doha Round; international cooperation; market access; multilateral trading system; WTO (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F13 F15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-int
Date: 2007-09
View list of references

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.cepr.org/pubs/dps/DP6458.asp (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
Journal Article: Multilateral trade cooperation: what next? (2007)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6458

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.cepr.org/pubs/dps/DP6458.asp

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers
Address: Centre for Economic Policy Research, 53--56 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DG
Series data maintained by ().