In this second edition, Lee provides extensive coverage of international trade law from an economic development perspective.

Deep trade agreements (DTAs) cover not just trade but additional policy areas, such as international flows of investment and labor and the protection of intellectual property rights and the environment. Their goal is integration beyond trade or deep integration. These agreements matter for economic development. Their rules influence how countries (and hence, the people and firms that live and operate within them) transact, invest, work, and ultimately, develop. Trade and investment regimes determine the extent of economic integration, competition rules affect economic efficiency, intellectual property rights matter for innovation, and environmental and labor rules contribute to environmental and social outcomes. This Handbook provides the tools and data needed to analyze these new dimensions of integration and to assess the content and consequences of DTAs. The Handbook and the accompanying database are the result of collaboration between experts in different policy areas from academia and other international organizations, including the International Trade Centre (ITC), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and World Trade Organization (WTO).

Reference tool to facilitate broader understanding and awareness of relationship between environment and trade which can then become the basis on which fair and environmentally sustainable policies and trade flows are built.

Publisher's description: Developing countries are increasingly confronted with the need to address trade policy related issues in international agreements, most prominently the World Trade Organization (WTO). New WTO negotiations on a broad range of subjects were launched in November 2001. Determining whether and how international trade agreements can support economic development is a major challenge. Stakeholders in developing countries must be informed on the issues and understand how their interests can be pursued through international cooperation. This handbook offers guidance on the design of trade policy reform, surveys key disciplines and the functioning of the World Trade Organization (WTO), and discusses numerous issues and options that confront developing countries in using international cooperation to improve domestic policy and obtain access to export markets. Many of the issues discussed are also relevant in the context of regional integration agreements. Separate sections of the handbook summarize what constitutes sound trade policy; the major aspects of the WTO from a development perspective; policy issues in the area of merchandise trade and the liberalization of international transactions in services; protection of intellectual property rights and economic development; new regulatory subjects that are emerging in the agenda of trade talks; and enhancing participation of developing countries in the global trading system.

This new edition of Trade in Goods is an authoritative work on international trade by one of the most influential scholars in the field. It provides a comprehensive and detailed analysis of every WTO agreement dealing with trade in goods. The focus of the book is on the reasoning behind the various WTO agreements and their provisions, and the manner in which they have been understood in practice. It introduces both the historic as well as the economic rationale for the emergence of the multilateral trading system, before dealing with WTO practice in all areas involving trade in goods. It contests the claim that the international trade agreements themselves represent 'incomplete contracts', realized through interpretation by the WTO and other judicial bodies. The book comprehensively analyses the WTO's case law, and it argues that a more rigorous theoretical approach is needed to ensure a greater coherence in the interpretation of the core provisions regulating trade in goods. This second edition readdresses and moves beyond the discussion of the GATT presented in the first edition to assess in significant detail every trade in goods agreement at the WTO, both multilateral as well as plurilateral. The book is written to be accessible to those new to the field, with an authoritative level of detail and analysis that makes it essential reading for lawyers and economists alike.

This publication was prepared by the UNCTAD secretariat to commemorate the first three decades of the Trade and Development Report (TDR) - UNCTAD's main flagship publication - whose first edition was published in 1981.Part one of this publication traces the key issues relating to the global economy and development strategies discussed in various TDRs over the past three decades. It also shows how the ideas, analytical perspectives and policy proposals expressed in the TDR have differed from "mainstream" thinking, and how they have evolved in response to new challenges arising from global economic developments.The salient features reviewed in this publication are: the concept of interdependence, which has shaped the TDRs' policy analyses and recommendations over three decades; the approach of the TDR to macroeconomic and financial policies in both developed and developing countries; the TDRs' contribution to the debate about the shortcomings and the need for reform of global governance in trade, finance and macroeconomics; the TDRs' assessments of the failures and successes of development policy, as well as their recommendations for development strategies, taking into account lessons from past experiences; and Issues that remain topical and others that may become relevant for analysis in future TDRs.Part two of the publication comprises the contributions of the experts who participated in a panel discussion on "Thinking Development: Three Decades of the Trade and Development Report", a pre-Conference event for UNCTAD XIII, which took place in Geneva on 20 February 2012.