Publications /
Book / Report

Back
Download PDF
Summary French Version
Summary Arabic Version
Strengthening the Rules-Based Trading System
Authors
T20 experts
Uri Dadush
May 28, 2019
Related topics: 
Economy
Trade

The world trading system has been remarkably successful in many respects but is presently under tremendous strain. The causes are deep-seated and require a strategic response. The future of the system depends critically on reinvigorating the WTO and policy change in the largest trading nations. Important measures are required to sustain the multilateral trading system, and urgent action is needed to avoid a scenario where the system fragments. The worst scenarios will disrupt global trade and see a world which splinters into large trading blocs (most likely centered around China, the European Union and the United States) and where trade relations are based to a large extent on relative power instead of rules. In such a world the smallest players, such as those in Africa and especially those whose trade depends on unilateral preferences and is least covered by bilateral or regional agreements will be at the greatest disadvantage. All countries will incur enormous costs only to try and reinvent a system that is already in place today under the WTO.

The Policy Center for the New South supports the trade work of the think-tanks that develop the policy brief for the G-20 leaders, the T-20. It does so in a modest way by devoting the time of one of its Senior Fellows and by publishing in this volume the seven policy briefs of the T-20 Task-Force on Trade, Investment and Globalization. 

RELATED CONTENT

  • Download PDF
    What Can Trade Tell Us About Economic Transformation? Composition of Trade and Structural Transformation in African Countries
    Authors
    Mina Baliamoune
    Abdoul‘ Ganiou Mijiyawa
    July 15, 2020
    We explore the effects of exporting manufactures, primary commodities, and food and agricultural products, and we examine the impact of importing capital and semi-capital goods, on structural transformation in a group of 21 sub-Saharan African countries that were covered by the inaugural African Transformation Report (ACET, 2014). The empirical results suggest that the import of capital and semi-capital goods can be a good predictor of structural transformation, while concentration ...
  • Global Protectionism is Hurting Emerging Economies the Most
    Authors
    Datu Sadja Matthew Pajares Yngson
    June 30, 2020
    Unless trade wars end around the globe, the world is headed for the biggest recession in living memory. The crisis arising from the coronavirus will hit fragile economies in Africa, the Pacific, and the Caribbean the hardest. At such a time, the world should be dropping barriers but, instead, new barriers are being built. In the past month, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened retaliation against India unless it released supplies of hydroxychloroquine. Worse still, he got his way ...
  • Is the United States Reopening Safely?
    Authors
    Uri Dadush
    June 12, 2020
    The United States has suffered more COVID-19 casualties than any other country and continues to report large numbers of new cases and deaths, and – as evident recently in stock markets – investors remain extremely sensitive to the epidemic’s shifting trends. As every state reopens, including most recently the New York epicenter, the fates of the American economy and of the global economy depend on whether the United States has put the worst of the epidemic behind it, or whether it w ...
  • Download PDF
    A Cautious Look at Economic Prospects Beyond the Covid-19 Disaster
    Authors
    Uri Dadush
    May 27, 2020
    COVID-19 has delivered a powerful double punch to the chin of the global economy, combining a terrifying pandemic with a collapse in production because of the withdrawal into their homes of half the world’s workers. The uncertainty generated by the medical and economic shock is paralyzing consumers and investors, and the dispersion of short-term economic forecasts is far wider than at any time in modern history, about six times greater than during the Great Financial Crisis. The GD ...
  • Webinar : Political Economy in the North-South relations amid COVID-19
    May 22, 2020
    The COVID-19 pandemic poses unprecedented challenges to the international community and is due to heavily impact the global economy in the short and long run. The virus has infected over 4 million people and caused almost 300.000 casualties globally. During its spreading, mass productio...
  • A Risk-Based Strategy to Reopen the American Economy and Contain the Virus
    Authors
    Uri Dadush
    May 14, 2020
    Confronted with surging unemployment and miles long lines at food banks across the United States, most states have begun reopening the economy. Many of these states are seeing rising numbers of new cases and face a real risk of relapsing into an uncontrolled pandemic. To avoid this outcome, they must adopt a strategy that entails testing, tracing, and isolation of the infected, with priority given to groups and places where the medical impact – reducing infections and saving lives – ...
  • De l’intérêt d’une coopération avancée entre la Maroc et la CEDEAO à l’heure de la guerre contre la pandémie du Coronavirus
    Authors
    Jamal Machrouh
    April 30, 2020
    La Communauté économique des Etats de l’Afrique de l’Ouest (CEDEAO) est souvent présentée comme étant le système d’intégration régionale le plus dynamique du continent africain. Les Conférences des chefs d’Etat et de Gouvernement y sont régulières, les citoyens de la Communauté disposent d’un passeport commun et les discussions sur une monnaie unique sont à l’ordre du jour. Néanmoins, le modèle de la CEDEAO souffre de deux paradoxes majeurs. Les paradoxes africains Le premier pa ...
  • Water content in trade: a regional analysis for Morocco
    Authors
    Eduardo Amaral Haddad
    Fatima Ezzahra Mengoub
    Vinicius A. Vale
    April 24, 2020
    This paper aims at evaluating the virtual water content in trade in an intra-country perspective and discussing potential tradeoffs between the use of natural resources and value added creation. We develop a trade-based index that reveals the relative water use intensities associated with specific interregional and international trade flows. The index is calculated considering the measures of water and value added embedded in trade flows associated with each regional origin-destinat ...
  • L’inflexion de la mondialisation : raison et confusion dans le contexte covid-19
    Authors
    Rachid El Houdaigui
    April 20, 2020
    Le processus de mondialisation, si solide soit-il, se trouve à l’épreuve d’une crise sanitaire mondiale inattendue et brutale. Cette réalité adresse au monde une question qui interpelle autant les décideurs, les managers que les chercheurs : Que pourraient être les effets du Covid-19 sur l’économie politique internationale ? Rupture, continuité ou inflexion ? Une des perspectives qu’il convient de surveiller est celle relative à l’inflexion du processus de la mondialisation. C'est- ...
  • Download PDF
    Le Maroc a-t-il bénéficié de l’accord de libre-échange conclu avec l'Union européenne ?
    Authors
    Rim Berahab
    Uri Dadush
    April 6, 2020
    Depuis l'entrée en vigueur de l'Accord de libre-échange (ALE) entre le Maroc et l'Union européenne (UE), il y a près de deux décennies, les performances des exportations marocaines vers les marchés de l'UE ont été plutôt décevantes, tandis que le déficit commercial du Maroc avec l'UE a augmenté de manière significative. Cela a conduit de nombreux observateurs à percevoir l'accord d'un oeil critique. Cependant, les balances commerciales bilatérales ne sont pas toujours suffisantes po ...