In The News

Brazil Warns on Trade Negotiations with US

Raymond Colitt February 13, 2003
Brazilian officials criticized Washington's recent offer to eliminate all tariffs in the western hemisphere en route to a NAFTA-like free trade agreement. Brasilia is particularly put off by agricultural subsidies and other non-tariff measures that would protect US sensitive markets while allowing penetration of US goods into Latin American markets. Brazil's foreign minister...

By Invitation Only: Cozy Free Trade Deals Subvert Global Integration

Bernard K. Gordon February 13, 2003
Against most predictions, the Bush administration successfully wooed both Singapore and Chile into free trade agreements, with huge perceived benefits for US investors. Paradoxically, this move away from multilateralism and global trade institutions is not in the interest of the US, the world's largest trader. Professor Bernard K. Gordon examines the paradox, and offers some general...

Filmmakers Seek Protection from U.S. Dominance

Alan Riding February 5, 2003
The World Trade Organization has begun a new round of negotiations on trade in services, and European filmmakers, fearful of foreign media giants intruding further into domestic industries, are hosting a cultural convention at the Louvre to campaign for continued cultural protection. Although cultural products are currently exempt from the regulations of the WTO, American and other international...

Will the Doha Round Implode in 2003?

Ernesto Zedillo January 24, 2003
The current round of trade liberalization negotiations suffered major setbacks in 2002. Developed and developing member countries of the World Trade Organization fought over intellectual property rights, agricultural subsidies, and rampant protectionism masquerading as special and differential treatment, among other issues. Here, the director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization and...

Globalization: Concept and Concerns

C. Rangarajan January 6, 2003
Writing for The Hindu, India’s national newspaper, C. Rangarajan outlines the concept of economic globalization and its problems. One of the concerns of the current period of globalization is its connection to unequal distribution of wealth within and between countries. Looking at ‘developing economies,’ and at India in particular, Rangarajan examines the impact globalization has had so far and...

Strict International Patent Laws Hurt Developing Countries

Amy Kapczynski December 16, 2002
In 1998, 39 pharmaceutical companies filed a lawsuit against South Africa. They hoped to stop the government from producing the generic drugs that would have made treatment affordable for the country's AIDS victims. A public outcry ensued, and critics accused pharmaceutical companies of valuing profit over human life. Although these same companies were eventually pressured into dropping...

US Tariff Plan Raises Concern at WTO

Ravi Kanth December 3, 2002
The US proposal to phase out tariffs on industrial goods is meeting with opposition from some members of the World Trade Organization. Many agree with a South Asian trade envoy who criticized the plan’s 'glaring absence of special flexibilities for developing countries with different levels of economic development'. Developing countries worry that revenue flow to their governments will...