General-Agreement-on-Tariffs-and-Trade Books

Dr. Zechner's book on the economic impact of free trade agreements contains a very valuable in-depth analysis of the issues, very helpful for international trade policy advisors, economists, government officials, globalisation activists, students and everyone interested to learn more about trade economics.

The author analyses the advantages of elimination of trade barriers between a developed and developing country and discusses the potential negative impacts and pertinent mitigation strategies. One very important, yet often overlooked area, namely environmental issues, is discussed in detail in a separate chapter dedicated to labor and environment. The book contains an analysis of the Chilean economy and the country's past and present economic policies that opened the way to free trade agreements.

It is well organized and for the busy reader, the very well written introduction provides an excellent guide to the contents of each major section of the book. It also presents, in 10 well organized appendices, a wealth of historical and economics based technical information that will help the non-specialists understand the relevant issues.

Dr. Zechner does an excellent job in explaining the complex economic issues around a free trade agreement. It should be read by everyone who always wanted to understand the benefits and costs of free trade as discussed in trade rounds at Doha and Cancun.

Dr. Zechner does an excellent job of describing NAFTA's
possibilities. Although it is not inevitable, NAFTA may
expand and this text is essential reading for policy
makers considering the implications of a free trade zone
extending into South America.

Thought provoking with interesting historical perspectives. Without a doubt, this book is the seminal work on the Millennium Round!

Part of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research's "AEI Studies on Services Trade Negotiations" series, The Doha Round And Financial Services Negotiations by Sydney J. Key (Federal Reserve Board Division of International Finaces, Washington, D.C.) is a close study analyzing the involvement of the World Trade Organization and the effects of the General Agreement on Trade in Services upon the liberalization and regulation of the financial services sector. The Doha Round And Financial Services Negotiations covers topics such as e-finance, the three "pillars" of liberalization (national treatment and market access, nondiscriminatory structural barriers, and freedom of capital movements), the repercussions of and pertaining to foreign direct investement, meta-rules that are crucial to developing and applying sound rules to financial systems, and much more. A scholarly and technical treatise, written especially for advanced economics students and field professionals.

An Expert Look at Love, Intimacy and Personal Growth

Ralph Rosnow was my professor when I was a PhD student in the 1970's at Temple U. Most of what I learned in psychology then, now seems naive and useless. The exception is what I learned about what really is science and how research can be "scientific" and still be very wrong. I learned from Dr. Rosnow how to tell the difference between bad research and good research. Drs. Rosnow and Rosenthal saw past the smoke and mirrors, artifacts and biases, and proposed a better methodology and understanding. Recently, I had a question about my research design and analysis. I pulled "Beginning Behavior Research" off my shelf and found it valuable. it is a great book for the beginning and seasoned researcher.

The publication of Thomas W. Zeiler's book, Free Trade Free World: The Advent of GATT is indeed timely. As recent WTO meetings in Seattle showed, there is much confusion in the minds of many people about what has happened to world trade in recent years. Zeiler's book deals with the establishment of the GATT and provides an excellent background to the early years of the free trade debate. Covering the period from 1940 to 1953, it shows that controversy and disagreement were common at the birth of the GATT and globalization much as they are today.

Zeiler, associate professor of history at the University of Colorado at Boulder, provides a well-researched and detailed history of the very difficult discussions between the United States and its allies over free trade during and immediately after the Second World War. His book is well written and interesting. It shows that not only did the American supporters of free trade have to battle their foes at home, they had to constantly struggle to convince many other leaders of democratic nations that free trade was in their best interests, as well as America's. Economic arguments about the benefits of free trade to the world community often ran up against the realities of politics as well as the economic belief that protection was better for the public good. In the United States it was hard to argue with opponents of free trade that allowing in cheaper imports such as shoes helped to improve employment when workers in shoe factories lost their jobs.

Negotiations between the United States, Great Britain, and the British Commonwealth about the relaxation of protectionist measures began during World war 2. Britian and her former colonies devoted considerable time and energy to trade issues even when the British were involved in a life and death stuggle with Nazi Germany. Idealists were looking to the future when peace and an open world economy might prevail. Protection, of course, continued after the war. Much of the blame for the failure of the free trade negotiations at this time can be laid on the British and their Commonwealth. Facing considerable economic hardship as a result of the war, British politicians believed that protectionist policies would help their economy recover and allow them to regain some of their former world dominance.

In the United States, during the period covered by this book, presidents Franklin Roosevelt, Truman, and Eisenhower were all in favour of free trade but with different degrees of conviction. Their strongest opposition came from Republican members of Congress. Roosevelt supported free trade because he believed it helped his New Deal but was never a free trade idealist. He had, of course, seen protectionist policies cause world trade to decline by 60% in the early years of the Great Depression. Truman was much more convinced of free trade's merits, having believed in its value since his high school days, but also "backed protectionism when needed." Eisenhower, who became President near the end of this history, had a much broader world perspective than his predecessors. He supported free trade unequivocally, believing it would strengthen the non-communist world in the global struggle to win the hearts and minds of Third World leaders.

Considerable international opposition to free trade came from Britain and her Commonwealth. In 1932, as a result of the "Ottawa Agreement", Britain had established a trade system that discriminated against non-Commonwealth members. Naturally, Commonwealth leaders wanted this to continue and opposed any move towards free trade. In Britain, opposition to free trade crossed party lines as it did in the United States. Churchill, the Conservative Party leader, who had seen his country's power dissolve during the war, believed "that Britain's postwar salvation lay in regulated, not free trade". Clement Attlee, the socialist, Labour Party leader, who became Prime Minister immediately after the Second World War in 1945, believed in protection and regulated trade as a matter of principle.

Meetings to establish free trade took place between 1946 and 1948 in London, Geneva, and Havana. At Geneva, from April to October 1947, a draft charter for an International Trade Organization (ITO) was created. This was approved in Havana in November by fifty-three nations, most of the trading world with the exception of the Soviet Union. However, these nations were not truly committed to free trade and the ITO died. Replacing it was the less comprehensive General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which was signed by twenty-three nations on October 30th, 1947. The realities of Cold War politics destroyed the idealism that had surfaced during the war. American business interests and politicians who had strongly supported free trade throughout this period as a means of improving employment and prosperity had to be contented with a compromise that blended free trade with protectionism.

This book is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the world trade system in detail. Wiener's smooth prose and meticulous attention to detail ensure that this work will stand as a valuable contribution to the studies of both trade professionals and scholars.

This superbly written book is rich in theoretical as well as empirical models of quotas and licenses in international trade. It provides very useful and clear insights for policymakers in trade issues, and should be a MUST for international trade researchers in textiles and apparels. I highly recommend it!

If you are a student who have studied international law, especially international economic law, this book could give you a way where to find material sources.

This book is a collection of theses of Jackson who is the scholar who cannot be ignored before studying GATT/WTO. These theses were selected, and important in studying GATT/WTO. Before writing a thesis related to them, this book is very useful material for the researcher.

To my knowledge, Professor Benitah's book is the first of its kind to try to provide a comprehensive methodology with which not just to understand what the law is, but also why it is the way it is. The innovative theory of "attenuation of entitlements" runs throughout this book as a kind of explanatory tool which helps the reader to make sense of substantive as well as procedural rules applicable to the subject of subsidies. By this, the author has succeeded in making his book a resource no one interested in the field of international economic law-whether as a student, a practitioner or academic-can afford to work without.It does not just provide a consistent and powerful analytical tool to understand the subject of subsidies; it also makes the reader think and appreciate how competing domestic and global political-economic interests interact in shaping the evolution of subsidies regulation so far and into the future.

Journal of World Trade, June 2002 issue, Melaku Geboye Desta, CEPMLP, University of Dundee.

Any library collection specializing in trade matters should include this fresh account of the world of subsidies, and its global impact in the GATT/WTO context. This well-conceived, technical but readable, and quite authoritative analysis of the law of subsidies will be an important adjunct to any academic course or law practice...

Newsletter UN21 Interest Group of the American Society of International Law, issue 25, June 2002.

"Professor Benitah's book deeply renews the analysis of the international economic law of subsidies in the multilateral commercial system" Thiebaut Flory, University Paris XII, European Chair Jean Monnet.

"..a fascinating analysis of international economic law and of the theory of law. .... this book invites us to a renewed analysis of the role of the `judge' in this painful period of globalization of the world economy " Laurence Boy, Professor, University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis, Revue Internationale de Droit Economique (1999/I)

" One cannot deny the importance.... of this book" Joel J Robichaud , Canadian Yearbook of International Law (1998)

" The innovative approach of this book offers to the reader a thorough analysis of the legal treatment of subsidies under the GATT/WTO system." P. Martin-Bidou, Revue Generale de Droit International Public, (Tome 103/1999/1)

"An in-depth analysis of a significant issue of International Economic Law" Armand de Mestral, McGill University, Canada.

" The approach of this book is innovative and throws an unexpected light on rules or decisions which one believed known. This setting in context is extremely interesting and, without inevitably agreeing with all interpretations of the author, the expert will discover in this book a stimulating vision, very surprising sometimes, which should prove to be very fruitful." J.-F. Abgrall, Ministry of International Affairs, Quebec; Director-General of Commercial Policy during the Uruguay Round

" Written clearly, this book is doubly original..." Revue du Marche Commun et de l'Union Europeenne (no 435, February 2000)

The Book Coping with Trade Reforms: A Developing -Country Perspective on the WTO Industrial Tariff Negotiations is a significant and fascinating contribution to the existing literature on International Trade. It outlays the various issues and the current state of play of trade liberalization negotiations. The book gives an overall view of the negotiations particularly focusing on the existing trade barriers and the different tariff reduction proposals and mechanisms. It analyzes the immediate impacts the proposed liberalization policies might have on export revenue, change in imports, government revenues and the welfare changes particularly for developing countries. The book also addresses the issue of the economic adjusting cost that countries have to incur while adapting to these trade liberalization policies. The book points out the main gainers and losers in international trade with the implementation of the proposed liberalization policies. The book in overall is a credible attempt to reply to the many questions or dilemmas looming around the future of international trade and can be considered as a good policy outliner to countries, particularly developing countries, involved in the current round of trade negotiations.