Pardee Center Paper Discussed at the WTO

Prof. Kevin Gallagher, a Research Fellow at the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Longer-Range Future and an Associate Professor of International Relations at Boston University, presented the findings of a forthcoming Pardee Center paper on regional trade agreements at the World Trade Organization in Geneva.

Written by Pardee Center Research Fellow Rachel Denae Thrasher and Prof. Gallagher, the paper titled “21st Century Trade Agreements: Implications for Long-Run Development Policy” was presented to the Public Forum of the World Trade Organziation in Geneva by Prof. Gallagher.

The paper examines the extent to which the emerging world trading regime leaves nations the “policy space” to deploy effective policy for long-run diversification and development and the extent to which there is a convergence of such policy space under global and regional trade regimes. The paper finds that there is a great divergence among trade regimes over this question. While South-South agreements provide ample policy space for industrial development, the WTO and EU agreements largely represent the middle of the spectrum in terms of constraining policy space choices. On the far end, opposite South-South agreements, US agreements
place considerably more constraints by binding parties both broadly and deeply in their trade commitments.

The paper, which is currently in printing, will be released and available end-September, 2008. The paper is available for electronic download at the Pardee Center Publications Center or here.