The WTO Promotes Trade, Strongly But Unevenly
IMF Working Papers, September 1, 2003
Source details
- Canonical URL
- The WTO Promotes Trade, Strongly But Unevenly
Other formats
Bibliographic details
- Authors: Shang-Jin Wei, Arvind Subramanian
- Published: September 1, 2003
- Series: IMF Working Papers
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9781451859430.001
Main findings
- The GATT/WTO has had a powerful and positive impact on trade.
- GATT/WTO membership for industrial countries has been associated with a large increase in imports estimated at about 40 percent of world trade.
- The same increase has not been observed uniformly for developing country members; developing countries that joined after the Uruguay Round have benefited from increased imports.
- WTO membership effects are asymmetric across sectors, with substantially greater imports in sectors where barriers are low.
Institutional explanation and historical context
- The results are consistent with the history and design of the institution:
- The institution presided over significant trade liberalization by the industrial countries except in sectors such as food and clothing.
- Developing countries were largely exempted from obligations to liberalize under the principle of special and differential treatment.
- The WTO attempted to redress this by imposing greater obligations on developing country members that joined after the Uruguay Round.
Analytical emphasis and keywords
- Subject areas: Customs unions, Imports, International trade, Tariffs, Taxes, Trade barriers, Trade liberalization
- Keywords: Customs unions, developing country member, GATT, Global, gravity, Imports, members in the WTO, special and differential treatment, Tariffs, Trade barriers, Trade liberalization, WP, WTO, WTO coefficient, WTO document, WTO dummy, WTO effect, WTO exporter, WTO member, WTO variable
By Shang-Jin Wei and Arvind Subramanian; September 1, 2003.
Content in this bundle
- The WTO Promotes Trade Strongly But Unevenly - WP/03/185