IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wbrwps/818.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Do rules control power? GATT articles and arrangements in the Uruguay Round

Author

Listed:
  • Finger, Michael J.
  • Dhar, Sumana

Abstract

Many complain and offer evidence that in recent years the GATT system has become more power-oriented, less stable, and less equitable. A concern to reverse this drift was one of the motives that brought the international community to agree to undertake the Uruguay Round. Rules control power, assumed the signers of the Punte del Este declaration, therefore elaborating and extending GATT rules would move the international community toward a fairer, more stable international trading system. Finger and Dhar contend that the opposite is true. Particularly in the 1980s, the elaboration and application of GATT rules has been an exercise in the application of economic and political power, not in its control. GATT rules, in theory, are there to limit national trade restrictions. Finger and Dhar contend that in fact things work the other way around: national practice comes first, and determines what the GATT rules mean. GATT's rules do not put limits on national practices, but provide international santion for these practices. Such rules are not part of the thereforelution but are part of the problem. Theirs is a situation-specific argument, say Finger and Dhar, not a generic one. Their target is not"rules", nor is it"GATT". Rather, it is the GATT rules.

Suggested Citation

  • Finger, Michael J. & Dhar, Sumana, 1992. "Do rules control power? GATT articles and arrangements in the Uruguay Round," Policy Research Working Paper Series 818, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:818
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/1992/01/01/000009265_3961002054305/Rendered/PDF/multi0page.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/8338 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. J.M. Finger & H. Keith Hall & Douglas R. Nelson, 2002. "The Political Economy of Administered Protection," Chapters, in: Institutions and Trade Policy, chapter 8, pages 81-95, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. repec:fth:michin:219 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Anjaria, Shailendra J, 1987. "Balance of Payments and Related Issues in the Uruguay Round of Trade Negotiations," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 1(4), pages 669-688, September.
    5. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/8338 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Finger, J. Michael, 1990. "The GATT as international discipline over trade restrictions : a public choice approach," Policy Research Working Paper Series 402, The World Bank.
    7. Jackson, J.H., 1988. "The Gatt Consistency Of Export Restraint Arrangements," Working Papers 219, Research Seminar in International Economics, University of Michigan.
    8. Brian Hindley, 1988. "Dumping and the Far East Trade of the European Community," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(4), pages 445-464, December.
    9. Finger, J Michael & Nogues, Julio, 1987. "International Control of Subsidies and Countervailing Duties," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 1(4), pages 707-725, September.
    10. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/8338 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/8338 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nelson, Douglas, 2006. "The political economy of antidumping: A survey," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 554-590, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Finger, J. Michael, 1991. "The origins and evolution of antidumping regulation," Policy Research Working Paper Series 783, The World Bank.
    2. Chong-Hyun Nam, 1993. "Protectionist U.S. Trade Policy and Korean Exports," NBER Chapters, in: Trade and Protectionism, pages 183-222, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Angelika Eymann & Ludger Schuknecht, 1996. "Antidumping Policy In The European Community: Political Discretion Or Technical Determination," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 8(2), pages 111-131, July.
    4. Jagdish Bhagwati, 1989. "Trade Policy and Protectionism: A Conversation with Jagdish Bhagwati," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 15(3), pages 173-176, Jul-Sep.
    5. Czinkota, Michael R. & Kotabe, Masaaki, 1997. "A marketing perspective of the U.S. International Trade Commission's antidumping actions--an empirical inquiry," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 169-187, July.
    6. Maurizio Zanardi, 2004. "Antidumping law as a collusive device," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 37(1), pages 95-122, February.
    7. Bin, Sheng, 2000. "The Political Economy of Trade Policy in China," Working Papers 10/2000, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Management, Politics & Philosophy.
    8. Jae W. Chung, 1998. "Effects of U.S. Trade Remedy Law Enforcement under Uncertainty: The Case of Steel," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 65(1), pages 151-159, July.
    9. Metiu, Norbert, 2021. "Anticipation effects of protectionist U.S. trade policies," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    10. Kara M. Reynolds, 2009. "From Agreement to Application: An Analysis of Determinations under the WTO Antidumping Agreement," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(5), pages 969-985, November.
    11. Nogues, Julio J. & Baracat, Elias, 2005. "Political economy of antidumping and safeguards in Argentina," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3587, The World Bank.
    12. Benjamin Liebman, 2004. "ITC voting behavior on sunset reviews," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 140(3), pages 446-475, September.
    13. Zhou, Dongsheng & Vertinsky, Ilan, 2002. "Can protectionist trade measures make a country better off? A study of VERs and minimum quality standards," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 55(3), pages 227-236, March.
    14. Robert E. Baldwin & Jeffrey W. Steagall, 1993. "An Analysis of Factors Influencing ITC Decisions in Antidumoing, Countervailing Duty and Safeguard Cases," NBER Working Papers 4282, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Aksel Erbahar & Yuan Zi, 2015. "Cascading Trade Protection: Theory and Evidence from the U.S," CTEI Working Papers series 04-2015, Centre for Trade and Economic Integration, The Graduate Institute.
    16. Robert E. Baldwin & J. David Richardson, 1987. "Recent U.S. Trade Policy and Its Global Implications," NBER Chapters, in: Trade and Structural Change in Pacific Asia, pages 121-156, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Fredriksson, Per G. & Vollebergh, Herman R. J. & Dijkgraaf, Elbert, 2004. "Corruption and energy efficiency in OECD countries: theory and evidence," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 207-231, March.
    18. Hansen, Wendy L & Prusa, Thomas J, 1997. "The Economics and Politics of Trade Policy: An Empirical Analysis of ITC Decision Making," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(2), pages 230-245, May.
    19. Kozloff, Keith & Runge, C. Ford, 1991. "International Trade In The Food Sector And Environmental Quality, Health, And Safety: A Survey Of Policy Issues," Staff Papers 13325, University of Minnesota, Department of Applied Economics.
    20. Patrick Messerlin, 1988. "Antidumping Laws and Developing Countries," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-01064775, HAL.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:818. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Roula I. Yazigi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dvewbus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.