The Custom-House

A blow to "unfair" "fair trade": the WTO Appellate Body ruling on "zeroing"

"Zeroing" is bad and, on April 18th, the WTO's Appellate Body did something about it.  For the bottom line, go to the end of this post.

By way of background:

On-line international economics book catalog

Washington Law/Reiter's bookstore in D.C. does a mail-order business in books in trade and economics.   They have special lists for books on development economics and international economics . 

The web page doesn't have a lot of background on the individual titles.  But there are a lot of them.  If I'm interpreting the page correctly, the international economics list has over 1,000, generally recent, books.

April Doha mini-ministerial canceled

Frances Williams reports that the April 30 deadline for reaching an agreement on Doha Round negotiating modalities will be missed: WTO admits defeat on Doha deadline (Financial Times, April 23):

Who's to blame for Budweiser?

The HedgeFundGuy explains, over at Mahalanobis.

How to end the subsidies to "Big Sugar"

Ivan Osorio, Barbara Rippel, and Fran Smith explore some of the options for the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI): Is the U.S. Sugar Problem Solvable?:

The United States' sugar policy has a long history of supporting sugar producers, and the current system has its roots in the agricultural programs of the Great Depression. The policy has been widely criticized both at home and abroad for supporting a relatively small group of sugar producers at the expense of consumers, taxpayers, sugar-using industries, and the environment. The program relies on restricting sugar imports to keep domestic prices high, which especially hurts those developing countries that are low-cost producers of sugar. The artificially high price also provides incentives for domestic sugar producers to increase production into environmentally sensitive areas.

This paper explores the possibility of reform of the sugar program by considering other agricultural reforms at home and abroad. The cases examined are New Zealand's agricultural policy reform in the mid-1980s, changes to the United States peanut quota program through a buyout program, and the buyout program for tobacco quota holders in the United States.

Timely new book on foreign investment and national security

The Institute for International Economics (IIE) is offering a timely new book on the national security implications of foreign investment: US National Security and Foreign Direct Investment .

I think that's it for Doha

Rob Portman's move from USTR to Office of Management and Budget looks like a recognition by the Administration that it's unlikely to see significant additional progress in the Doha Round.  (Changes raise doubts on US commitment to Doha , Alan Beattie, Financial Times, April 18).  At the same time, his move makes further progress less likely.

Portman is to be replaced by his deputy, Susan Schwab:  (Schwab’s nomination a signal of continuity, Alexander Kliment , Financial Times, April 18, 2006).

Schwab may be very capable.  But turnover, and the associated reorganization, can't be good at this point.  Moreover, she will lack Portman's stature with foreign negotiators and Congress.  This quote from Kliment says a lot:

New African HIV infection rate estimates

New research is suggesting that UN estimates of HIV infection rates in parts of Africa may have been high. 

The new research also indicates that AIDS remains a very serious public health problem in much of Africa, and Southern Africa remains an HIV/AIDS disaster. 

Craig Timberg reports in the Washington Post: How AIDS in Africa Was Overstated. Reliance on Data From Urban Prenatal Clinics Skewed Early Projections (April 6)

UNAID agency estimates of HIV infection rates in East and West Africa have been very high:

"Aid for trade"

Small, poor, countries can have a hard time engaging with the world trading network. 

Their trade related administration often lacks the physical and human capital to facilitate exports or imports of goods at reasonable cost, or to allow effective participation in negotiations with other countries on how trade arrangments should operate.

Rising Chinese wages

China's boom is driving up wages, and reducing her competitive advantage.  For the lowest costs, go to Vietnam or Bangladesh.

David Barboza reports: Labor Shortage in China May Lead to Trade Shift (NYT, April 3).