Influence of WTO and Global Dynamics on Trade Flows: A Machine-Generated Literature Overview

This book is a machine-generated literature overview that explores the impact of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on international trade and its development. It looks at international trade before and after 1995 when WTO was established. It highlights the journey of the reciprocity-based reforms under WTO that were expected to help the developing and less developed countries (LDCs) more vis-à-vis their developed counterparts, given the existence of systemic and structural bottlenecks in the latter territories. The enabling steps were further expected to promote exports from developing countries and LDCs in line with their comparative advantage patterns, enhance the wage level and in turn, facilitate development of local population. The book showcases how during the first decade after WTO inception, a considerable progress was made for facilitating exports from the lower and lower-middle income countries through crucial provisions like less than full reciprocity (LTFR), Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), support measures under Aid for Trade, zero duty preferences under Special and Differential Treatment (SDT) and so on. However, the pace of WTO reforms has slowed down in the aftermath of the sub-prime crisis in 2008-09 and subsequent focus on formation of regional trade agreements (RTAs). In particular, in the aftermath of Covid-19, a trend towards de-globalization has been noticed, with considerable ramifications for the development of lower-income countries. In this background, there is a need to analyze how the deepening of trade flows and the subsequent de-globalization waves in the global canvas have traversed different paths in different continents and draw the appropriate lessons for the understanding the trade-development interlinkage therein. With insightful observations from the human editors, this machine-generated overview would be of interest to academicians, policy research community, advisory research community, and students ofinternational trade globally.

Debashis Chakraborty is at present a Professor at Department of Economics, IIFT Kolkata Campus. He received his Ph.D. Degree from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. He has a rich experience of more than sixteen years in teaching and five years of experience in policy research. Before joining IIFT, he was associated with Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies (RGICS), a policy Thinktank. His area of research interest includes International Trade and WTO issues, Environmental Sustainability and Indian Economic Development. Dr. Chakraborty has conducted several research projects and training programmes on regional trade agreements, India’s trade and investment flows, WTO related commitments, topics relating to Indian Economic Development etc. for State and Central Government departments in India as well as for International Funding Agencies. He has published his research both in national and international refereed journals. Of late, he is alsofocusing on popularization of sustainability narrative among readers in wider forums. He has presented his research in both academic and policy forums in India and abroad. For the last ten years, Dr. Chakraborty is Editorial Board member of Foreign Trade Review, which is a comprehensive forum for disseminating theoretical and empirical research on international trade and investment related issues.

Oindrila Dey is at present an Assistant Professor at Department of Economics, IIFT Kolkata Campus. She is also a Fellow at Global Labour Organization (GLO), Maastricht, Netherlands. She was a Visiting Fellow of the China India Visiting Scholar Program (Ford Foundation funded), Asian Century Foundation, Ashoka University. She has previously been associated with FLAME University, Pune, University of Mumbai, the University of Calcutta, and Jadavpur University. Currently, Oindrila is working on applied microeconomic theory in behavioural industrial organization, development economics and international trade. She concluded a projects on MSME clusters for Department of Industry, Commerce & Enterprises, Govt of West Bengal, on perception of commuters regarding the feasibility of the electric public transport system in India, the results of which have been reported multiple times in print media. She has participated and presented papers in prestigious international conferences like the European Association of Research in Industrial Economics (EARIE) at the University of Maastricht, Netherlands and Asia Meet for the Econometric Society (AMES) at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She has published a number of peer- reviewed research articles in international and national journals. She teaches courses on microeconomics, mathematical economics, and business economics. She is a Visiting faculty at MDI, Murshidabad and Jadavpur University. Dr. Dey has completed her PhD from Department of Economics, Jadavpur University, Kolkata. She has been awarded with national scholarship (UGC-NET JRF) from University Grants Commission and worked as full-time PhD research fellow at the Department of Economics, Jadavpur University. She has Masters’ degree (M.A.) in Economics from Jadavpur University and is a merit holder in her Bachelor degree (B.Sc.) in Economics (hons.), which she completed from University of Calcutta.