International Conference on Dynamics of Regional Trade Agreements and WTO: Developing Countries’ Perspectives – Jamia Millia Islamia – New Delhi
Introduction: Engagements of developing countries in WTO and regional trading arrangements are critical to get meaningful market access for efficient utilization of their resources. Many developing economies have succeeded in becoming part of global production chains, which typically
take advantage of the strengths of different regional economies to produce components and assemble completed products. The rise in the use of these production chains has been associated with increased foreign direct investment flows into developing countries (Economic Analytical Unit, 2003b). Trade between developing countries stands to become increasingly important in the years ahead due to higher economic growth in these countries compared to developed countries.
The World Bank projects a real GDP growth rate for developing countries over the period to 2015 of 4.6 per cent, compared with 2.6 per cent for industrial countries (World Bank, 2003a). As a spirit for deeper integration, a set of developed and developing countries formalized GATT into WTO and trade to be governed by WTO rule based regime. Various efforts have been made at WTO forum to get meaningful market access to developing countries in earlier and the present round of WTO negotiations known as Doha Development Round. However, WTO member countries could not find common grounds due to strict positions of developed countries and more informed/articulated positions (compared to earlier round) of developing countries on tariffs, subsidies and NTBs. Hence, Doha Development Round has not achieved success at WTO so far.
Objectives: The objectives of the conference are:
To explore whether FTA/RTA are complementary or substitute for multilateralism as envisaged in WTO. To examine the macro effects of RTA’s on international trade flows, welfare, revenue, poverty, environment etc. To examine the micro effects of RTA’s on small and medium enterprises in terms of exports, output and employment, etc.
To examine the gender dimension of international trade particularly in the context of RTAs and WTO. To highlight the status of RTAs in developing countries and their role in promoting economic development and integration into the global economy. To predict outcome of economic integration in India especially with ongoing FTA engagements. To identify existing constraints and bottlenecks for trade-led development in the region.
Date and Venue: The conference venue will be Department of Economics, Jamia Millia Islamia (A Central University), New Delhi. The proposed date for the conference is December, 3-4, 2009.
Call for Papers: The conference will solicit papers in all areas of macroeconomic and microeconomic theory and empirics having at least one part on trade; trade policy; trade and finance; trade and environment; RTAs and WTO. Authors are advised to submit their paper electronically in MS Word format to Dr. Shahid Ahmed, Email: shahid.eco@jmi.ac.in and shahec@gmail.com .
Paper will be blind refereed by independent reviewer and revised version of accepted papers will be published. Participants are expected to bear travel cost and organizers will bear expenses of local hospitality. In select cases, travel grants may also be extended. If participants are interested to seek travel grants, they are advised to apply separately with justification. Jointly authored papers should be submitted by the person who will present the paper, if it is accepted and only one author may seek travel grant. Decision will be taken by organizers depending on the availability of funds and communicated to authors by November 15, 2009.
Important Dates: Paper Submission Deadline: November 05, 2009
Notification of Accepted Papers: November 15, 2009
Seminar Date: December 3-4, 2009.
Contact:
Jamia Millia Islamia (Central University)
New Delhi-110025
Email: shahec(AT)gmail.com
Contact Numbers: 91-9891344786 / 91-11-26985243
Source: http://www.jmi.nic.in/Events/Events09/events.eco.2009dec3.pdf
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