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Protectionism or retaliation is often argued as the motivation for the increasing use of anti-dumping measures by developing countries. In this research, I address other possible motives for the relentless use of these measures, such as collusion and trade deterrence. The main hypothesis is that price distortions generated by the introduction of anti-dumping policy serve as a departure point for the achievement of the collusive agreement. I develop a theoretical model in which a duopoly compete infinitely à la Bertrand in the importing market and anti-dumping policy serves as a mean to enforce and sustain the collusive outcome. Econometric analysis is performed in order to measure the impact of anti-dumping measures in the Mexican economy. Using a rich panel data of imports I investigate the trade restriction effects of anti-dumping, i.e. trade destruction and trade diversion. Testing for trade harassment effect is also achieved. In depth analysis of the debate between competition policy and anti-dumping policy reform is developed and some recommendations on the application of the competition policy framework are pursed in order to tackle the discriminatory use of the antidumping regime. It considers, however, the need of such an instrument in an environment where production in some sectors is characterized by advantageous conditions that can harm local industries. The research contributes to the literature on antidumping from a developing country point of view and is one of the few works that look in to the effects of antidumping policy in Mexico and puts emphasis on the domestic market structure of the petitioning country.

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This thesis investigates the impact of fair trade on tea producers in the Central Province of Sri Lanka. A comparison study is undertaken between fair and conventional trade farmers to investigate the monetary and non-monetary benefits of fair trade involvement. The study of 7 villages in the Central Province, incorporates 40 fair trade tea producers, who are members of a cooperative, and 40 conventional trade tea producers selling to a local buyer. Undertaken in July 2009, the research analyses quantitative and qualitative data gathered by means of questionnaires and interviews, to examine the different experiences of the two types of producers in terms of monetary and non-monetary benefits. Monetary benefits examined include factors such as improved income, income sufficiency, secondary income activities, pre-finance measures and excess money. Non-monetary benefits examined include education gains, household development and labour hours on tea production. The results are compared with other impact studies with similarities and differences analysed. The empirical results presented suggest that there are no significant differences in tea income between the two groups. However, fair trade producers work fewer hours in tea production and are more likely to report both an improved and excess income. Furthermore, the fair trade producers report improved spending on food and savings and have a more diversified crop. The results are due to the increased productivity, the provision of loans and saving schemes and the increased time available to work on secondary income generating activities either on or off the farm resulting in an overall improvement in living standards. This study contributes to the existing literature on whether and how fair trade is able to improve the well-being of small producers by offering new insights into the importance of cooperative management, working hours, productivity improvement, effective savings schemes and pre-finance arrangements. These findings are considered important to the success of the cooperative and hence to fair trade producers extracting the full benefits of fair trade and as such they are recommended as focus areas for fair trade. New data is included from tea producers in the Central Province of Sri Lanka, a new region for in-depth study and a new context, as the majority of existing studies focus on coffee and banana production.

The effect of trade liberalisation on the balance of trade and balance of payments in developing countries is still ambiguous. Free trade advocates believe that adopting free trade policy and specializing in production will enhance economic growth in both exports and imports, which in turn will have a positive impact on the balance of trade and the balance of payments. In the real world, not all countries that have adopted trade liberalisation have achieved economic growth. Some of them suffered deterioration in the balance of trade because imports grew more than exports did, adding more deficits to the balance of payments. In this case, trade liberalisation will be considered as a constraint on growth. This thesis was designed to explore the impact of trade liberalisation on the economies of Arab Maghreb Union (AMU) countries for fifteen years (1995-2009) in terms of export growth, import growth, the balance of trade, and the balance of payments. H The empirical evidence has revealed some major findings that can be considered strong evidence based on four different estimation techniques: ordinary least square, panel data, panel data with first difference, and Arellano-Bond test. The results show that trade liberalisation did not enhance export growth in AMU countries during the given period (1995 to 2009). In contrast, it had a significant positive impact on import growth during the same period. Moreover, trade liberalisation worsened the balance of trade and the balance of payments during the studied period. Therefore, it seems that trade liberalisation alone has not been enough to promote economic growth. A suitable domestic business environment, well-run government institutions, and supportive government policies are important in order for trade liberalisation to achieve its goals in developing countries.

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This thesis sets out to answer the question: What roles and responsibilities have accrued to the European Commission in relation to its operations within global trade negotiations, how have these been interpreted and pursued, and how have they been affected by changing patterns of interests and institutions in the world trading system? The thesis has as its central empirical focus the activities of the European Commission in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) from 1995 to 2003-that is to say, from the foundation of the Organisation to the failure of the Cancun Ministerial. It focuses on the roles and responsibilities of the Commission within trade negotiations and identifies the ways in which it has been affected both by the interests that it serves, or confronts, and by changes in the broader context of the negotiations themselves. The thesis argues that the need to maintain this complex balance of roles, responsibilities and interests in a changing environment creates patterns of path dependency and a search for consistency that reduces the possibility of creative adaptation on the part of the Commission.

This paper looks at the role of the Committee on Regional Trade Agreements (CRTA) in its examination of regional trade agreements (RTAs) between 1996 and 2010. The rapid proliferation of RTAs led to concerns about the weakening of the multilateral trading system (MTS); it was feared that the rapid growth in the number of bilateral and regional trade agreements (RTAs), such as free trade areas (FTAs) and custom unions (CUs) could pose substantial threats to the multilateral trade system (MTS). This fear led to the creation of the CRTA by the World Trade Organization (WTO) in February 1996, for the examination of RTAs to ascertain their compatibility to the MTS and their conformity to WTO rules. Furthermore, this paper also explores the legal and systemic difficulties faced by the CRTA in the execution of its mandated duties. Nonetheless, the rapid proliferation of RTAs intensified the debate on the merits of RTAs to the MTS, this study, is also a contribution to that debate - the trade creation and trade diversion effects of RTAs, by showing how RTAs could displace trade with non-member nations, while at the same time boosting trade among its own members. Under the auspices of the WTO, as a general rule, the CRTA was to devote a single formal meeting for the consideration of each and every RTA notified to the WTO, formed under the provisions of the general agreement on tariffs and trade (GATT) Article XXIV and the general agreement on trade in (GATS) Article V. The focus of this paper is the role of the CRTA in its examination of RTAs created under the legal provisions and interpretation of GATT Article XXIV and GATS Article V.

Section 337 of the Tariff Act in the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) has been recognised as a mechanism for further strengthening patent protection and competitiveness of US firms (Aoki and Prusa, 1993; Mutti and Yeung 1996). Section 337 has an effective deterrent, the Exclusive Order, which prohibits the imports and lor distribution of imported products based on one or more patents held by US firms that have been infringed. Several studies have shown that there is a strategic motivation behind patent litigation (Lerner, 1995; Somaya, 2003; Harhoff and Reitzig, 2004; Lanjouw and Schankerman, 2004). However, a fuller understanding of how firms react to the enforcement environment has not been fully explored. After reviewing the relevant literature in highlighting the issue of cross-border patent litigation, the contribution of this thesis is to take the viewpoint of a foreign firm from a newly industrialised country to illustrate the issue of the strategic use of trade-relevant patent protection. With this in mind, the main research questions in this thesis are as follows: (1) What issues and interactions have taken place in the trade-relevant patent dispute between Taiwan and the US? (2) What patterns of cross-border patent dispute emerge from the USITC protection mechanism involving in Taiwanese firms? (3) What are the strategic responses of Taiwanese firms to defending a lawsuit in US jurisdiction? For the empirical part of the thesis, a patent litigation dataset was constructed with records extracted from the ITC investigation achieve and LEXIS-Nelson database; and descriptive statistics were computed to uncover the overall patterns of Taiwanese trade-relevant patent litigations and infringed patents. The findings illustrate sharply the characteristics of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) relevant products' competition between American and Taiwanese firms. This was particularly the case after the year 2000 as Taiwanese firms became involved in patent infringement cases as direct defendants rather than as a third party as occurred in the 1980s and 1990s. Specifically, half of the infringed patents in Section 337 investigation cases were located in the classifications of computer hardware and semiconductor devices. Further empirical studies to evaluate how Taiwanese firms respond to the risk of litigation and its various impacts reported is based on a research design that combined insights gained from interviews with in-depth case studies. Following an analysis of interviewee responses, potential impact of US patent disputes of two significant USITC investigations associated with Taiwanese firms were analysed using firm level performance data. The findings appear to support those from other empirical literature about the industry-specific importance of a patent. The case studies illustrate that the role of patent litigation is perceived as a strategic manipulation rather than a protection mechanism in leT industries. Finally, the finding casts doubt on the effectiveness of discriminatory regulation to protect patent rights in the US due to the distortionary effects caused by the strategic motivations of both complainant and defendant.