International cooperation on non-tariff measures in a globalized world

The focus of this section is international cooperation on non-tariff measures (NTMs) and services measures. The section first reviews the economic rationale for such cooperation in the context of trade agreements. It then looks at the practice of cooperation in the areas of technical barriers to trade (TBT), sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures and domestic regulation in services. The third part deals with the legal analysis of the treatment of NTMs in the GATT/WTO system and the interpretation of the rules that has emerged in recent international trade disputes. The section concludes with a discussion of the challenges of adapting the WTO to a world where NTMs are a growing concern.