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New Book Offers Diverse and Timely Perspectives on Trade

New Book Offers Diverse and Timely Perspectives on Trade

WASHINGTON (Sept. 3, 2009) – An important new book, which features insights from WTO Director General Pascal Lamy, United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard, and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles B. Rangel, has been published by Kluwer Law International BV, the Netherlands. Stewart and Stewart Managing Partner Terence P. Stewart is the book’s editor.

Opportunities and Obligations: New Perspectives on Global and U.S. Trade Policy, is an extraordinary collection of essays by leading trade officials, academic experts, and major stakeholders [Author Bios]. The essays are divided into three topics: (1) the global trading system and its future direction; (2) perspectives on the direction of U.S. trade policy; and (3) the global food crisis and how the trading system can help be part of the solution.

The book was developed as part of the Stewart and Stewart’s 50^th anniversary in late 2008. It marks yet another contribution by Stewart and Stewart to the debate occurring around the world on the future direction of trade, the U.S. position in the global economy and how the trading system can help reduce poverty and not exacerbate problems flowing from natural events.

Its release at a time of continued pause in the Doha Development Agenda negotiations and during the first year of Barack Obama’s presidency can offer insight into the challenges and opportunities facing the world trading system and the United States.

“I am delighted that so many leading trade policy experts and major stakeholders were willing to make a contribution to an understanding of some of the important questions of our day,” said Stewart. “I hope this book will spark debate and be a resource to policy makers, scholars, journalists and the broader public. I am certain the diverse views presented add to our understanding of the complexities of the global trading system and the needs of the various players in that system.”

The following is a summary of the books contents.

(1) the global trading system and its future direction

The range of views presented provides diverse perspectives on the future direction of the trading system, the challenges of the Doha Round, the aspirations of developing countries within the system, the future direction of rules, rights and obligations, the challenges faced by countries trying to join the WTO. Authors in this part of the book include:

Mr. Anders Ahnlid, Director-General for Trade in the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs;

Mr. Michael Gifford, former Chief Agricultural Trade Negotiator for Canada

Mr. Anwarul Hoda, past Member of India’s Planning Commission and former Deputy Director-General of the GATT and then the WTO

Amb. Nestor Stancanelli, Senior Ambassador of the Argentine Foreign Service, Deputy Secretary for International Economic Negotiations

Mr. Paulo Estivallet de Mesquita, Deputy Permanent Representative of Brazil to the WTO

Mr. Gerard Depayre, former Deputy head of the European Commission’s Delegation in Washington, D.C. and former Deputy Director-General for EU Trade Policy and Relations with North America, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, NAFTA and APEC

Dr. Jan Woznowski, former Director, Rules Division for the GATT and then for the WTO

Mr. Terry Collins-Williams, former Deputy Permanent Representative to the WTO for Canada

Prof. Petros C. Mavroidis, the Edwin B. Parker Professor of Law at Columbia Law School, New York; Professor of Law at the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland and Research Fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research

Dr. Xiangchen Zhang, is the Minister and Deputy Permanent Representative of China’s Mission to the WTO and was previously the Director General for WTO Affairs of the Ministry of Commerce of China.

Mr. Vinod Rege is a former Director, Technical Assistance Division for the GATT and has been an advisor to Geneva-based Ambassadors from Commonwealth developing countries.

Mr. Andrew L. Stoler, Executive Director of the Institute for International Trade; former Deputy Director General of the WTO; former Deputy Permanent Representative of the United States to the GATT and then WTO

Amb. Andrii I. Goncharuk, Deputy Chief of Staff of the President of Ukraine and Principal Foreign Policy Advisor

Mr. Terence Stewart is the managing partner of Stewart and Stewart. Along with two of his colleagues, Ms. Amy Dwyer Ravitz and Mr. Patrick McDonough, they have written extensively on WTO matters.

(2) perspectives on the direction of US trade policy

Leaders from the past Administration, both sides of the aisle in the U.S. House of Representatives, labor, business, a leading NGO as well as leading journalists and writers offer views about where U.S. trade policy should go to secure America’s economic future. Authors include:

Amb. Susan C. Schwab, former U.S. Trade Representative

The Hon. Charles B. Rangel, (D-NY) Chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means

The Hon. David Dreier, (R-CA), Ranking Member, U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Rules

Mr. Leo W. Gerard, International President of the United Steel, paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial, and Service Workers International Union, AFL-CIO, CLC

Mr. Thomas J. Donohue, President and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Ms. Patricia Forkan, President of the Humane Society International

Dr. Pat Choate, political economist and author; directs the Manufacturing Policy Project; teaches Advanced Issues Management at George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management

Mr. Bruce Stokes, international economics columnist for the National Journal, journalism fellow at the German Marshall Fund, and fellow at the Pew Research Center.

(3) The global food crisis and how the trading system can help be part of the solution

The run up of food prices internationally in 2007-08 and the efforts by many countries to restrict exports in the name of providing for citizens at home created some severe challenges for the global institutions and raised, within trade circles, the question of how trade could make a contribution to the alleviation of hunger and not exacerbate the problems of hunger. Papers in part three of the book look at the issue from the perspective of the WTO, the European Commission, and the United Nation’s World Food Program. Authors include:

Mr. Pascal Lamy, Director General of the WTO; former Trade Commissioner of the European Commission

Ms. Mariann Fischer Boel, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development for the European Commission

Ms. Josette Sheeran, Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Program

Mr. Terence P. Stewart, Managing Partner, Law Offices of Stewart and Stewart

Click here for information about the book from the publisher

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