Kent Jones (PhD International Economics) has proposed a new institutional approach for the World Trade Organization (WTO) in a book recently published by Oxford University Press.

In Reconstructing the World Trade Organization, Kent Jones examines the reasons why the WTO can encounter difficulties completing multilateral trade negotiations, and explains how these difficulties could be avoided.

The problem, Jones claims, is due to the institutional structure it had inherited from the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), a structure designed for a limited scope of trade negotiations between smaller numbers of more economically developed and industrialised countries. Jones presents an institutional model of the GATT/WTO system, using it to describe why these organisations exist, and how they are supposed to accomplish their goals.

After completing his PhD in International Economics at the Graduate Institute in 1981, Jones became a member of the faculty at Babson College, Massachusetts, where he is now Professor of Economics. As well as working at the US Department of State as a Senior Economist, he has also served as a visiting professor at the University of Innsbruck, Brandeis University and the Fletcher School at Tufts University. His research has focused largely on international trade policy and the WTO.

Jones’ other publications include Politics vs. Economics in World Steel Trade (HarperCollins, 1986), Export Restraint and the New Protectionism (University of Michigan Press, 1994), Who’s Afraid of the WTO? (Oxford University Press, 2004) and The Doha Blues: Institutional Crisis and Reform in the WHO (Oxford University Press, 2009). He also has articles published in academic journals such as the World Trade Review, Open Economies Review, the World Economy, Contemporary Economic Policy, Aussenwirtschaft and Kyklos.

Please click here if you would like to know more information about Kent Jones’ work or if you are interested in purchasing his book.