Robert Read

Current Research

1. The growth performance of small economies with particular reference to Western Europe, the Caribbean and the Pacific. This work currently encompasses: the economic theory of small states; the impact of e-commerce on growth and development in small states; manufacturing activity; the creation of local FDI linkages in developing small states.

2. The political economy of international trade, particularly with reference to the regulatory role of the World Trade Organization. Most recent work in this area includes The WTO & the Regulation of International Trade: Recent Trade Disputes Between the EU & US (edited with Nick Perdikis) Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2005. My chapters cover GATT/WTO dispute settlement, the banana dispute, the steel dispute and procvess and production methods (PPMs). An article on PPMs is in the Estey Centre Journal of International Law & Trade Policy. An article on US steel protectionism and the recent trade dispute with the EU is forthcoming in The World Economy in Spring 2005. Currently in progress is a project on a critical assessment of the first decade of the WTO with Nick Perdikis et al. My research is focusing on the operation of the dispute settlement procedure.

3. A project for the Foreign Investment Advisory Service (FIAS), part of the World Bank/International Finance Corporation, on Linkages & Flow-On Impacts of Foreign Direct Investment in Pacific Island Economies (with Nigel Driffield), completed October 2003.