48 CFR 25.504-2 - WTO GPA/Caribbean Basin Trade Initiative/FTAs.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false WTO GPA/Caribbean Basin... 25.504-2 WTO GPA/Caribbean Basin Trade Initiative/FTAs. Example 1. Offer A 304,000 U.S.-made end... the acquisition is covered by the WTO GPA and there is an offer of a U.S.-made or an eligible product...

On International Trade in Educational Services: An Interpretation of the Regulations and China's WTO Commitments

Science.gov (United States)

Jin, Xi-bin

2006-01-01

The "General Agreement on Trade in Services" (GATS) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) covers educational trade services. Hence, all the regulations of the GATS have to be followed in the international trade of educational services. Having acceded to the WTO, China is starting to fulfill the rights and obligations as a member by…

WTO rules and practices for transparency and engagement with civil society organizations

OpenAIRE

Perez-Esteve, Maria

2012-01-01

In a rapidly changing trade environment, marked by economic slowdown and impasse in the Doha Round, the success of the WTO in promoting and legitimizing the rules-based multilateral trading system rests, to a large extent, on maintaining effective relations with civil society, including non-governmental organisations. This paper provides an overview of the WTO's rules and practices for transparency and engagement with NGOs. First, it looks at both internal and external transparency. Second, i...

Dispute settlement process under GATT/WTO diplomatic or judicial ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This paper probes the mechanisms of the dispute resolution process under the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT). It tries to analyse the evolution of the dispute process which was initially based on diplomatic procedures and gives an account of its evolution and ...

Pengaruh Kebijakan Agreement on Agriculture (Aoa) Oleh World Trade Organization (WTO) Terhadap Kenaikan Impor Kopi Indonesia Tahun 2012

OpenAIRE

Jamaan, Ahmad; Parapat, Johan Kristo

2015-01-01

This research describes and proves the influence of policy AgreementOn Agriculture (AoA) by the World Trade Organization (WTO) for theIndonesian coffee. AoA policy is a policy of international trade in agricultureby WTO.This research uses perspective of pluralism. Pluralist assumes that stateis not unitary actor. This study also uses international trade and internationalorganizations theory.Agreement On Agriculture (AoA) is an international treaty on trade inagriculture in the WTO context. Ao...

The Bali Agreement: Implications for Development and the WTO

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christophe Bellmann

2014-05-01

Full Text Available At the most recent World Trade Organisation (WTO ministerial conference, in December 2013, in Bali, Indonesia, ministers from 160 countries concluded the first multilateral agreement ever negotiated under the auspices of the WTO. After five years of impasse in the moribund Doha Round of trade negotiations, the so-called “Bali package” was enthusiastically welcomed by the world’s governments and international press alike as a critical step towards restoring the credibility of the WTO as a negotiating forum. The centrepiece of the package is without doubt a new agreement on trade facilitation aimed at reducing red tape, and facilitating customs procedures in an effort to cut down the cost of doing business. Other — less far reaching — aspects of the deal focused on food security and a set of issues of particular interest to least developed countries including trade preferences or cotton subsidies. As the dust from the heated Bali negotiations settles, the main challenge for the WTO will now consist in building on this success to re-energise multilateral negotiations and ultimately close the Doha Round. In a world increasingly dominated by regional and bilateral free-trade agreements, members will have to confront the core issues that have divided them for nearly 15 years and find creative solutions to rehabilitate the WTO’s centrality in global trade governance.

Boosting trade finance in developing countries: What link with the WTO?

OpenAIRE

Auboin, Marc

2007-01-01

The paper discusses the efforts deployed by various players, mainly multilateral financial institutions, regional development banks, export credit agencies, to mobilize greater flows of trade finance for developing countries, with a view to help them integrate in world trade. As an institution geared towards the balanced expansion of world trade, the WTO is in the business of making trade possible. Its various functions include reducing trade barriers, negotiating and implementing global trad...

Protection of Non-Trade Values in WTO Appellate Body Jurisprudence

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Henrik

2015-01-01

of economic externality assessments in subsidy determinations. It is, however, still unsettled how other vital values, like those which can fall under peremptory norms, can be protected by the Appellate Body and whether its current approach provides the necessary tools for their protection.......The article suggests that the constitutional scope of the WTO leaves a wide space for the Appellate Body to protect non-trade values. That has, to some extent, materialized in Appellate Body practice; human health and environment are attaining general protection across the WTO treaties....... They are recognized as vital and important values and protected through the exceptions in the WTO treaties. However, the Appellate Body has also found ways to protect those values without resorting to the exceptions. Instead, they are part of an economic argument in national treatment analyses and they are part...

How the World Trade Organisation is shaping domestic policies in health care.

Science.gov (United States)

Price, D; Pollock, A M; Shaoul, J

1999-11-27

High up on the agenda of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) is the privatisation of education, health, welfare, social housing and transport. The WTO's aim is to extend the free market in the provision of traditional public services. Governments in Europe and the US link the expansion of trade in public services to economic success, and with the backing of powerful medico-pharmaceutical, insurance, and service corporations, the race is on to capture the share of gross domestic product that governments currently spend on public services. They will open domestic European services and domestic markets to global competition by government procurement agreements, dispute-settlement procedures, and the investment rules of global financial institutions. The UK has already set up the necessary mechanisms: the introduction of private-sector accounting rules to public services; the funding of public-sector investment via private-public partnerships or the private finance initiative; and the change to capitation funding streams, which allows the substitution of private for public funds and services. We explain the implications of these changes for European public-health-care systems and the threat they pose to universal coverage, solidarity through risk-pooling, equity, comprehensive care, and democratic accountability.

International Organisations and Transnational Education Policy

Science.gov (United States)

Moutsios, Stavros

2009-01-01

This paper focuses on the World Bank/IMF (International Monetary Fund), the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) and the WTO (World Trade Organisation) as institutions of transnational policy making. They are all at present making education policies which are decisively shaping current directions and developments in…

Economic Effects of Russia’s Trade Liberalization: Russia’s WTO Accession and FTAs with EU and Korea

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chang-Soo Lee

2008-06-01

Full Text Available This paper estimates the economic impacts of the various liberalization scenarios of Russia (accession to the WTO, Russia-EU FTA, and Korea-Russia FTA using GTAP recursive dynamic and capital accumulation models. To compare liberalization gains from goods liberalization with those from goods-and-services liberalization, the original GTAP database is adjusted by inputting Australian sectoral indices as barriers in the service trade. The major findings and implications of this paper are as follows. First, without simultaneous improvement of market institutions, Russia's liberalization gains from its accession to the WTO are not so great. Second, the inclusion of the services sector in addition to the goods sector in the WTO liberalization scenarios does not greatly expand Russia's economic benefits from trade. This is quite different from the case of China's accession to the WTO. Third, Russia's liberalization gains from the Russia-EU FTA are not so great, either. This result is in contrast to that of CEEC's accession to the EU, where the CEEC enjoys large gaThis paper estimates the economic impacts of the various liberalization scenarios of Russia (accession to the WTO, Russia-EU FTA, and Korea-Russia FTA using GTAP recursive dynamic and capital accumulation models. To compare liberalization gains from goods liberalization with those from goods-and-services liberalization, the original GTAP database is adjusted by inputting Australian sectoral indices as barriers in the service trade. The major findings and implications of this paper are as follows. First, without simultaneous improvement of market institutions, Russia's liberalization gains from its accession to the WTO are not so great. Second, the inclusion of the services sector in addition to the goods sector in the WTO liberalization scenarios does not greatly expand Russia's economic benefits from trade. This is quite different from the case of China's accession to the WTO. Third, Russia

Managing the Trade-Public Health Linkage in Defence of Trade Liberalisation and National Sovereignty: An Appraisal of United States-Measures Affecting the Production and Sale of Clove Cigarettes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tapiwa Victor Warikandwa

2014-11-01

Full Text Available Under the legal framework of the World Trade Organisation (WTO, countries have great flexibility to unilaterally adopt environmental regulations that have effect within their territories only. However, the same discretion does not apply to measures that adversely affect imports or exports. An absence of clear guidelines on how to address some of the attendant issues poses challenges to the effectiveness of a trade-environment linkage. Not surprisingly, attempts to link the environment and trade have resulted in a number of jurisprudentially significant cases in which the WTO's Panel and Appellate Body have tried to address critical questions about the Organisation's capacity to address or manage legal or quasi-legal subjects falling outside the scope of its legal framework. In this regard the Panel and Appellate Body reports in the case of United States - Measures Affecting the Production and Sale of Clove Cigarettes (US-Clove Cigarettes have re-ignited the debate on the Organisation's existential challenge of balancing the rights of the sovereign to freely regulate matters pertaining to health or the environment within its domestic domain with the need to maintain the sanctity of the multilateral trade order. This article demonstrates that in the US-Clove Cigarettes case the WTO Panel and Appellate Body, whilst managing to successfully defend the integrity of WTO Member States' treaty commitments and the overarching importance of trade liberalisation within the organisation's policy foundations even in the context of public health-related regulations, failed to provide any substantive affirmation of the development-related challenges facing developing countries that are part of the WTO family.

“Trade Liberalization with Chinese Characteristics”: Few Notes on PRC’s WTO Membership

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alexandru Butiseacă

2014-06-01

Full Text Available There is a significant amount of published empirical studies that describe the relation of the People’s Republic of China with the World Trade Organization as the vehicle through which this country has reached the goal of opening further its domestic economy by freeing its foreign trade. If those ruling the Chinese people’s destiny saw in the WTO accession, along with the acceptance of its basic rules, a path that will lead them to the benefits and opportunities offered by some sectors’ liberalization, this judgment raises several concerns. An obvious one could be: Why not doing this unilaterally? Benefits might have been consistent. Not only that this would have been much easier, if the will of the Party, but the effects of opening market to other nations, within or outside the WTO, could have spurred earlier and stronger. Noteworthy is that many much economically freer countries are not yet members of the WTO. Then, if it is considered that the accession to this organization, by the values, rules and principles that it promotes, will allow any domestic economy to thrive, why do we assist to China’s failure in fulfilling all the WTO membership criteria and in complying with all the rules? In our opinion, Chinese authorities tried to accommodate pragmatically some liberalization to inspire trustworthiness for FDI with a boost for national companies still benefiting from public support and newly opened markets, thus seeking not pure freedom, but wise access to the workings of managed world trade.

DOHA Negotiations on Agriculture and Future of the WTO Multilateral Trade System

OpenAIRE

Matthews, Alan

2013-01-01

The WTO Doha Round of trade negotiations was launched in 2001 and after twelve years of negotiations members seem unable to bring it to a successful conclusion. An attempt to deliver an ‘early harvest’ of deliverables at the 9th WTO Ministerial Conference in Bali in December 2013 does not appear likely to be more successful. This paper describes the stage that the negotiations have reached in agriculture and the value of what is currently on the table. It reviews the agricultural agenda for t...

A View on Future Roles of The WTO: Should There be More Soft Law in The WTO

OpenAIRE

Mitsuo Matsushita

2014-01-01

It has been more than ten years since the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) was initiated and there has been little significant progress in negotiations. Is the World Trade Organization (WTO) losing its relevance in the governance of the international trade order? The writer argues that, despite this pessimistic picture, there will be roles of the WTO in building a new international trade system. Although the WTO has accomplished a tremendous success in the dispute settlement area, it has failed ...

WTO Members' Commitments in Education Services

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Jian

2009-01-01

The establishment of World Trade Organization is in line with the conclusion reached at the end of the Uruguay Round in April 1994 by the bulk of the world's trading nations. WTO is in charge of managing multilateral trading system. WTO's "General Agreement on Trade in Services" (GATS) requires member nations to comply with the following…

WTO confidential: the case of asbestos.

Science.gov (United States)

Castleman, Barry

2003-01-01

The World Trade Organization (WTO), established in 1995, adjudicates "trade disputes" between member nations in cases with human rights, cultural, environmental, and public health significance. Throughout the resolution process and even after a case's conclusion, little of what happens is made accessible to the public. However, it is one thing to criticize the WTO for its lack of transparency from outside the process and another to critically examine what was withheld from disclosure and what dangers that presents. This is the inside story from a scientific adviser to one party in a WTO case, who analyzes what happened from a public health point of view. The analysis concludes that the public health justification for banning asbestos was accepted in the end by WTO economists, despite the WTO's bias in favor of the party (Canada) making the free trade challenge (to public health legislation), despite the WTO's lack of expertise in science, medicine, engineering, and public health, and despite important erroneous statements made to the WTO under the cover of confidentiality. The case nevertheless illustrates that the WTO's threat to national sovereignty could never withstand the light of day if the limitations and dangers of the process were open for all to see.

The safety regime concerning transboundary movement of radioactive waste and its compatibility with the trade regime of the WTO

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Strack, L.

2004-01-01

There is now extensive international law which regulates or prohibits the transboundary movement of radioactive waste. It seems likely that the trade restrictive provisions of the safety regime could be justified under the scope of Article X XI or X X GATT(general agreement on tariffs and trade). If a legitimate non proliferation issue were involved it is likely that any WTO (world trade organization) dispute settlement organ would allow governments the use of exceptions. Thus, the emerging international radioactive waste regime seems reconcilable under the WTO system. However, further clarification by the political, not the dispute settlement, institutions of the WTO would remove any remaining uncertainty by reaffirming the requirements of current law. Achieving sustainable development requires a coherent framework of global environment and economic governance. (N.C.)

The World Trade Organization and organic food trade

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Daugbjerg, Carsten

2012-01-01

disagreement on whether the WTO's Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (addresses food labelling) covers production standards based on ethical values such as those defining organic food standards. Another problem is that two sets of international standards for organic food exist—the Codex Alimentarius...... guidelines and the standards of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements. Finally, many certification bodies are private organisations certifying on the basis of government standards. This blurs the distinction between private and public and questions whether WTO rules apply...

Dispute Settlement in the World Trade Organization (WTO): An Overview

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-08

given date, is prima facie inconsistent with Article 23 because in some cases it mandates a USTR determination—and statutorily reserves a right for...threat of violative determinations and consequently the prima facie inconsistency was removed because of U.S. undertakings, as set forth in the Uruguay...procedure for withdrawing trade sanctions imposed by a complaining Member where the defending Member believes it has fulfilled its WTO obligations . As a

WTO law and economics and restrictive practices in energy trade : The case of the OPEC cartel

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Marhold, Anna

2016-01-01

The World Trade Organization cannot deal comprehensively with restrictive export practices maintained by energy cartels such as the OPEC. The main reason for this is the absence of competition rules in the multilateral trading system. However, in spite of the fact that the WTO does not have rules on

78 FR 27279 - WTO Dispute Settlement Proceeding Regarding Indonesia-Importation of Horticultural Products...

Science.gov (United States)

2013-05-09

... Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization (``WTO Agreement''). That request may be found at www... the World Trade Organization, at www.wto.org . Comments open to public inspection may be viewed at www... OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE [Dispute No. WTO/DS455] WTO Dispute Settlement...

Unification of roles of the World Trade Organization (WTO and International Financial Institutions (IFIs in Education: The maintenance of global neoliberal hegemony?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anita Trisnawati Abbott

2009-03-01

Full Text Available Education is viewed as an instrument for development. Therein lies the importance of education for social change. It is education that makes people aware of the situation around them. Yet, in a different way, education is also an instrument to maintain hegemony. At the international level, the institutions of the World Trade Organization (WTO and the International Financial Institutions (IFIs, such as the World Bank (WB, and International Monetary Fund (IMF are crucial to the determination of the real meaning of education; whether or not education is an instrument for development for maintaining hegemony. The WTO system is arguably more than simply an international institution, but rather it is a center of hegemonic power. The emergence of neoliberalism has been accompanied by the coercion of hegemonic power that results in deleterious effects on human life. In the education sector, through the provision of the WTO General Agreement of Trade and Services (GATS, trade barriers in education are eliminated. Not only education is becoming globalized but also increasingly becoming a competitive commodity. Thus, the commodification of education means that education serves those who can afford to pay. The controversies surrounding the role of the WTO in the trade of education are significant to the debates about Neoliberal ideology and the problems of governance in the realm of globalization. These debates arise not only because of the actions of the WTO, which is deeply informed by Neoliberal ideology, but also because of the diverse beliefs about world economic governance. Not only the WTO, but also the roles of International Financial Institutions in global education revealed controversies. State intervention, for instance is minimized. Government spending in the education sector is reduced. Privatization and commercialization are encouraged. Social injustice seems to be the source of the presupposition of these controversies. This research

The world trade organisation, human rights and development

African Journals Online (AJOL)

User

M The Political Economy of the World Trading System: The WTO and Beyond .... enhancement of immunizations programmes and other strategies for controlling ... many African countries faced the “problem of poverty” which rendered them ... attendant opportunistic infections typically cost almost 15 times as much as their.

77 FR 38033 - WTO Agricultural Safeguard Trigger Levels

Science.gov (United States)

2012-06-26

... DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Foreign Agricultural Service WTO Agricultural Safeguard Trigger Levels... and trigger levels for safeguard measures provided for in the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement... measures under the safeguard provisions of the WTO [[Page 38034

Trade Union Organisers in Trade Union Organising Strategies: building workplace unionism or reinforcing bureaucracy

OpenAIRE

Looker, Gerard

2015-01-01

This thesis considers the role of union full time officers in union organising strategies. Two decades of promoting union organising influenced by models developed by the AFL-CIO, has failed to arrest the decline of UK trade unions let alone produce evidence of renewal. Focusing mainly on one region in the UKs largest public sector trade union, Unison, the research provides for a detailed account of how organising strategies affect union work, presenting thick and deep data from full time off...

76 FR 11553 - WTO Dispute Settlement Proceeding Regarding United States-Anti Dumping Measures on Corrosion...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-03-02

... Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization (``WTO Agreement'') concerning antidumping... World Trade Organization, http://www.wto.org . Comments open to public inspection may be viewed on the... OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE [Docket No. WTO/DS420] WTO Dispute Settlement...

76 FR 52045 - WTO Dispute Settlement Proceeding Regarding United States-Anti-Dumping Measures on Diamond...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-08-19

... Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization (``WTO Agreement'') concerning anti-dumping measures... of the World Trade Organization, http://www.wto.org . Comments open to public inspection may be... OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE [Dispute No. WTO/DS422] WTO Dispute Settlement...

77 FR 44706 - WTO Dispute Settlement Proceeding Regarding China-Measures Related to the Exportation of Rare...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-07-30

... Establishing the World Trade Organization (``WTO Agreement''). That request may be found at www.wto.org... available on the Web site of the World Trade Organization, www.wto.org . Comments open to public inspection... OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE [Dispute No. WTO/DS431] WTO Dispute Settlement...

77 FR 33015 - WTO Dispute Settlement Proceeding Regarding India-Measures Concerning the Importation of Certain...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-06-04

... Establishing the World Trade Organization (``WTO Agreement'') with the Government of India (``India... Trade Organization, www.wto.org . Comments open to public inspection may be viewed on the www... OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE [Dispute No. WTO/DS430] WTO Dispute Settlement...

78 FR 58378 - WTO Dispute Settlement Proceeding Regarding Anti-Dumping and Countervailing Measures on Large...

Science.gov (United States)

2013-09-23

... Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization (``WTO Agreement'') concerning antidumping and [[Page... available on the Web site of the World Trade Organization, at www.wto.org . Comments open to public... OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE [Dispute No. WTO/DS464] WTO Dispute Settlement...

77 FR 18296 - WTO Dispute Settlement Proceeding Regarding India-Measures Concerning the Importation of Certain...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-03-27

... Establishing the World Trade Organization (``WTO Agreement'') concerning antidumping measures prohibitions... available on the Web site of the World Trade Organization, www.wto.org . Comments open to public inspection... OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE [Dispute No. WTO/DS430] WTO Dispute Settlement...

77 FR 2119 - WTO Dispute Settlement Proceeding Regarding China-Anti-Dumping and Countervailing Duty Measures...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-01-13

... Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization (``WTO Agreement'') with the People's Republic... of the Appellate Body, will be available on the Web site of the World Trade Organization, www.wto.org... OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE [Dispute No. WTO/DS427] WTO Dispute Settlement...

75 FR 82130 - WTO Dispute Settlement Proceeding Regarding China-Subsidies on Wind Power Equipment

Science.gov (United States)

2010-12-29

... World Trade Organization (``WTO Agreement''), the United States requested consultations regarding... Trade Organization, http://www.wto.org . Bradford Ward, Deputy General Counsel. [FR Doc. 2010-32868... OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE WTO Dispute Settlement Proceeding Regarding China...

78 FR 12414 - WTO Dispute Settlement Proceeding Regarding United States-Measures Affecting the Importation of...

Science.gov (United States)

2013-02-22

... Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization (AWTO [email protected]). That request may be found at www.wto... the World Trade Organization, at www.wto.org . Comments open to public inspection may be viewed at www... OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE [Dispute No. WTO/DS447] WTO Dispute Settlement...

77 FR 20476 - WTO Dispute Settlement Proceeding Regarding China-Measures Related to the Exportation of Rare...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-04-04

..., 2012, in accordance with the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization (``WTO... World Trade Organization, www.wto.org . Comments open to public inspection may be viewed on the www... OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE [Docket No. WTO/DS431] WTO Dispute Settlement...

76 FR 12400 - WTO Dispute Settlement Proceeding Regarding China-Countervailing and Anti-Dumping Duties on Grain...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-03-07

... settlement panel under the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization (``WTO Agreement... on the Web site of the World Trade Organization, http://www.wto.org . Comments open to public... OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE [Dispute No. WTO/DS414] WTO Dispute Settlement...

WTO Reform: Background, Conditions and Prospects

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tatyana M. Isachenko

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Maximizing the benefits of international division of labor and sharing the achievements of innovative development is possible only with the existence of a strict system of rules and regulations. Such system would enable fair regulation of international trade, ensure the transparency of market access and make it possible to challenge discriminatory measures, as well as to maintain certain measures to protect the interests of domestic producers. The creation of the multilateral trading system has started with the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT and was subsequently developed in the documents and codes, the decisions of the negotiating rounds. Since 1995, a set of rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO became the basis of the multilateral trading system. All rules are worked out at the multilateral level. However, in recent years the negotiations within the WTO has slowed down, that affected the quality and speed of decision-making on key issues of global development. That provokes the discussion it on a certain crisis of the WTO as the main regulator of world trade, and therefore the need to provide both institutional and substantive reforms.

76 FR 68809 - WTO Dispute Settlement Proceeding Regarding United States-Anti-Dumping Measures on Certain Shrimp...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-11-07

... Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization (``WTO Agreement''). That request may be found at www... of the Appellate Body, will be available on the Web site of the World Trade Organization, www.wto.org... OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE [Dispute No. WTO/DS422] WTO Dispute Settlement...

78 FR 16754 - WTO Dispute Settlement Proceeding Regarding United States-Anti-Dumping Measures on Certain Shrimp...

Science.gov (United States)

2013-03-18

... Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization (``WTO Agreement''). That request may be found at www... the World Trade Organization, at www.wto.org . Comments open to public inspection may be viewed at www... OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE [Dispute No. WTO/DS429] WTO Dispute Settlement...

Trade rules and exchange rate misalignments: in search for a WTO solution

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vera Thorstensen

2014-09-01

Full Text Available The debate on the link between trade rules and rules on exchange rates is raising the attention of experts on international trade law and economics. The main purpose of this paper is to analyze the impacts of exchange rate misalignments on tariffs as applied by the WTO - World Trade Organization. It is divided into five sections: the first one explains the methodology used to determine exchange rate misalignments and also presents its results for Brazil, U.S. and China; the second summarizes the methodology applied to calculate the impacts of exchange rate misalignments on the level of tariff protection through an exercise of "misalignment tariffication"; the third examines the effects of exchange rate variations on tariffs and their consequences for the multilateral trading system; the fourth one creates a methodology to estimate exchange rates against a currency of the World and a proposal to deal with persistent and significant misalignments related to trade rules. The conclusions are present in the last section.

75 FR 20670 - WTO Dispute Settlement Proceeding Regarding United States-Use of Zeroing in Anti-Dumping Measures...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-20

... settlement panel under the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization (``WTO Agreement... of the World Trade Organization, http://www.wto.org . Comments will be placed in the docket and open... OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE [Docket No. WTO/DS402] WTO Dispute Settlement...

75 FR 27614 - WTO Dispute Settlement Proceeding Regarding United States-Measures Affecting the Production and...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-05-17

... Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization (``WTO Agreement'') regarding a provision of... of the World Trade Organization, http://www.wto.org . Comments will be placed in the docket and open... OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE [Docket No. USTR-2010-0013] WTO Dispute...

77 FR 46788 - WTO Dispute Settlement Proceeding Regarding China-Anti-Dumping and Countervailing Duties on...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-08-06

... the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization (``WTO Agreement'') concerning China... Appellate Body, will also be available on the Web site of the World Trade Organization at www.wto.org... TRADE REPRESENTATIVE [Dispute No. WT/DS440/1] WTO Dispute Settlement Proceeding Regarding China...

77 FR 61818 - WTO Dispute Settlement Proceeding Regarding United States-Anti-Dumping and Countervailing Duties...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-10-11

... OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE [Dispute No. WTO/DS440] WTO Dispute Settlement... under the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization (``WTO Agreement'') with the... certain automobiles from the United States. That request may be found at www.wto.org in a document...

77 FR 53959 - WTO Dispute Settlement Proceeding Regarding Argentina-Measures Affecting the Importation of Goods

Science.gov (United States)

2012-09-04

... Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization (``WTO Agreement'') concerning certain measures imposed... Appellate Body, will also be available on the Web site of the World Trade Organization at www.wto.org... OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE [Dispute No. WT/DS444] WTO Dispute Settlement...

China's WTO commitments in agriculture and impacts of potential OECD agricultural trade liberalizations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Yu, Wusheng; Frandsen, Søren E.

2005-01-01

general equilibrium simulation results show that China’s WTO commitments will lead to increased agricultural imports and slightly declined outputs in China. The resulting efficiency gains will be negated by terms-of-trade losses, leading to quantitatively small welfare impacts. Furthermore, sectoral...... results depend critically on correctly representing the more complex policy measures, such as the tariff rate quotas. The negative output effects on Chinese agriculture can be alleviated/reversed if the rich OECD countries commit to reform their agriculture policies. The present paper concludes that trade...... liberalization should be carried out in both developing and developed countries. Reforming the latter will be particularly helpful in easing the problems facing those developing countries that are carrying out ambitious trade reforms....

Book review: Unholy trinity: The IMF, World Bank and WTO Richard Peet

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M Breitenbach

2014-05-01

Full Text Available In this timely book Richard Peet and his team lay the foundation with an excellent analysis of the process of globalisation and the resultant emergence of the global economy. The authors are especially critical of the increasing influence of institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF, World Bank and World Trade Organisation (WTO on the economy and the consequences experienced by peoples, cultures and the environment. The single ideology of neo-liberalism is blamed for the undesirable outcomes. This book considers concepts of power, political interest, hegemony, discourse, responsibility and the power of practicality, in critically examining the IMF, World Bank and WTO. The conclusion is reached that “all three institutions play roles greatly different from those originally agreed to under the charters that set them up”.

WTO oversight over bilateral agreements: from a notification to an examination process?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mortensen, Jens Ladefoged

2014-01-01

The TTIP will – like other free trade agreements (FTAs) – violate one of the cornerstones of the WTO, i.e. the Most-Favoured-Nation (MFN) principle. However, the multilateral trading system has since 1947 permitted the formation of trading blocks and preferential bilateral trading partnerships....... This contribution asks how the WTO can fulfill its task of ensuring that FTAs do not systematically undermine the multilateral trading order. It focuses on the issue of transparency in the current oversight process and discusses whether the WTO secretariat should be granted a stronger mandate to proactively...... investigate the economic effects of the notified FTAs....

The fight against corruption in international trade: challenges and prospects for WTO rules

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luciana Dutra de Oliveira Silveira

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The economic globalization and market opening process initiated in the early 1990s generated several effects, among them, the growth of opportunities for the practice of corruption in the field of international trade. The present article addresses this debate aiming to discuss the challenges to improve multilateral anti-corruption rules and suggest possible mechanisms that allow a more engaged participation of the WTO in the anticorruption movement.

76 FR 17985 - WTO Dispute Settlement Proceeding Regarding United States-Anti-Dumping Measures on Certain Frozen...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-03-31

... OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE [Dispute No. WTO/DS422] WTO Dispute Settlement... Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization (``WTO Agreement'') concerning antidumping measures regarding certain frozen warmwater shrimp from China. That request may be found at http://www.wto...

78 FR 49789 - Request for Comments and Notice of Public Hearing Concerning Russia's Implementation of Its WTO...

Science.gov (United States)

2013-08-15

... its obligations as a Member of the World Trade Organization (WTO). SUMMARY: The interagency Trade... the WTO are contained in the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization (WTO... OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE Request for Comments and Notice of Public Hearing...

Prinsip Liberalisasi Perdagangan World Trade Organization (WTO dalam Pembaharuan Hukum Investasi di Indonesia ( Undang-undang Nomor 25 Tahun 2007

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

cep Rohendi

2014-08-01

Full Text Available Abstrak Undang-Undang Nomor 25 Tahun 2007 tentang Penanaman Modal (UUPM merupakan peraturan mengenai investasi di Indonesia yang menggantikan Undang-Undang Nomor 1 Tahun 1967 tentang Investasi Asing dan Undang-Undang Nomor 5 Tahun 1968 tentang Investasi Domestik. Undang-undang ini tidak lagi membedakan antara investasi asing dan domestik. Pembentukan undang-undang ini merupakan komitmen Indonesia atas diratifikasinya Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization (WTO Agreement Pasal XVI, Ayat 4 dari Agreement tersebut mewajibkan negara anggota untuk menyesuaikan aturan-aturan atau hukum perdagangan mereka dengan aturan-aturan yang terdapat dalam Annex di WTO Agreement. Prinsip-prinsip WTO yang telah diimplementasikan pada UUPM, yaitu: 1 Prinsip (Most-Favoured-Nation dalam Pasal 1 ayat (1, Pasal 3 ayat (1, Pasal 4 ayat (2, dan Pasal 6 ayat (1; 2 Prinsip National Treatment dalam Pasal 6 ayat (1; 3 Prinsip Larangan Restriksi (pembatasan Kuantitatif dapat ditemukan dalam Pasal 8; 4 Prinsip Perlindungan melalui Tarif yang ditemukan secara tersirat pada asas efisiensi berkeadilan dalam Pasal 3 ayat (1 dan Pasal 14; 5 Prinsip Resiprositas dapat ditemukan dalam Pasal 7 dan Pasal 32; 6 Prinsip Perlakuan Khusus bagi Negara Berkembang diatur dalam Pasal 13. Indonesia telah mengimplementasi prinsip-prinsip tersebut sebagaimana diwajibkan bagi negara-negara anggota WTO. Abstract Law Number 25 Year 2007 is the investment law of Indonesia which replaces Law Number 1 year 1967 on Foreign Investment and Law Number 5 year 1968 on Domestic Investment. This new law no longer distinguishes foreign and domestic investment. The formation of law Number 25 Year 2007 is the commitment of Indonesia upon ratification of the (WTO Agreement. Article XVI paragraph 4 of the Agreement Establishing the WTO requires state parties to adjust their rules or which law of trade with the rules contained in the WTO Agreement Annex. WTO principles which have been implemented in the

75 FR 8177 - WTO Dispute Settlement Proceeding Regarding United States-Anti-Dumping Measures on Certain Shrimp...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-02-23

... OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE [Docket No. WTO/DS404] WTO Dispute Settlement... Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization (``WTO Agreement'') concerning a number of....wto.org contained in a document designated as WT/DS404/1. USTR invites written comments from the...

75 FR 32533 - WTO Dispute Settlement Proceeding Regarding United States-Anti-Dumping Measures on Certain Shrimp...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-06-08

... OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE [Docket No. WTO/DS404] WTO Dispute Settlement... the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization (``WTO Agreement'') concerning a... found at www.wto.org contained in a document designated as WT/DS404/5. USTR invites written comments...

Trade Policies in Central Asia after EU Enlargement and before Russian WTO accession: Regionalism and Integration into the world economy.

OpenAIRE

Richard Pomfret

2005-01-01

This paper analyses the choices between regionalism and multilateralism, and the impact of WTO membership on the five Central Asian countries. The two main sections analyse (1) why the large number of regional trade agreements which the Central Asian countries have signed have had little economic impact, and (2) the consequences for the Central Asian countries of Chinese and Russian WTO membership and the consequences of the current Central Asian applicants’ (Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbeki...

EU sales ban on new cosmetics tested on animals: impact on alternative methods, WTO implications and animal welfare aspects.

Science.gov (United States)

Ruhdel, Irmela W

2004-06-01

In 1993, the European Union (EU) adopted Directive 93/35/EEC, calling for a sales ban on new cosmetic products containing ingredients tested on animals after 1 January, 1998, provided that alternative methods had been developed by then. In May 2000, for the second time, the European Commission postponed that ban. The Commission justified the repeated postponement of the sales ban by saying that no animal-free methods were available, although three in vitro methods were scientifically approved in 1997. With three years delay, these methods have been published and therefore "made available" in the EU. OECD acceptance is still awaited. Another reason for the postponement was the fear of possible World Trade Organisation (WTO) conflicts. However, according to WTO rules, the protection of public morality or animal health could justify a restriction of the free trade principle. From the animal welfare point of view, an unqualified EU sales ban, combined with an animal testing ban, would provide the incentive to further promote the development and acceptance of alternative methods and to prove that ethical standards are legitimate concerns under WTO rules.

AN ANALYSIS OF THE ROLE OF ECONOMIC ACTORS IN THE WTO DISPUTE SETTLEMENT SYSTEM: LEGAL OR POLITICAL ISSUE?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Intan Soeparna

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Economic actors are the main trade player in the World Trade Organization, although, the relation between WTO and economic actor is built by trade regulation that is negotiated among the WTO Members. Nothing in the WTO regulates economic actors to involve directly in the WTO, especially in the WTO dispute settlement system. Nevertheless, the debate amongst experts regarding the involvement of economic actors in the WTO dispute settlement system is unavoidable. This article therefore discusses the possibility of the involvement of economic actors in the WTO dispute settlement system, whether there is legal and political point of views

APEC's Contribution to WTO: Korea's Strategy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wook Chae

1998-06-01

Full Text Available Differential measures towards countries out of the region can threaten the multilateral system and this could be an implicit factor in regionalism. But from the other prospect, economical cooperation among regions would increase the economic welfare and strengthen WTO free trade system. Open Regionalism impelled by WTO can be regarded as a typical example of this. By boosting the liberalization of regional trade investment, APEC promotes the unification of global economy also facilitate the establishment of international economical order. Meanwhile, APEC helps WTO, which aims at free and fair trade, quite a lot. At the same time, by balancing competition and corporation between regions, APEC also remedies several problems of multilateral system which are mainly problems with competition. Korea should be involved positively in implementing and improving the plans which are executed both individually or together in order to promote the in-discrimination in the early stage and extend the idea of open regionalism and win the trust of the foreign countries and improve the commercial environment.

78 FR 11725 - WTO Dispute Settlement Proceeding Regarding Indonesia Importation of Horticultural Products...

Science.gov (United States)

2013-02-19

... (``Indonesia'') under the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization (``WTO Agreement... report of the Appellate Body, will also be available on the Web site of the World Trade Organization at... OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE [Dispute No. WT/DS455] WTO Dispute Settlement...

75 FR 23318 - WTO Dispute Settlement Proceeding Regarding Philippines-Taxes on Distilled Spirits

Science.gov (United States)

2010-05-03

... of a dispute settlement panel under the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization... established by the World Trade Organization (``WTO'') Dispute Settlement Body on April 20, 2010. USTR invites... available on the Web site of the World Trade Organization, http://www.wto.org . Comments will be placed in...

The Impact of China’s WTO Accession on China-Japan-Korea Trade Relation, and its Policy Implications for Regional Economic Cooperation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Inkyo Cheong

2001-06-01

Full Text Available Because of the increased possibility of China's accession to the WTO due to the settlement of negotiations with the U.S. and EU, the world is interested in opening China’s domestic market and taking advantage of the opportunities. Existing papers about China’s entry into the WTO generally analyze the impact on China and the world economy based on his/her assumption of a hypothetical tariff reduction scenario. However, this paper systematically analyzes by sector and region the tariff reduction structures of 5,685 tariff lines that China will actually reduce up until 2005. Based on this, the author employs a computational general equilibrium model in order to estimate the impact of China's trade liberalization on the economies of Northeast Asia and the world economy. According to the results, China's trade liberalization will bring the greatest benefit to China itself and substantial export expansion for Korea and Japan. This paper also states that if these three countries promote economic cooperation using China's accession to the WTO as momentum, it will be necessary to think economic cooperation in the fiber and clothing industries, which are quite effectively promoting intra-regional trade and absorbing workers left unemployed by structural adjustments in China.

77 FR 23539 - WTO Dispute Settlement Proceeding Regarding European Communities and Certain Member States...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-04-19

... OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE [Dispute No. WTO/DS316] WTO Dispute Settlement... Organization (``WTO Agreement''). That request may be found at www.wto.org contained in a document designated... a WTO dispute settlement panel. Consistent with this obligation, USTR is providing notice that it...

Advancing LDCs Interests in the WTO: Strengthening Participation ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

The World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference, held in Nairobi from ... It will include: (i) rigorous evidence-based research on the trade interests of LDCs; ... The Honourable Chrystia Freeland, Minister of International Trade, ...

International trade and climate change policies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brack, D.; Grubb, M.; Windram, C.

2000-01-01

Can the World Trade Organisation deal with climate change? Can a world of liberalised trade implement the Kyoto Protocol? As trade and environment head for a global collision, this book provides an essential guide to one of the key confrontations. It analyzes the conflicts now intensifying. How will climate change policies, including energy and carbon taxation and the removal of energy subsidies, affect overall trade structures and volumes? Will countries tackling climate change become less competitive? What of taxing international aviation and marine fuels? Will the 'flexibility mechanisms' of the Kyoto Protocol, such as emissions trading, fall under WTO disciplines? Can trade restrictions be applied to enforce the Kyoto Protocol? (Author)

The Culture of the WTO: Why it Needs to Change

OpenAIRE

Debra P. Steger

2007-01-01

The WTO is an international organization with its own distinctive culture, which is derived from the practice and experience of the GATT. The WTO, however, is not the old GATT. The multilateral trading system was transformed into an international organization in 1995, and today, the WTO also administers a host of agreements that contain detailed rules regulating international economic activity. The membership of the WTO has grown to 150, the vast majority of which are developing countries. Mo...

Canada loses appeal of WTO panel ruling on minimum patent terms.

Science.gov (United States)

Elliott, R

2000-01-01

In the last issue, we reported on a ruling of a Panel of the World Trade Organization (WTO) that Canada was in breach of the international Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (the TRIPS Agreement). The Panel found that Canada's Patent Act does not provide the minimum patent terms required by the trade agreement. Canada appealed that decision, but on 18 September 2000 the WTO Appellate Body upheld the Panel ruling.

A critque of the WTO jurisprudence on ‘necessity’ / Gisele Kapterian

Index Scriptorium Estoniae

Kapterian, Gisele

2010-01-01

Artikkel uurib kohtupraktika põhjal, kas WTO seadusandlus arvestab piisavalt kaubanduse liberaliseerimise ja õigusnormide autonoomiaga ning kas legitiimsus ja läbipaistvus on tagatud. WTO lepingutest: üldine tolli- ja kaubanduskokkulepe (GATT - General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade); sanitaar- ja fütosanitaarmeetmete rakendamise leping (SPS - Sanitary and phytosanitary measures) ; tehniliste kaubandustõkete leping (TBT - Technical barriers to trade)

International Organisations and Transnational Education Policy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Moutsios, Stavros

2009-01-01

This paper focuses on the World Bank/IMF (International Monetary Fund), the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) and the WTO (World Trade Organisation) as institutions of transnational policy making. They are all at present making education policies which are decisively...... shaping current directions and developments in national education systems. The paper reviews the enhanced role of these institutions in producing education policies and investigates the ideological basis as well as the processes through which these policies are made. It is argued that decisions are taken...... the transnationalisation of education policy making but also the full submission of education to the pursuits of global economy....

77 FR 76165 - WTO Dispute Settlement Proceeding Regarding Argentina-Measures Affecting the Importation of Goods

Science.gov (United States)

2012-12-26

... OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE [Dispute No. WTO/DS444] WTO Dispute Settlement... Organization (``WTO Agreement''). That request may be found at www.wto.org contained in a document designated... after the United States submits or receives a request for the establishment of a WTO dispute settlement...

Eco-innovation, international trade, WTO and climate: Key issues for an ecological industrial policy. Documentation of a workshop on March 12, 2008

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hoppe, Jutta; Kahlenborn, Walter [Adelphi Research, Berlin (Germany); Gather, Corinna (eds.) [Umweltbundesamt, Dessau (Germany)

2009-01-15

Within the meeting of the German Federal Environment Agency (Dessau, Federal Republic of Germany) and the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Natural Safety (Berlin, Federal Republic of Germany) at 12th March, 2008, the following reports were held: (a) Trade Policy and Climate Change - An overview from the perspective of an ecological industrial policy (Jutta Hoppe et al.); (b) Kyoto, Post-Kyoto and the WTO (Malena Sell); (c) Climate change, trade and competitiveness (Aaron Cosby, John Drexhage); (d) Unilateral climate policy and implications for trade policy (Susanne Droege); (e) Trade in environmental goods and services relevant to climate-change mitigation: Opportunities and challenges for new industries in the European Union (Mahesh Sugathan); (f) The relevance of WTO activities and rules in the climate change debate (Ludivine Tamiotti); (g) Like-products, energy standards and labelling (Roland Ismer); (h) EC Trade policy and climate challenges: An overview of EC trade policy approaches to climate change (Ditte Juul-Joergensen); (i) Opportunities and constraints for an integrated European climate and trade policy (Ulrich Hoffmann); (j) Climate change, eco-innovation, and EU trade policy: a critical assessment (Daniel Mittler); (k) Resume: Key Issues for an Ecological Industrial policy (Jutta Hoppe, Walter Kahlenborn).

  Border Carbon Adjustments, the UNFCCC and WTO Rules

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Laura

2010-01-01

  My presentation on Trade and Climate Change concludes that border carbon adjustments can be consistent with both the climate change and WTO rules - depending of course on their design - but that they are not necessarily attractive. ......  My presentation on Trade and Climate Change concludes that border carbon adjustments can be consistent with both the climate change and WTO rules - depending of course on their design - but that they are not necessarily attractive. ...

Contributions of the GATT/WTO to global economic welfare: Empirical evidence

OpenAIRE

Kym Anderson

2014-01-01

This paper surveys estimates of the value of the GATT/WTO's contributions to global welfare through providing a forum for negotiating reductions in policy-induced distortions to trade flows, including through the process of accession by new members. After reviewing measures of the price-distorting effects of trade-related policies, it assesses estimates from global simulation models of the welfare effects of trade liberalizations prior to the WTO's Doha round, including the net benefits and t...

75 FR 62624 - WTO Dispute Settlement Proceeding Regarding United States-Final Antidumping Measures on Stainless...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-12

... request by Mexico under the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization (``WTO Agreement''), the Dispute Settlement Body of the World Trade Organization (``WTO'') has referred a matter concerning... report of the Appellate Body, will be available on the Web site of the World Trade Organization, http...

Ukraine in the WTO: Effects and Prospects

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elena Anatolyevna Bessonova

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Over 6 years have passed since Ukraine became a member of the WTO. The accession has had both positive and negative effects on the country’s economy. The process of accession took place in the absence of any definite economic development strategy. As a consequence, the national manufacturers were hurt in many respects. Ukraine acceded to the WTO on terms rather unfavourable for the country, with little to no regard for the opinions of experts and the business milieu. That resulted in losses for the most vulnerable sectors of Ukraine’s economy. Those are the industries which produce high value-added products, including machine building, consumer goods industry and food-processing. This goes to show that the country’s WTO membership was detrimental for the innovation-oriented industries involving high technologies. The branches of the real sector of the economy which produce low value-added products (such as agriculture, chemical industry, and metallurgy fared better. Despite the patterns of poor judgment shown, there are certain positive effects of Ukraine’s WTO membership. Among them one can mention the possibility to conduct equitable dialogue with the country’s foreign trade partners, enhancement of competitive advantages of the major producers in the real sector, provision of incentives to harnessing new technologies, improvement of production quality in order to enhance the competitiveness on the global market. Ukraine’s experience shows that it is obviously necessary for Russia to make efforts in order to ensure that Russia’s WTO membership would advantage the national economy and the real sector entities. Russia’s WTO membership can give a great impetus to the country development, but only if relevant domestic reforms will adapt Russian economic and legislative institutions to the conditions of the WTO multilateral trade agreements.

77 FR 19745 - WTO Dispute Settlement Proceeding Regarding United States; Anti-Dumping Measures on Certain...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-04-02

... OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE [Dispute No. WTO/DS429] WTO Dispute Settlement..., regulations, administrative procedures, practices, and methodologies. That request may be found at www.wto.org... notice that consultations have been requested pursuant to the WTO Understanding on Rules and Procedures...

The WTO and the Poorest Countries; The Stark Reality

OpenAIRE

Aaditya Mattoo; Arvind Subramanian

2004-01-01

Small and poor countries pose a challenge for the World Trade Organization (WTO). These countries have acquired a significant say in WTO decision-making. However, they have limited ability to engage in the reciprocity game that is at the heart of the WTO, and have limited interests in the broader liberalization agenda because of their preferential access to industrial country markets. Accommodating the interests of the small and poor countries is desirable in itself, but would also facilitate...

78 FR 49787 - Request for Comments and Notice of Public Hearing Concerning China's Compliance With WTO Commitments

Science.gov (United States)

2013-08-15

..., standards and technical regulations, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, government procurement, trade... Concerning China's Compliance With WTO Commitments AGENCY: Office of the United States Trade Representative... with its WTO commitments. SUMMARY: The interagency Trade Policy Staff Committee (TPSC) will convene a...

WTO approves TRIPS amendment on importing under compulsory licensing.

Science.gov (United States)

Herget, Greg

2006-04-01

On 6 December 2005, the World Trade Organization (WTO) amended the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement to allow WTO member states to produce, under compulsory licences, lower-cost generic pharmaceutical products for export to countries that lack domestic production capacity to make such products. The amendment makes permanent the previous decision of 30 August 2003, which has not yet proven to be an effective mechanism to encourage the supply of more affordable medicines and other pharmaceutical products to countries in need.

THE IMPACT OF THE WTO RETALIATION FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF HUMAN RIGHTS LAW

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Intan Innayatun Soeparna

2008-10-01

Full Text Available World Trade Organization (WTO dispute settlement system through Panel and Appellate Body, allows sanction to be imposed when a member is unwilling to bring a WTO-inconsistent trade measure into conformity. According to the Article 22 of Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU, if in a certain case WTO Panel finds a party has failed to make new policy in compliance with the WTO rules, the aggrieved party is entitled to obtain retaliation. The WTO retaliation emerges negative impact for some countries in particular developing or small economic countries. This impact denotes the violation of international human rights law, particularly economic rights that stipulate in Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR. This paper explains the impact that arises when WTO retaliation is imposed to a country whether a developed or developing country, from the perspective of international human rights law.

75 FR 1110 - WTO Dispute Settlement Proceeding Regarding United States-Certain Measures Affecting Imports of...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-08

... OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE [Docket No. WTO/DS399] WTO Dispute Settlement... Organization (``WTO Agreement'') concerning certain measures affecting imports of certain passenger vehicle and light truck tires from China. The request may be found at http://www.wto.org in document WT/DS399/2...

WTO: challenges for the next 20

OpenAIRE

Thorstensen, Vera Helena

2015-01-01

International trade is facing some significant challenges: a serious deadlock to conclude the last round of the multilateral negotiation at the WTO, the fragmentation of trade rules by the multiplication of preferential and mega agreements, the arrival of a new model of global production and trade leaded by global value chains that is threatening the old trade order, and the imposition of new sets of regulations by private bodies commanded by transnationals to support global value chains and ...

Latest News after the Creation of the WTO

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Miquel Montañà i Mora

1995-07-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the Agreement establishing the World Trade Organization (WTO has added any new elements to GATT’s institutional milieu. In the introduction, the paper highlights the fact that the man who first proposed the creation of the WTO during the Uruguay Round negotiations (former Italian Minister Renato Ruggiero was actually elected as the first Head of the Organization. It then analyses the objectives of WTO, its scope of application, its functions, the conditions for membership, its bodies, and the decision making procedure. The core conclusion of the article is that in spite of having been presented to the world as something new, the Agreement establishing the WTO does little more than turn GATT from a de facto international organization into a de iure organization. Apart from this development, the only changes worth mentioning are the abolishment of the grandfather clause and the protocol of provisional application. In addition, it is submitted that far from being an unexpected development, the creation of the WTOwas in fact one of the implicit objectives of the Uruguay Round, and a logical consequence of the process aimed at strengthening the multilateral trading system.

Reducing Tariffs According to WTO Accession Rules

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fosse, Henrik Barslund; Raimondos-Møller, Pascalis

2012-01-01

When Vietnam joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2007 it was granted an accession period up to 2014. During this period tariffs would have to fall according to the accession agreement. This paper evaluates this 2007–2014 trade liberalization by building an applied general equilibrium model...

WTO ministerial conference adopts declaration on TRIPS and public health.

Science.gov (United States)

Elliott, Richard

2002-03-01

In November 2001, the 4th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization adopted a Ministerial Declaration on public health and the WTO's Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (the "TRIPS Agreement"). The declaration represents a modest advance in addressing concerns that strict patent laws, and threats of trade sanctions, will be a barrier to most of the world's people with HIV/AIDS accessing affordable medicines. The full significance of the declaration remains to be seen, as it depends on what political impact it has at the WTO and on its member countries, and what legal impact it will have in the interpretation of the TRIPS Agreement.

The plights of African resources patenting through the lenses of the World Trade Organisation: an assessment of South Africa's rooibos tea's labyrith journey.

Science.gov (United States)

Amusan, Lere

2014-01-01

Just as developing states are blessed with natural resources capable of transforming their economies into a positive direction, the imposed World Trade Organisation's (WTO) mores continue to relegate them to the status of underdevelopment. The consequences of this on investment, trade and finance in Third World States (TWSs), especially Africa, are disarticulation of the economy, exploitation, disinvestment, unemployment, political instability and unavailability of relevant technology to move TWSs forward, among others. This gives rise to the politics behind Rooibos (Aspalathus linearis) patenting (a medicinal plant found only in South Africa) by various multinational corporations (MNCs). This study adopted political economy approach with emphasis on both primary and secondary sources of data collection using content analysis. There is need to adhere strictly to the issues of intellectual property rights (IPRs), geographical indications (GIs), prior informed consent (PIC), and access and sharing benefits (ASB). These have not been observed by the western states because of their economic of neo-imperialism to the disadvantage of developing states. This paper recommends that there is need for a regional regime such as African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO), on indigenous knowledge (IK) to patent the continental biodiversity resources.

FEATURES OF WTO DISPUTE SETTLEMENT. THE STANDING OF THE EU

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Costin Horia Rogoveanu

2010-09-01

Full Text Available The WTO has an innovative system of dispute settlement, with the following features: sui-generis, integrated, resolving the disputes according to the WTO agreements, excluding unilateral solutions, interstate system. These features are detailed in the present article. Another level of analysis concerns the standing of the EU in the WTO, in general, and in the Geneva proceedings for dispute settlement, in particular. Generated by the quality of the European Communities statute as an original member of the Organisation, the EU has become one of the main users of the WTO dispute settlement system. One of the main challenges of the WTO dispute settlement mechanism is the implementation of decisions. In view of the cases assessed, while the execution record of the EU is a quite satisfactory one, it is apparent that implementation of decisions in more intricate cases creates difficulties at the Union level.

Opportunities and threats of WTO membership of Ukraine in foreign trade of high-technology products under conditions of co-operation with EU countries and Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kyzym Mykola O.

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The article considers the problem of consequences of membership in the World Trade Organisation (WTO for Ukraine in foreign trade of high-technology products under conditions of co-operation with EU countries and the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia (CU. The article shows that after Ukraine joined WTO there were some rather significant reductions of tariff rates for Ukrainian products and liberalisation of access to the world markets, at the same time the internal Ukrainian market became more open for imported products. The article studies specific features and changes in the high-technology products market after Ukraine joined WTO. It analyses dynamics of volumes and specific weight of the world export-import of high-technology products and the structure of the world export and import of high technology products, including by individual countries and groups. The article makes a conclusion about a weak high-technology component of the Ukrainian export. It studies the structure of export of high-technology products of EU, CU and Ukraine. It shows that in order to develop the high-technology products market Ukraine needs to develop foreign trade with EU countries and also to continue co-operation with CU countries, in particular, with Russia. The article shows that the aerospace industry products takes the biggest specific weight in the export of high-technology products of Ukraine. It considers prospects of development of civil aircraft production in the world and Ukraine under the modern conditions. It analyses strengths and weaknesses of the aircraft construction industry and also threats and opportunities for aircraft construction of Ukraine due to external environment influence. The article shows that Ukraine cannot keep national aircraft building on its own, that is why it is necessary to develop close co-operation both with Russian enterprises and with the countries of the Western Europe. It offers recommendations on

WTO new round agreement and nuclear

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, M. K.; Moon, L. H.; Kim, S. S.

2002-01-01

The start of new round of WTO could be recognized as a turning point shifting from bilateral or regional trade system to multilateral trade system worldwide. The changes in international trade system are expected to have some impact on the Korean nuclear industry. The purpose of this study is to understand the impact on prepare opening the market for the plant design and engineering. This market has been protected by Agreement on Government Procurement(AGP). However, this market will be eventually influenced by GATS(General Agreement on Trade in Services) with KEPCO's on going privatization being completed. There have been no impacts on R and D fund provided by the government as yet. However, in case of Government supported R and D for commercial purpose, there are much concerns to be discussed further within new WTO agreement. It is necessary to develop a strategy for maximizing national interests and promoting R and D in the negotiation for design and construction services related with nuclear industry, and energy services. Furthermore, to effectively explore new nuclear markets in developing countries including China, market analyses for their countries are required

75 FR 45693 - Request for Comments and Notice of Public Hearing Concerning China's Compliance With WTO Commitments

Science.gov (United States)

2010-08-03

..., government procurement, trade-related investment measures, taxes and charges levied on imports and exports... Concerning China's Compliance With WTO Commitments AGENCY: Office of the United States Trade Representative. ACTION: Request for comments and notice of public hearing concerning China's compliance with its WTO...

77 FR 50206 - Request for Comments and Notice of Public Hearing Concerning China's Compliance With WTO Commitments

Science.gov (United States)

2012-08-20

..., government procurement, trade-related investment measures, taxes and charges levied on imports and exports... Concerning China's Compliance With WTO Commitments AGENCY: Office of the United States Trade Representative. ACTION: Request for comments and notice of public hearing concerning China's compliance with its WTO...

Estimating the effects of China's Accession to the World Trade Organisation

OpenAIRE

Yin Hua Mai; Mark Horridge; Frances Perkins

2003-01-01

Accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) marks a new era in China's economic reform. In this new era, state capital will lose its dominance of pillar industries such as iron and steel, automobile, petrochemicals, non-ferrous metal, insurance, telecommunication, banking, wholesale, and utilities. This study uses a computable general equilibrium model of China to estimate the economic benefits from China opening its pillar industries to private foreign and domestic capital. The study ant...

A Trade Promotion Authority e as políticas de emprego da Trade Adjustment Assistance no limiar entre o asseguramento da economia interna e o protecionismo velado

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Blenda Lara Fonseca do Nascimento

2004-07-01

Full Text Available Este artigo analisa os programas dereajuste comercial relativo a trabalhadores inseridono texto da Autoridade de PromoçãoComercial (Trade Promotion Authority –TPA de 2002. A autora questiona a licitudedestes programas norte-americanos ante anormativa da Organização Mundial do Comércio(OMC, assinalando que estes podem constituiruma forma de protecionismo velado.This article analyses the TradeAdjustment Assistance for Workers (TAAWof the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA 2002.The author questions this North-Americanprogram legality towards the World TradeOrganisation (WTO rules and, thus, proposesthat the program may constitute a disguisedform of protectionism.

75 FR 50033 - WTO Dispute Settlement Proceeding Regarding United States-Measures Affecting the Production and...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-08-16

... OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE [Docket No. USTR-2010-0013] WTO Dispute... Organization (``WTO Agreement'') regarding a provision of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (Pub. L. 111-31). That request may be found at http://www.wto.org in a document designated as WT/DS406...

The role of the World Trade Organization and the 'three sisters' (the World Organisation for Animal Health, the International Plant Protection Convention and the Codex Alimentarius Commission) in the control of invasive alien species and the preservation of biodiversity.

Science.gov (United States)

Kahn, S; Pelgrim, W

2010-08-01

The missions of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) include the design of surveillance and control methods for infectious transboundary animal diseases (including zoonoses), the provision of guarantees concerning animal health and animal production food safety, and the setting of standards for, and promotion of, animal welfare. The OIE role in setting standards for the sanitary safety of international trade in animals and animal products is formally recognised in the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (the SPS Agreement). While the primary focus of the OIE is on animal diseases and zoonoses, the OIE has also been working within the WTO framework to examine possible contributions the organisation can make to achieving the goals of the Convention on Biological Diversity, particularly to preventing the global spread of invasive alien species (IAS). However, at the present time, setting standards for invasive species (other than those connected to the cause and distribution of diseases listed by the OIE) is outside the OIE mandate. Any future expansion of the OIE mandate would need to be decided by its Members and resources (expertise and financial contributions) for an extended standard-setting work programme secured. The other international standard-setting organisations referenced by the SPS Agreement are the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) and the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC). The IPPC mandate and work programme address IAS and the protection of biodiversity. The CAC is not involved in this field.

Getting past the WTO deadlock : The plurilateral option ?

OpenAIRE

WOOLCOCK, Steve

2013-01-01

The WTO’s Doha Development Agenda (DDA) negotiations are blocked. After repeated attempts to make progress, trade ministers have called for exploring new approaches to negotiations. This has been interpreted by some as clearing the way for plurilateral negotiations between subsets of like-minded WTO members and that need not apply or benefit all WTO members. This paper discusses a number of questions that arise with respect to plurilateral agreements and argues that in light of the very low ...

Considering WTO law in the design of climate change regimes beyond Kyoto

Science.gov (United States)

Gaines, Sanford E.

2009-11-01

This article describes the most important provisions of World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements that should be considered in designing laws and regulations under likely post-Kyoto climate change mitigation regimes. The Kyoto Protocol and the expected post-Kyoto international climate agreement depend on national measures to implement market-based mitigation measures. This market strategy promotes international exchanges of goods, investments, and services such as cross-border trading of credits for emissions reductions and transnational financing for projects that avoid emissions through the Clean Development Mechanism. Moreover, the United States and other countries, concerned over "leakage" of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through relocation of industry to other countries coupled with political worry over manufacturing competitiveness, have proposed national climate legislation containing border adjustments on imported goods or implicit subsidies for national producers, raising additional WTO considerations. The article assesses the likely effectiveness of such trade-related measures in achieving climate change mitigation goals and the potential trade policy infringements and trade distortions that they might bring about. Alternative strategies for achieving GHG mitigation goals in closer conformity with WTO law and policy will be suggested.

Considering WTO law in the design of climate change regimes beyond Kyoto

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gaines, Sanford E

2009-01-01

This article describes the most important provisions of World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements that should be considered in designing laws and regulations under likely post-Kyoto climate change mitigation regimes. The Kyoto Protocol and the expected post-Kyoto international climate agreement depend on national measures to implement market-based mitigation measures. This market strategy promotes international exchanges of goods, investments, and services such as cross-border trading of credits for emissions reductions and transnational financing for projects that avoid emissions through the Clean Development Mechanism. Moreover, the United States and other countries, concerned over 'leakage' of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through relocation of industry to other countries coupled with political worry over manufacturing competitiveness, have proposed national climate legislation containing border adjustments on imported goods or implicit subsidies for national producers, raising additional WTO considerations. The article assesses the likely effectiveness of such trade-related measures in achieving climate change mitigation goals and the potential trade policy infringements and trade distortions that they might bring about. Alternative strategies for achieving GHG mitigation goals in closer conformity with WTO law and policy will be suggested.

Trade Unions as Organisations: Key Issues and Problems of Internal ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The paper critically examines and evaluates inter alia Trade Unions as. Organisations and the key issues and problems of Internal Democracy within them. It transcends this analysis to assert that these core issues apply equally well to Political Organisations. Thus, from an ideological standpoint, Trade Unions play a great ...

After the Bali agreement: Lessons from the Doha Round for the WTO's post-Bali agenda

OpenAIRE

Erixon, Fredrik

2014-01-01

At the WTO summit in Bali late last year, trade ministers managed to clear the way for a new trade agreement. This is positive news - and it proves that the WTO system is not dysfunctional. The Bali agreement brings new trading opportunities for developing countries and establishes a new standard for transparency in trade administration. But the Bali deal is not a Doha Round deal - it is not even a "Doha light" deal. Taking the cue from Coca Cola, it is closer to being a "Doha Zero" agreement...

International Organisations and Transnational Education Policy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Moutsios, Stavros

2009-01-01

This paper focuses on the World Bank/IMF (International Monetary Fund), the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) and the WTO (World Trade Organisation) as institutions of transnational policy making. They are all at present making education policies which are decisively...... shaping current directions and developments in national education systems. The paper reviews the enhanced role of these institutions in producing education policies and investigates the ideological basis as well as the processes through which these policies are made. It is argued that decisions are taken...... largely through asymmetric, non-democratic and opaque procedures. It is also argued that the proposed policies purport to serve the principles of relentless economic competition. Taking into account similar policies and initiatives, the paper concludes that we are experiencing not only...

Evaluation of the China's Entry into the WTO

OpenAIRE

Cao, Teresa Yanhong

2002-01-01

Background: After 15 years of negotiations and diplomatic struggle, China was finally given the formal approval to join the World Trade Organization as the 143rd member. China has been driving for years to join the WTO since that is a crucial part of its plan to reform its economy and to build the economic modernization. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to gain a general knowledge of China’s economic development, analysis advantages and disadvantages associated with China’s WTO members...

WTO agreements and public health: a joint study by the WHO and the WTO Secretariat

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

2002-01-01

... policymakers can benefit from closer cooperation to ensure coherence between their different areas of responsibilities. In both the WHO and the WTO questions of trade and public health feature high on the agenda, and significant advances have been made in the recent past. The endorsement by the international community of the Doha Declaration on...

An empirical study on the effect of WTO membership on Iranian Handicraft industry: A case study of Persian carpet

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zahra Shirzour Aliabadi

2013-05-01

Full Text Available The world Trade Organization (WTO is one of the few organizations, which could significantly influence on foreign trade and consequently on the economic structure of the countries. There are literally different people in Iran who either encourage or discourage WTO membership. Therefore, it is important to analyze Iran’s WTO membership to empower Iranian handmade carpet in international trades and to help improvement in quality of production. The purpose of this research is to study the effects of Iran’s membership in WTO to empower this industry by performing an empirical survey among 100 experts in this industry. Findings demonstrate that access to WTO plays an important role on increasing production of handmade carpet and developing this industry. In addition, the industry needs to incorporate the recent advances on technology to ensure cost efficient production materials. The industry also needs more creative and innovative ideas due to an increase competition in handmade carpet producers from other countries.

Vietnam’s Accession to the WTO

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Abbott, Philip; Bentzen, Jeanet; Tarp, Finn

is not the main factor driving economic adjustments, and market imperfections mean there is potential for greater output and trade expansion. The key questions to ask in future research are what critical new institutional reforms WTO accession will bring, and what incentives will be put in place to determine...

A Review of Economic Analyses on the World Trade Organization

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jee-Hyeong Park

2002-06-01

Full Text Available The GATT, which later became the WTO, has contributed to the expansion and activation of world trade by assisting trading partners to establish and enforce international trade rules through multilateral trade negotiations. Currently negotiations for new trade rules are contironing by launching Doha Round. This review intends to promote understanding of a basic analytical framework, upon which constructive debates and research have been conducted about the role of the WTO in the world trade regime. To achieve this goal, we provide a review of recent theoretical developments in studies on the role of the WTO regarding trade negotiations and rule enforcement, based on a commonly used model of trade in the literature. With respect to trade negotiations, we review a study of the effect of the reciprocity principle and most favored nation clause of the WTO on the outcome of trade negotiations and analyze the race-to-the-bottom concerns that the exclusive focus of the WTO on tariff negotiations will promote deterioration of environmental and labor standards. Regarding the rule of enforcement, we introduce the repeated game framework that is often used in the analysis of international trade rule enforcement, then discuss the studies on the role of safeguard provisions and the dispute settlement procedure of the WTO.

Perspektywy zakończenia Rundy Katarskiej w ramach WTO

OpenAIRE

Majchrowska, Elżbieta

2010-01-01

Praca recenzowana / peer-reviewed paper The article deals with the main issues of WTO trade liberalization and it describes the key points of the negotiations during Doha Development Agenda. It shortly shows the main points of the history of discussions between partners (i.e. “The July 2004 package”, WTO Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong), better and worse moments of that process but it especially concentrates on the last Mini-Ministerial Conference, which took place in Ju...

WTO and Lifelong Education Strategies for Teachers

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Zhi-guo; Zheng, Yu

2006-01-01

After China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), teachers have been confronted with many opportunities and challenges. Lifelong education strategies are problems we should take into account carefully. This article expounds the objective demands, ideas, content, measures and functions of lifelong education.

The WTO Agenda and the Media Agenda

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Rune Saugmann; Skjoldan, Lasse

’ (DDA) negotiations. While the DDA was set off in 2001 and was intended to be concluded by the end of 2004, the multilateral negotiations are in the end of 2007 still short of agreement. This thesis conceives of the media agenda as an important factor influencing trade policy formation and trade...... negotiation in the WTO. Combining elements from agenda-setting and institutional media theory, the study examines which issues and themes have been covered (priming) and from which angles these issue have been covered (framing). In particular, this thesis investigates the degree to which this priming...... as the ones who should liberalise. When this particular press coverage of the DDA is highly institutionalised, it means that it will be sticky and less prone to change. And because the media agenda is taken to affect the WTO agenda, the actors who are (dis)advantaged from this particular coverage in the press...

Algerian Economy and Multilateral Trading System: Why Is It So Hard to Join the WTO

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Khayreddine Belaaze

2014-08-01

Full Text Available The main purpose of this paper is to provide a overview on different stages of the negotiations with World Trade Organization, since 1987 date of submission the application for accession, Algeria still trying to snatch accession card with minimum cost, where it tries to provide small guarantees, but some WTO members raises reservations over some issues like aspects related to investment, for example: the Rule of 49/51, and domestic component, prevention of exporting, besides the agricultural issue which takes advantage of domestic subsidies and exporting subsides, also services industry knows low degree of openness, especially In some sensitive areas such as financial services, telecommunications.

The utilisation of agenda-setting power in the multilateral trading system’s evolution from “negative” to “positive” integration / La utilización del poder de fijar la agenda en la evolución del sistema de comercio multilateral de la integración “negativa” a la “positiva”

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gerard Downes

2011-10-01

Full Text Available This paper contends that the construction of a globalised intellectual property rights regime (TRIPs within the World Trade Organization (WTO was emblematic of the shift from ‘negative’ to ‘positive’ integration, which necessitates that WTO Member states harmonise domestic regulations to conform to the precepts of multilateral trading system, and accounts for the relative institutional failure of the organisation since its inception in 1995. The paper examines this shift towards ‘positive’ integration by focussing on the campaign to formulate and construct the globalised intellectual property rights regime within the WTO. By examining the role of agenda-setting power in the creation of TRIPs this article intends to highlight the extent of the symbiosis between private commercial diplomacy and international trade law in campaign construction, and thereby demonstrate how private corporations have been able to formalise their specific interests within the WTO, while further exacerbating those asymmetries which ultimately have led to stasis in multilateral trade regulation.

The Challenge of the GATS for Transition Economies Seeking to Join the WTO

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J. Anthony VanDuzer

2004-02-01

Full Text Available Transition economies seeking to join the World Trade Organization (WTO face a variety of distinctive challenges relating to their prospective obligations under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS. Transition economies are characterized by changing market and industry structures on the one hand, and ongoing reforms to their regulatory structures on the other. Both make it extremely difficult for transition economies to develop a position on what WTO services commitments they should undertake in their national schedules of specific commitments. Accession negotiations are further complicated by the evolving nature of GATS rules themselves and the tough negotiating stance taken by existing Members. Based on evidence from recent accessions, the effective minimum requirements relating to services for transition economies seeking to join the WTO are increasing

Disembedded Ideologies, Embedded Alternatives: Agricultural Biotechnology, Legitimacy, and the WTO

Science.gov (United States)

Mark J. Philbrick

2006-01-01

Notions of market embeddedness highlight the dependency of markets upon social, cultural, and political infrastructures for their operation and legitimation. In contrast, narrow interpretations of the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements attempt to enshrine the primacy of free trade, institutionalizing the theoretical abstractions of neoclassical economics in a...

The Influence of China's Entry into the WTO on Its Education System

Science.gov (United States)

Ding, Xiaohao; Yue, Changjun; Sun, Yuze

2009-01-01

The entry of China in the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001 holds a number of promises for educational services. The purpose of this article is to explore both the direct and the indirect influence of China's entry into WTO on its education system. The direct influence mainly refers to the increase in the demand for education overseas and in…

Plurilateral Trade Deals: An Alternative for Multilateral Trade Agreements?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Agnes Ghibuțiu

2016-04-01

Full Text Available While multilateral trade negotiations under the World Trade Organization (WTO continue to be in impasse, plurilateral trade negotiations – i.e. among a group of WTO members – have intensified in recent years, and also recorded a series of concrete results in liberalizing specific sectors of international trade. Hence, there is a widely shared view that plurilateral trade negotiations could be an alternative for the multilateral ones. This paper aims to answer the following questions: What are plurilateral trade agreements? Which are the reasons behind the surge in plurilateral negotiations in recent years? What are the main achievements in liberalizing trade at the plurilateral level? What are the advantages of plurilateral negotiations relative to multilateral ones, and why are they considered an attractive alternative for negotiations at the multilateral level?

Energy and fossil fuels as a topic in WTO accession protocols

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Marhold, Anna; Weiss, Friedl; Bungenberg, M; Krajewski, M; Tams, C; Terhechte, JP; Ziegler, AR

2018-01-01

This article seeks to analyse and compare WTO Accession Protocols, particularly the interpretations given relevant commitments made in them regarding energy and fossil fuels. Much has changed in global trade relations since the launch of the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations in November

121 | Page WORLD TRADE ORGANISATION (WTO): TRADE ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Fr. Ikenga

third world states belong to the class of developing countries. .... cuts in tariff on agriculture and manufacturing.18 In many instances, this proved ..... will be accepted for reasons of international standards such as safety and packaging which for.

States’ regulatory autonomy to protect societal values by legitimate regulatory distinctions : Finding the balance in the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade through adjudication

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Prévost, Denise; Choukroune, Leila

2016-01-01

Trade disputes in which public policy regulation is challenged have been among the most difficult and controversial of those before the adjudicatory bodies of the WTO. They have showcased the crucial role of adjudication in achieving an appropriate balance between the sovereign autonomy of States to

Opportunities and Threats of Ukrainian Membership in WTO for Engineering under Conditions of Co-operation with EU Countries and Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kyzym Mykola O.

2014-02-01

Full Text Available The article considers consequences of the membership of Ukraine in the World Trade Organisation (WTO for the engineering industry when co-operating with the EU and CU (Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia countries. It shows that, after Ukraine joined WTO, tariff rates for Ukrainian products reduced in general and liberalisation of access to the world market took place. Along with it, the internal market of Ukraine became more open for imported products. The article analyses the structure of export from Ukraine after joining WTO in the context of individual types of products. The article identifies changes that took place in the market of engineering products after Ukraine joined WTO. The article shows that by main indicators of economic security the engineering industry of Ukraine cannot be considered as stable and also that, after joining WTO, main indicators of economic security of the engineering industry of Ukraine have not improved. It analyses the structure of export and import of Ukrainian engineering products to EU, CU and other countries. It proves that the most topical for the Ukrainian engineering industry is the issue of realisation of the import-replacement potential and increase of competitiveness of domestic products. It considers the state and changes, which took place after Ukraine joined WTO, in car building. It identifies main problems of domestic car building. It analyses measures of the state programme of Ukraine on economic development.

The Social Dimension of EU Trade Policies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Manners, Ian

2009-01-01

will ask how the EU initiatives in this area could increase the legitimacy of the ‘trade and social linkage' in international politics and economics from a normative power perspective. Finally, the article concludes by suggesting a more holistic approach to the promotion of the social dimension......'s social dimension in trade relations - human rights versus welfare concerns and exclusive competence versus lack of competence. These questions and tensions are rendered more methodologically problematic by the existence and activities of other actors and trading powers, such as the International Labour...... Organisation (ILO) and the World Trade Organization (WTO), as well as the United States and China, for example. The rest of the article will provide refl ections on the ideas raised in the special issue from a normative power perspective in six sections. First, it will elaborate on the role of labour rights...

Reform at the top: What's next for the WTO? A second life? A socio-political analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniel Drache

2011-05-01

Full Text Available A fundamental change is taking place in the global economy, and the standoff in the Doha Round has raised many questions about the World Trade Organization’s troubled architecture (Khor, 2009. So far, the quest for renewed policy coherence in the rules-based multilateral system has produced stalemate rather than reform. The analysis that follows explores the proposition that, without the metaphoric ‘knife at its throat’ to shock it to its senses, the WTO will continue in the short term to be trapped by its existing architecture. There is no coherent reform-minded movement supported by a critical number of states to instigate a change in the way the WTO does business. The paper looks at the following idea: with many states pursuing new policy frames to enhance their strategic interests, the second life of the WTO will be dramatically different from the present configuration. A lengthy trade pause is a certainty. Four options of what the WTO will become are examined. The conclusion is that as a governance body the WTO faces gradual and likely irreversible decline. It will have a smaller remit, be prone to mini-multilateralism and have to learn to live with a proliferation of regional trade agreements. DOWNLOAD THIS PAPER FROM SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1832354

(De)Legitimation at the WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Creamer, Cosette; Godzimirska, Zuzanna

2016-01-01

Similar to many types of legal institutions, international courts employ a wide variety of legitimation strategies in order to establish and maintain a sound basis of support among their constituents. Existing studies on the legitimacy or legitimating efforts of the World Trade Organization's (WTO...

The New WTO Telecom Agreement: Opportunities and Challenges.

Science.gov (United States)

Sisson, Peter

1997-01-01

The telecommunication agreement reached by the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1997 will accelerate the global trend toward increased market access, competition, and deregulation. Examines opportunities for marketing and operations, dispute resolution and enforcement, profitability, and the exclusion of Russia and China. Includes the WTO…

76 FR 50286 - Request for Comments and Notice of Public Hearing Concerning China's Compliance With WTO Commitments

Science.gov (United States)

2011-08-12

...., subsidies, standards and technical regulations, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, government procurement... Concerning China's Compliance With WTO Commitments AGENCY: Office of the United States Trade Representative. ACTION: Request for comments and notice of public hearing concerning China's compliance with its WTO...

WTO Accession and Managerial Challenges for Manufacturing Sectors in Southern China

OpenAIRE

Yeung, G; Mok, V

2002-01-01

Based on 31 case studies, this study tests the validity of four major managerial hypotheses for manufacturers in China after WTO accession. It is argued that the skills of managers will be severely tested in four specific areas after China accedes to the WTO: (1) preparing for trade disputes with their overseas competitors, (2) developing newer and higher value-added products and diversifying their markets, (3) selecting the appropriate localization strategy, and (4) upgrading manufacturing p...

BRICS STATES IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC GOVERNANCE: THE WTO CASE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aleksandra G. Koval

2017-06-01

Full Text Available The rise of emerging powers in the world economy has a significant impact on the transformation of global economic governance. The countries with emerging economies seek to enhance their role in international economic organizations and decision-making at the global level. The main players here are the BRICS countries. The contradictions between these countries and Western states represent a modern challenge to the functioning of the global governance. This is clearly demonstrated by the failure of the international trade negotiations under the WTO, which leads to the shift of member states’ priorities towards megaregional trade agreements and indicates the need for changes in the organization. The WTO cannot be seen today as a “rich men’s club” since emerging powers are eager to actively participate in trade negotiations, while recognizing the established rules and regulations. Despite the attempts of certain cooperation in their policies, BRICS countries differ in their trade interests. These states not only play different roles at the world markets of goods and services, but also apply various tariff and non-tariff measures. Moreover, a significant number of protectionist measures affects intra-BRICS trade. These differences complicate the cooperation of emerging powers in the international trading system and entangle the process of transformation of global economic governance.

Globalization, international trade and animal health: the new roles of OIE.

Science.gov (United States)

Thiermann, Alejandro B

2005-02-01

In order for countries and their stakeholders to maximize the benefits of globalization they must become familiar with, and must adhere to, the rights and obligations set out by the World Trade Organization (WTO) under the Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS). For the purpose of trade in animals and animal products, they must also adhere to the standards, guidelines and recommendations established by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). Countries are also encouraged to participate in this standard setting process of the OIE. Only after implementing these requirements and after strengthening the veterinary infrastructures and their surveillance and monitoring systems, will countries be able to fully benefit from these new international trade rules.

developing countries and the wto dispute resolution system

African Journals Online (AJOL)

OLAWUYI

outstanding outcomes of the Uruguay round.2 WTO principles are largely based on the ..... In practice it is the preference giving country. (usually a ... Prominent amongst them are; Pakistan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and South ..... 89 World Trade Organization – Dispute Settlement: Dispute DS308 'Mexico – Tax Measures on.

Does science speak clearly and fairly in trade and food safety disputes? The search for an optimal response of WTO adjudication to problematic international standard-making.

Science.gov (United States)

Ni, Kuei-Jung

2013-01-01

Most international health-related standards are voluntary per se. However, the incorporation of international standard-making into WTO agreements like the SPS Agreement has drastically changed the status and effectiveness of the standards. WTO members are urged to follow international standards, even when not required to comply fully with them. Indeed, such standards have attained great influence in the trade system. Yet evidence shows that the credibility of the allegedly scientific approach of these international standard-setting institutions, especially the Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex) governing food safety standards, has been eroded and diluted by industrial and political influences. Its decision-making is no longer based on consensus, but voting. The adoption of new safety limits for the veterinary drug ractopamine in 2012, by a very close vote, is simply another instance of the problematic operations of the Codex. These dynamics have led skeptics to question the legitimacy of the standard setting body and to propose solutions to rectify the situation. Prior WTO rulings have yet to pay attention to the defect in the decision-making processes of the Codex. Nevertheless, the recent Appellate Body decision on Hormones II is indicative of a deferential approach to national measures that are distinct from Codex formulas. The ruling also rejects the reliance on those experts who authored the Codex standards to assess new measures of the European Community. This approach provides an opportunity to contemplate what the proper relationship between the WTO and Codex ought to be. Through a critical review of WTO rulings and academic proposals, this article aims to analyze how the WTO ought to define such interactions and respond to the politicized standard-making process in an optimal manner. This article argues that building a more systematic approach and normative basis for WTO judicial review of standard-setting decisions and the selection of technical

What Prospects for the World Trading System?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Agnes Ghibuțiu

2014-07-01

Full Text Available New developments and dramatic changes are under way in the world trading system. This paper aims to take stock of the latest and most relevant developments and highlight the prospects for global trade governance. The focus is on three major issues, i.e. : (1 the outcome of the Ninth WTO Ministerial Conference in December 2013 in Bali (Indonesia and especially its significance for enhancing the multilateral trading system; (2 the accelerated pace and scale of negotiations on regional trade agreements (RTAs and their wider impact; and (3 the positive results of continued unilateral trade liberalization efforts, in contrast with the pervasiveness of crisis-related protectionist measures. The paper concludes that, despite improved prospects for multilateral trade liberalization following the last WTO Ministerial Conference, the world trading system is becoming more fragmented and less coherent, and also more uncertain, being increasingly driven by RTAs and a variable geometry approach to WTO trade agreements.

PARTICULAR ASPECTS OF THE WTO MECHANISMS APPLICATION TO PROTECT THE NATIONAL ECONOMIC INTERESTS OF UKRAINE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ivan Us

2016-11-01

Full Text Available The purpose of the paper is to analyze the issue of applying by Ukraine of mechanisms developed in the legal framework by the World Trade Organization to protect the internal market in order to prepare appropriate recommendations to state power authorities empowered to carry out trade policy. Methodology. The study is based on studying the experience of Ukraine to revise its commitments on tariff lines for the first three-year period after the accession to the WTO, as well as on the analysis of the most resonant steps to protect the internal market taken by Ukraine and the consequences of these steps. Result. The issue of applying by Ukraine of tools developed by the World Trade Organization to protect the interests of national producers has been described in this article. The situation of the use by Ukraine of a right to review the conditions of membership in the WTO has been reviewed step by step starting from the studying of this issue within the country and to the statements by the Government not to use this feature. All the stages of the process of using the possibility to revise the conditions of membership in the WTO have been analyzed as well as the mistakes that led to the absence of the desired result in the end. Also, the basic tools of protection of the domestic market in the WTO system, such as anti-dumping investigation and the investigation concerning the subsidized imports has been considered The dynamics of the use of such investigations by all WTO member countries since the establishment of the WTO, with particular emphasis on the period of the financial and economic crisis of 2008-2010 has been reviewed. The number of successful investigations led to the application of certain protective measures also has been determined. The risks that arise in the absence of the Government of Ukraine steps to improve the efficiency of representation of interests in the WTO have been analyzed. Recommendations improving the use of WTO

World Trade Organization activity for health services.

Science.gov (United States)

Gros, Clémence

2012-01-01

Since the establishment of a multilateral trading system and the increasing mobility of professionals and consumers of health services, it seems strongly necessary that the World Trade Organization (WTO) undertakes negotiations within the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), and that WTO's members attempt to reach commitments for health-related trade in services. How important is the GATS for health policy and how does the GATS refer to health services? What are the current negotiations and member's commitments?

DOES AFTA AND CHINA'S ENTRY INTO WTO AFFECT FDI IN ASEAN COUNTRIES?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohd Zaini Abd Karim

2005-01-01

Full Text Available Foreign direct investment (FDI plays an important role in the rapid economic development of the newly industrializing and developing economies of Southeast Asia. In terms of the regions attractiveness, ASEAN region is a leading recipient of FDI flows in the developing world, with five ASEAN countries in the top 20 developing-countries recipients of long-term global capital flows from 1997 to 1998. While the creation of AFTA may help FDI inflows to ASEAN countries, China's entry into World Trade Organization (WTO will be the opposite and has caused a great deal of worry to ASEAN countries. The objective of this paper is to empirically determine the effect of ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA and China's entry into WTO on the inflows of FDI into ASEAN countries. To achieve the objectives, Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR method was used to estimate the FDI equation. In general, the results indicate that the establishment of AFTA had a positive effect on FDI inflows to ASEAN countries while China's entry into WTO is the opposite.

Multilateral, regional and bilateral energy trade governance

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Leal-Arcas, Rafael; Grasso, Costantino; Rios, Juan Alemany (Queen Mary Univ. of London (United Kingdom))

2014-12-01

The current international energy trade governance system is fragmented and multi-layered. Streamlining it for greater legal cohesiveness and international political and economic cooperation would promote global energy security. The current article explores three levels of energy trade governance: multilateral, regional and bilateral. Most energy-rich countries are part of the multilateral trading system, which is institutionalized by the World Trade Organization (WTO). The article analyzes the multilateral energy trade governance system by focusing on the WTO and energy transportation issues. Regionally, the article focuses on five major regional agreements and their energy-related aspects and examines the various causes that explain the proliferation of regional trade agreements, their compatibility with WTO law, and then provides several examples of regional energy trade governance throughout the world. When it comes to bilateral energy trade governance, this article only addresses the European Union’s (EU) bilateral energy trade relations. The article explores ways in which gaps could be filled and overlaps eliminated whilst remaining true to the high-level normative framework, concentrating on those measures that would enhance EU energy security.

41 | Page SPECIAL AND DIFFERENTIAL TREATMENT IN THE WTO ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Fr. Ikenga

For the running of this mammoth system, the WTO initiates numerous trade agreements relating to goods, services, intellectual properties, civil aircraft, ..... seeking both to protect and preserve the environment and to enhance the means for doing so in ..... damaged countries and dispute settlement, are the formal control.

Potential Accession to the WTO Government Procurement Agreement: A Case-Study on India

OpenAIRE

Sangeeta Khorana; Sujitha Subramanian

2012-01-01

The World Trade Organization (WTO) Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) is a voluntary plurilateral agreement applicable to WTO members that choose to be Parties to the Agreement. Most developing countries, including India, are not members of the GPA. This case study presents an insight into India's current procurement framework, evaluates the prospects for, and comments on the principal constraints and challenges to India's GPA accession. The findings suggest that, though the Indian procur...

WTO accepts rules limiting medicine exports to poor countries.

Science.gov (United States)

James, John S

2003-09-12

In a controversial decision on August 30, 2003, the World Trade Organization agreed to complex rules limiting the export of medications to developing countries. Reaction to the decision so far has shown a complete disconnect between trade delegates and the WTO, both of which praise the new rules as a humanitarian advance, and those working in treatment access in poor countries, who believe that they will effectively block treatment from reaching many who need it. We have prepared a background paper that analyzes this decision and its implications and offers the opinions of key figures on both sides of the debate. It is clear that the rules were largely written for and probably by the proprietary pharmaceutical industry, and imposed on the countries in the WTO mainly by the United States. The basic conflict is that this industry does not want the development of international trade in low-cost generic copies of its patented medicines--not even for poor countries, where little or no market exists. Yet millions of people die each year without medication for treatable conditions such as AIDS, and drug pricing remains one of several major obstacles to controlling global epidemics.

Effect of NAFTA, EUMFTA and China addition to WTO on the cucumber world market

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ramon Guajardo-Quiroga

2010-07-01

Full Text Available This study empirically analyzed the potential effects of the complete operation of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA, European Union and Mexico Free Trade Agreement (EUMFTA, and the integration of China to the World Trade Organization (WTO, on the cucumber world market. Special emphasis on the impact on Mexico was presented, from a worldwide perspective. A spatial equilibrium model with endogenous prices was constructed for this purpose. Among the findings are: (1 Mexican producers benefited from the complete implementation of NAFTA and EUMFTA. (2 The incorporation of China as a member of the WTO showed a negligible effect on the commercial flows and prices in the cucumber world market. (3 Mexican cucumber production is highly competitive, in the world market, because it has the lowest supply costs.

WTO ACCESSION OF BRICS COUNTRIES: THE CHINESE EXPERIENCE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

I. Mikheeva

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The stages of reforms under the influence of requirements of the World Trade Organization are considered on the basis of an analysis of Chinese legislation. Four stages of preparation by the People’s Republic of China for accession to the WTO within which there was a transformation of the legal system of China from 1982 to 2001 are described. The sources of Chinese lawmaking are presented and systematized as the basis of the economic legislation of the PRC at the stage of preparation for inclusion of China in the WTO. Attention is drawn to the particularities of the power organization of the Chinese state, in which there is no separation of powers into three branches: legislative, executive and judicial. This, in turn, allows to mark the feature in the economic sphere of legal regulation in China connected with the existence of the rules established by the Supreme National Court as a source of law. To represent the dynamics of normativelegal regulation of foreign trade activities, China has used the system of dialectical and universal methods of knowledge; general scientific methods (induction and deduction and techniques (analysis and synthesis; as well as a special method – formally-legal. The identified course and direction of changes in legal support of domestic and foreign economic processes in China suggests the possibility to consider the experience of China in the promotion of Russia in the international trading community.The authors propose that the entry of China into the WTO is of interest to the BRICS countries as long as China achieves optimal utilization of the WTO’s external economic opportunities. In addition, China has established a legally solid basis for the development of market relations in the state.

A Review of Economic Analyses on the World Trade Organization

OpenAIRE

Jee-Hyeong Park

2002-01-01

The GATT, which later became the WTO, has contributed to the expansion and activation of world trade by assisting trading partners to establish and enforce international trade rules through multilateral trade negotiations. Currently negotiations for new trade rules are contironing by launching Doha Round. This review intends to promote understanding of a basic analytical framework, upon which constructive debates and research have been conducted about the role of the WTO in the world trade re...

Mixed WTO ruling on generic drug development.

Science.gov (United States)

Elliott, R

2000-01-01

On 17 March 2000, the World Trade Organization upheld the provision in Canada's patent laws that allows generic drug manufacturers to develop (but not sell) their cheaper versions of patented medicines before the 20-year patients expire. The decision prevents pharmaceutical companies from enjoying market monopolies beyond their patent terms, avoiding what would otherwise be even lengthier delays in the sale of cheaper, generic drugs in Canada. This decision is of significance not only to Canada, but also to other WTO member countries and to all individuals who use pharmaceutical products. However, the decision is not all positive: the WTO also ruled that Canada is violating international agreements by letting generic manufacturers stockpile their versions of patented drugs before patents expire. This article explains the issues, the arguments, and the decision.

Illegal markets, human trade and transnational organised crime

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nikolić-Ristanović Vesna Ž.

2003-01-01

Full Text Available In this paper the author explores, focusing largely on the example of the Balkans, the connection between the expansion of neoliberal market economy and war, and related to it the growth of illegal markets and the shadow economy, on one hand, and the victimisation by human trafficking, on the other. By locating human trade within expanding local and global illegal markets, the author is arguing that, without taking into consideration wider social contexts, which create structural incentives for illegal markets and transnational organised crime, we can hardly understand the causes, let alone build effective strategies to combat and prevent it. Consequently, on the basis of the analyses of human trade as a form of both transnational organised crime and illegal markets, some strategies (short-term and long-term for the prevention and control of human trafficking on both the micro and macro level are suggested.

THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION AND SOUTHERN AGRICULTURE: THE COTTON PERSPECTIVE

OpenAIRE

Hudson, Darren

2000-01-01

The World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations could have important implications for Southern Agriculture. This paper explores some of the issues surrounding the WTO negotiations for cotton. Specifically, this paper examines the impacts of the phase-out of the Multi-Fiber Arrangement (MFA) on the location of textile production and cotton trade flows. Generally, it is believed that the WTO negotiations will have little direct impact on cotton, but will have indirect impacts through textile po...

National treatment in international trade: National law and international standards

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Divljak Drago

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The subject of the paper is the principle of national treatment, namely one of the basic principles of international trade. The objective is to determine its outreach and contents set in the forms of international trade organising, primarily in the World Trade Organization, from a legal perspective, naturally, all in the context of the Serbian law. The analysis that has been carried out indicates that there is an obvious intention of our legislators to harmonise in principle our legislation with the WTO requirements and standards, which are incomplete themselves and cause disputes that are not resolved in the practice of dispute resolving either entirely or consistently. In our law, a step forward has been made in relation to the situation from the previous relevant legislation, because the application of this principle is extended not only to trade with goods but also to trade with services, and to industrial property rights. However, in the most significant, basic field, namely trade with goods, it is still being done in a general way, by simplifying the entire topic and bringing it down only to protection against discrimination and neglecting the sphere of protectionism. Such acting does not include all the complexity of this matter and it is not entirely harmonised with the WTO requirements. However, a good side of such an approach is that it gives the state more freedom for acting in this sphere, which may be acceptable in the transition period until full membership of Serbia in this organization.

Organising methods and member recruitment in Irish Trade Unions

OpenAIRE

Turner, Thomas; O'Sullivan, Michelle; D'Art, Daryl

2011-01-01

peer-reviewed Purpose This paper explores the recruiting and organising methods used by Irish full-time union officials to recruit new members in the private sector of the economy. Design/methodology/approach The analysis is based on a survey of full-time union officials in eight Irish trade unions. Findings Results indicate that the use of organising techniques by officials had no significant impact on changes in membership numbers but did have a significant and po...

Trade reform in Iran for accession to the World Trade Organization

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Farajzadeh, Zakariya; Zhu, Xueqin; Bakhshoodeh, Mohammad

2017-01-01

We developed a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model to study the potential welfare and environmental impacts of Iran's trade reform for accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). Our results show that removing trade barriers not only results in higher welfare and GDP as well as lower

Regional trade agreements & procurement rules : facilitators or hindrances?

OpenAIRE

ANDERSON, Robert D.; MÜLLER, Anna Caroline; PELLETIER, Philippe

2015-01-01

This Working Paper considers the significance of government procurement chapters in regional trade agreements (RTAs), both in their own right and vis-à-vis the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA). The paper finds, inter alia, that: (i) a strong complementarity exists between government procurement trade commitments and general goods and services trade commitments, making integration of procurement commitments in a more general system such as the WTO Agreements desirable; (ii) govern...

The inclusion of post-soviet countries in the WTO opportunities and challenges of the agricultural sector

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stanojević Nataša

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The paper explores the benefits and challenges facing agriculture as the most sensitive sector of the post-soviet economies after joining WTO. The key parts of the paper investigate current effects that the new trade rules have brought to agriculture of Russia, Ukraine, Kirgizia, Armenia, Moldova and Georgia. It has been found that both groups of effects are very different, and in some segments totally opposite to forecasts and expectations. The sectors that have had the best chance to benefit from trade liberalization show a significant drop in exports, while the weakest ones record a growth in production. The research seeks to explain how the expected negative effects have been avoided, which would provide useful lessons for the future WTO members. The unexpected results, as research shows, come from the measures taken prior to admission to the WTO, then the advantages it agreed on during the negotiations and finally practical moves during the implementation of the new rules.

The Rise of the Spirit of National Interest and the Existence of World Trade Organization Agreement: A Case Study of Indonesia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

I Gusti Ngurah Parikesit

2017-10-01

Full Text Available There has been an anxiety over the rise of the spirit of national interest on the existence of World Trade Organization. This spirit that has been reflected from domestic trade policy, to some extent, has undermined trade negotiation process under the WTO as shown by the failure of the Doha Round to conclude significant trade deals. Countries also started concluding bilateral and regional trade agreements instead of the WTO. This article aimed to analyze whether the rise of the spirit of national interest has threaten the existence of the WTO agreements, putting Indonesia as a case study. This article is a normative research, analyzing the dynamics development of the national interest under the WTO, especially Indonesia, and how the judicial body has responded the rise of this spirit in its decisions. This article argues that the spirit of national interest will not threaten the existence of WTO as this spirit has been exist from the early establishment of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade in 1947 to the latest WTO negotiation. Moreover, the existence of the WTO judicial body will secure the existence of the WTO, especially because it has successfully controlled the overwhelming spirit of national interest of its members through its decisions.

Author Details

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Adibe, Emeka. Vol 3 (2012) - Articles Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and global social change- theoretical foundations and practical considerations. Abstract PDF · Vol 4 (2013) - Articles World Trade Organisation (WTO): Trade rules/agreements and developing countries. Abstract PDF. ISSN: 2276-7371.

International jurisprudence on trade and environmental health: one step forward, two steps back?

Science.gov (United States)

Timmermans, Karin

2008-01-01

Since the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO), there has been considerable debate regarding the impact of its rules on public health. By contrast, the role of the WTO dispute settlement mechanism has received little attention, even though the bodies responsible for settling disputes are the ultimate interpreters of WTO rules and agreements. To date, three WTO disputes that relate to occupational and/or environmental health have been fully litigated. A review of the decisions and reasoning in these cases indicates that WTO jurisprudence is evolving, as Panels and the Appellate Body try--with varying degrees of success--to balance countries' rights and obligations under international trade agreements with their right to protect occupational and environmental health. Disputes between nations can have an impact beyond the parties concerned, and raise questions about the relationship between trade agreements and other international agreements, especially multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs).

Developing Countries and the Multilateral Trading System after Doha

OpenAIRE

Srinivasan, T. N.

2002-01-01

The Fourth Session of the Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO), held in Doha, Qatar, in November 2001, launched a new round of multilateral trade negotiations (MTN) and a work programme (WP) for the WTO involving the negotiating agenda and steps for meeting the challenges facing the multilateral trading system. The paper evaluates the WP, in particular, whether it would redress the unfavourable balance between benefits and costs to developing countries DCs of the agree...

48 CFR 25.403 - World Trade Organization Government Procurement Agreement and Free Trade Agreements.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... Government Procurement Agreement and Free Trade Agreements. 25.403 Section 25.403 Federal Acquisition... 25.403 World Trade Organization Government Procurement Agreement and Free Trade Agreements. (a... in 25.402(a)(1). The WTO GPA and FTAs specify procurement procedures designed to ensure fairness (see...

A trade balance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Daugbjerg, Carsten; Kay, Adrian

2014-01-01

The establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) has been widely accepted as representing the legalisation of world trading rules. However, it is important to reflect on the limits of this legalisation thesis in terms of the interface between international and domestic policy processes. By...

Some Thoughts on the Axiology and Constitutionalization of the World Trade Organization

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bartosz Ziemblicki

2011-06-01

Full Text Available The rationale for the existence of the WTO is the assumption that international trade is beneficial to all parties. The theoretical justification for this assumption is the theory of comparative advantage. The WTO may also be credited with a contribution to peacekeeping and has strong doctrinal and philosophical foundations. The WTO is often accused of a bias towards exporters and failure to provide appropriate protection to other market participants. Other conflicting powers within the Organization are the supporters of free trade and fair trades. The third doctrinal tension is between the legislative and judicial powers. The Ministerial Conferences are ever more unable to make decisions and reform the WTO. At the same time a very effective dispute settlement mechanism is beginning to fill the gaps in legal texts. The WTO is often presented as an example of the ongoing process of constitutionalization of international law. The concept is difficult to define and each scholar distinguishes different characteristics. It is arguable whether the WTO is undergoing the process of constitutionalization and also whether it can be perceived as a self-contained régime. The contribution of the WTO to global governance in comparison to that of the GATT is another issue under discussion.

Current WTO Negotiations under Doha Round: Insights from CPD's Geneva Tracking Mission

OpenAIRE

Mustafizur Rahman; Uttam Kumar Deb; Fahmida Khatun; Khondaker Golam Moazzem

2008-01-01

The paper is the output of a Tracking Mission to Geneva by the senior CPD researchers. The paper makes an analysis of the state of play of negotiations at the WTO under the Doha Round as of March 2008. It takes stock of the emerging trends of negotiations in various areas, such as agriculture, NAMA, General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), aid for trade, Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), etc., and seeks to project the possible outcomes. An attempt is also ma...

Incidence of the WTO Anti-Discrimination Rules on Corporation Income Taxation

OpenAIRE

Hatice Jenkins; Glenn Jenkins

2007-01-01

Many countries with free trade zones or export processing zones now exempt from corporate income taxation the income of firms exporting from these areas. The WTO has attempted to eliminate this exemption through its rules to promote the non-discrimination of fiscal systems with respect to export production. In particular, these rules do not allow countries to exempt the income of firms exporting from Free Trade Zones from corporate income taxation. This paper examines both theoretically as we...

76 FR 71617 - Request for Comments Concerning Compliance With Telecommunications Trade Agreements

Science.gov (United States)

2011-11-18

... Government Procurement. (2) Whether Canada or Mexico has failed to comply with its telecommunications... the United States: The World Trade Organization (``WTO'') General Agreement on Trade in Services; The... telecommunications products and services. For the current review, the USTR seeks comments on: (1) Whether any WTO...

World Trade Organization, ILO conventions, and workers' compensation.

Science.gov (United States)

LaDou, Joseph

2005-01-01

The World Trade Organization, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund can assist in the implementation of ILO Conventions relating to occupational safety and health in developing countries. Most countries that seek to trade globally receive permission to do so from the WTO. If the WTO required member countries to accept the core ILO Conventions relating to occupational safety and health and workers' compensation, it could accomplish something that has eluded international organizations for decades. International workers' compensation standards are seldom discussed, but may at this time be feasible. Acceptance of a minimum workers' compensation insurance system could be a requirement imposed on applicant nations by WTO member states.

General Principles of the WTO and European Community Laws in Building International Competition Norms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chan Mo Chung

2002-12-01

Full Text Available The World Trade Organization (WTO established a Working Group on the interaction between trade and competition policy in 1996. By the Doha Ministerial Declaration, it recognized the case for international competition policy framework and agreed that the relevant negotiations take place after the Fifth Session of the Ministerial Conference. The Working Group is meant to focus on the clarification of: core principles, including transparency, non-discrimination and procedural fairness among others in the period until the Fifth Session. This article attempts to clarify the implications of the core (WTO principles to the would-be international competition laws and practices. It further tries to get lessons from competition law and practices of the European Community. Protection of fundamental rights, proportionality, non-discrimination, transparency, supremacy, subsidiarity and direct effect are the general principles of the European Community law to be discussed in relation to the competition law and policy. It concludes that the general principles of the WTO and EC laws provide guiding principles for the future international competition norms, and makes some preliminary assessment of the present Korean competition law and policy in the light of those principles.

Effect of NAFTA, EUMFTA and China addition to WTO on the cucumber world market

OpenAIRE

Ramon Guajardo-Quiroga

2010-01-01

This study empirically analyzed the potential effects of the complete operation of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), European Union and Mexico Free Trade Agreement (EUMFTA), and the integration of China to the World Trade Organization (WTO), on the cucumber world market. Special emphasis on the impact on Mexico was presented, from a worldwide perspective. A spatial equilibrium model with endogenous prices was constructed for this purpose. Among the findings are: (1) Mexican produce...

Learning in the WTO/DDA Negotiations?: An Experimental Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hankyoung Sung

2015-09-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this paper is to identify learning in games in experimental economic settings, and apply their results to real multilateral trade negotiations, such as the Doha Development Agenda (DDA in the World Trade Organizations (WTO. This paper argues that the structure of games including a veto player (Veto games is similar to the WTO/DDA negotiations in that the players do not possess identical power. This paper's main contribution to the literature involves showing that learning about power is dominant over learning from simple repetition in Veto games. Additionally, this paper shows that players are concerned about how much they have gained in previous games in Veto games, although their memories generally do not last beyond the next game, and thus they tend to be selfish as they have less shares. Based on these results, there is a possibility to be more generous in the distribution of benefits by allowing players without veto power to retain special rights so that they would not be totally powerless. It also shows the necessity of having "respite" in the process of negotiations and policy options for choosing partners for winning coalitions.

78 FR 42084 - Cooperative Agreement to Support the World Trade Organization's Standards and Trade Development...

Science.gov (United States)

2013-07-15

...] Cooperative Agreement to Support the World Trade Organization's Standards and Trade Development Facility... The STDF is a unique global partnership established by the Food and Agriculture Organization, World... cooperative agreement in fiscal year 2013 (FY 2013) to the World Trade Organization's (WTO) Standards and...

Canada ordered to implement WTO ruling against "stockpiling" of generic drugs.

Science.gov (United States)

Elliott, R

2000-01-01

In the last issue, we reported on a mixed World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling regarding Canada's patent laws, based on a complaint by the member states of the European Communities (joined by the United States). In March 2000, a WTO Panel accepted the provision in Canada's Patent Act that creates an "early working exception" to patent rights--in other words, that allows a third party to use a patented invention during the term of patent protection, as long as the use is for obtaining regulatory approval of an equivalent product to be sold once the patent expires. This was an important victory from the perspective of allowing earlier access to generic versions of patented drugs.

77 FR 76797 - To Extend Nondiscriminatory Treatment (Normal Trade Relations Treatment) to the Products of the...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-12-28

... Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization (the ``WTO Agreement'') with respect to the... Act'') (19 U.S.C. 2431 et seq.) since 1994. The Russian Federation acceded to the World Trade Organization (WTO) on August 22, 2012. The extension of permanent normal trade relations treatment to the...

Antidumping, countervailing duties and non-market economy status of Vietnam in the WTO

OpenAIRE

Claudio Dordi

2008-01-01

The non-market economy status has a negative influence on the international trade relations of Vietnam. The article analyses the legal consequences for Vietnam of the NME status and identify the roadmap to obtain the "market economy status" from other WTO members

Benefits of trade facilitation as a simpler procedure for world trade growth

OpenAIRE

Miteva-Kacarski, Emilija; Gorgieva-Trajkovska, Olivera

2011-01-01

“The simplification and harmonisation of international trade procedures” where trade procedures are the “activities, practices and formalities involved in collecting, presenting, communicating and processing data required for the movement of goods in international trade” is trade facilitation according the WTO. Trade facilitation initiatives benefit both the business community and governments. The business community benefits by obtaining enhanced competitiveness in national and international ...

WTO Compliance Status of the Conservation Security Program (CSP) and the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP)

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Schnepf, Randy

2007-01-01

...) agreed to limit and reduce their most distortive domestic support subsidies. Several types of domestic subsidies were identified as causing minimal distortion to agricultural production and trade and were provided exemption from WTO disciplines...

APPLICATION OF THE WTO AGREEMENTS IN NATIONAL COURTS: COMPARATIVE ASPECTS OF WORLDWIDE AND LITHUANIAN JUDICIAL PRACTICES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Saulius Katuoka

2018-01-01

Full Text Available This article analyses the main World Trade Organization (WTO agreements: the 1994 GATT agreement and the agreements on the determination of the customs value and customs origin of goods. It also describes the problems involved in granting the direct effect of this external legislation in the Republic of Lithuania from the time of its accession to the WTO in 2001 and entry into the European Union (EU in 2004. The article seeks to answer the question of whether the external WTO legislation should be recognised as legal acts in the national legal system, with the capability for direct application in judicial proceedings. The article also considers whether individual persons can invoke the WTO agreements at a national level (in national courts to protect their legitimate rights and interests in international trade operations. In addition, it includes an analysis of practices followed by judicial authorities in the EU and countries in other regions, including the individual EU member states. The analysis leads to the conclusion that, unlike the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, the practices and experience of the Republic of Lithuania are essentially based on the provision that these sources of law could be directly applied at a national level in judicial cases related to the taxation of international trade operations. Analysis of the relevant issues is based on both theoretical (analysis and synthesis, systematic analysis and empirical methods (the statistical analysis of data, the evaluation and textual analysis of documents – in particular, decisions of national courts and the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU.

Energy and emissions trading. Proceedings; Energie und Klimawandel. Tagungsband

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ehlers, Dirk; Wolffgang, Hans-Michael; Schroeder, Ulrich Jan (eds.)

2010-07-01

Within the 14th Muensteraner Foreign Trade legislation conference at 15th and 16th October, 2009 in Muenster (Federal Republic of Germany), the following lectures were held: (1) National and European energy policy (Dieter Kunhenn); (2) Trade, transport and distribution of energy - actual and future legal aspects (Markus J. Kachel); (3) Liberalization and regulation of energy services at multilateral and bilateral level (Christian Pitschas); (4) Legal protection for foreign direct investigations in the energy sector (Richard Kreindler); (5) Energy cartels in the light of the WTO law (Joerg Philipp Terhechte); (6) Subsidisation of renewable energy in the area of attention between WTO and EU subsidy law (Martin Lukas); (7) Legal aspects of pipeline through the Baltic Sea (Barbara Kaech); (8) Sustainability standards and their compatibility with the WTO law (Lorenz Franken); (9) Economic instruments between Kyoto and Kopenhagen - Quo vadis climate protection? (Benjamin Goeerlach); (10) Emissions rights trading with developing countries (Peter Ebsen); (11) Legal aspects of the European emissions rights trading (Stefan Altenschmidt).

WTO: US and Argentina settle dispute over patents and data protection.

Science.gov (United States)

Elliott, Richard

2002-12-01

In May 2000, supplementing an earlier complaint filed in May 1999, the US filed a complaint against Argentina, alleging that its patent laws violate the World Trade Organization's Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (the TRIPS Agreement). The gist of the US complaint was that Argentina's law failed to provide: (1) adequate protection against "unfair" commercial use of undisclosed test data submitted in order to get market approval of pharmaceutical products; (2) certain safeguards for compulsory licences on an invention granted on the basis of inadequate working by the patent holder; and (3) adequate measures to prevent infringements of patent rights. The US also alleged that Argentina denies certain exclusive rights of patent holders, such as the exclusive right to import the patented product into the country. At the end of May 2002, the US and Argentina notified the WTO that they had reached a "mutually agreed solution," without prejudice to their respective rights and obligations under WTO agreements, and the US has withdrawn its complaint.

Implications of the World Trade Organization in combating non-communicable diseases.

Science.gov (United States)

Mitchell, A; Voon, T

2011-12-01

The World Health Organization (WHO) has proposed a number of strategies to combat non-communicable diseases such as cancers, cardiovascular diseases, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes by targeting the risk factors of tobacco use, harmful use of alcohol and poor diet. A number of the domestic regulatory responses contemplated by WHO and individual countries have the potential to restrict or distort trade, raising the question of whether they are consistent with the obligations imposed on Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO). This article demonstrates that WTO rules do limit Members' flexibility in implementing public health measures to address these diseases. However, the focus of WTO provisions on preventing discrimination against or between imports and the exceptions incorporated in various WTO agreements leave sufficient scope for Members to design carefully directed measures to achieve genuine public health goals while minimizing negative effects on international trade. Copyright © 2011 The Royal Society for Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The prospects for the World Trade Organisation Agreement on Government Procurement

OpenAIRE

Davies, Arwel

2000-01-01

This thesis questions the prospects for the World Trade Organisation, Agreement on Government Procurement. This is the most important international agreement seeking to promote cross-border trade in hitherto closed national procurement markets. For the above threshold goods, services and construction services contracts which it covers, the Agreement's principal objective is to require the non-discriminatory treatment of foreign suppliers. It is because of this general insistence on non-discri...

Kyoto Protocol: trade versus the environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Loose, H.

2001-01-01

Could the signatories to the Kyoto Protocol find themselves up against the WTO? This paper examines how the climate change agreement could conflict with trade rules, and shows that there are potentially serious conflicts in the interface between the WTO and the Kyoto Protocol. It argues for dialogue and debate before it is too late. (author)

REGIONAL TRADE AGREEMENTS AND COMPETITION POLICY. CASE STUDY: EU, ASEAN AND NAFTA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fora Andreea-Florina

2014-07-01

Full Text Available The large number of regional trade agreements notified to the World Trade Organization (WTO significantly influenced the flow of world trade. By April 2014 there had been notified 583 regional trade agreements to the WTO, of which only 379 are in force. The objective of this paper is to highlight the importance of regional trade agreements in world trade, especially the importance of establishing a regional competition policy in these agreements. The research methodology used is the analysis of legislation governing preferential trade agreements at the level of WTO, the collection and interpretation of statistical data provided by the WTO Secretariat, the case study, namely the study of literature. The paper is structured in three parts. The first part of the paper examines the basic laws based on which regional trade agreements are notified to the WTO and the evolution of these agreements in the period 1958-2013. The second part of the paper is devoted to the analysis of competition policy in regional trade agreements. In this part of the paper, to highlight the patterns of competition policy adopted under these agreements was analyzed by three case studies of competition policy in the EU, ASEAN and NAFTA. The three case studies have revealed that the three preferential trade agreements present regional competition policies with varying degrees of integration. The most complex form of competition policy is found in the European Union, because we are talking about a centralized model of competition policy. ASEAN presents a partially decentralized model, while NAFTA scrolls with a decentralized model of competition policy. The last part of the paper presents the characteristics of the four models of competition policy identified in the preferential trade agreements in force. It should be emphasized that if the initial preferential trade agreements have not put a great emphasis on the rules of competition policy, practice has shown the importance

48 CFR 3025.7002-3 - Specific application of trade agreements.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

...-discriminatory treatment under the World Trade Organization Agreement on Government Procurement (WTO GPA), or any... the WTO GPA, or any FTA listed in (FAR) 48 CFR subpart 25.4, apply the restrictions of (HSAR) 48 CFR...

WTO disciplines on agricultural support: Experience to date and assessment of Doha proposals

OpenAIRE

Orden, David; Blandford, David; Josling, Timothy Edward; Brink, Lars

2011-01-01

When the World Trade Organization (WTO) was created in 1995, its members committed themselves to a set of disciplines for domestic support, market access, and export competition for agriculture. The Agreement on Agriculture laid the way for the pursuit of progressive reductions in world agricultural market distortions. Its supporters hoped the new rules and commitments would encourage countries to move domestic farm policies in a less trade-distorting direction. This research brief examines t...

76 FR 76808 - Procurement Thresholds for Implementation of the Trade Agreements Act of 1979

Science.gov (United States)

2011-12-08

... Organization (WTO) Agreement on Government Procurement, Chapter 15 of the United States-Australia Free Trade... out U.S. trade agreement obligations under the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement, Chapter 15 of... Agreement on Government Procurement A. Central Government Entities Listed in U.S. Annex 1 (1) Procurement of...

Impact of a gradual increase in milk quotas on the EU dairy sector

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bouamra-Mechemache, Z.; Jongeneel, R.; Requillart, V.

2008-01-01

The European Union (EU) dairy sector is facing significant changes due to EU enlargement, the Luxembourg reform and ongoing World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations. This paper explores the impact of alternative dairy policies in the context of a WTO agreement and further dairy policy

"Globalization and the Changing Trade Debate: Suggestions for a New Agenda"

OpenAIRE

Thomas I. Palley

2007-01-01

The failure of the Doha Development Round of World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations in July 2006 was the first major collapse of a multilateral trade round since World War II. Research Associate Thomas I. Palley sees the failure as an event that could mark the close of a 60-year era of trade policy largely centered on increasing market access and reducing tariffs, quotas, and subsidies. Doha’s demise represents an opportunity to challenge the intellectual dominance of the current WTO par...

WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION - REFORM IT OR CHANGE IT?

OpenAIRE

Sterian Maria Gabriela

2013-01-01

The failure of Doha Round is a serious step backward for the WTO and the multilateral trading system. Some analysts already discussed in their research about the round as being already closed and they propose the developing of a new program within the organization. WTO still remains a very important institution due to its proven role in encouraging states not to take protectionist measures during the recent economic crisis, but the global trade governance reform must reflect all the changes a...

Current subsidies in the agricultural sector of the global trade system

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ganna Voronina

2006-03-01

Full Text Available This article focuses on the provisions of the WTO agreements regulating the use of subsidies in the agricultural sector by the member-states. It analyzes current practices of the WTO member-states’ in subsidizing their agricultural production. It also outlines the main trends in improving the practices of subsidizing agricultural producers in the leading countries of the world. The article also describes the major coalitions within the WTO that actively participate in the development and improvement of international trade rules in agricultural produce. In the current context whereby Ukraine seeks WTO accession, the structure of domestic measures in support of agriculture pursuant to the requirements of this international organization is given special attention. The article also considers the prospects for further liberalization of international trade in agricultural produce.

Opening the Black Box of Trade Agreements

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kohl, Tristan; De Lombaerde, Philippe; Saucedo Accosta, Edgar J.

2017-01-01

In this chapter the author presents a coding methodology to capture the heterogeneity of trade agreements and to facilitate quantitative analysis departing from qualitative legal differences in trade agreements. The coding is based on whether the provisions of the World Trade Organization (WTO) are

Comparative analysis of the practice of China and Russia joining the WTO

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anastasia Sergeyevna Loginova

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Objective to examine the positive and negative experience of China39s joining the World Trade Organization WTO that joined it on terms similar to the Russian ones for the best understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of joining and building the appropriate policy. Methods the objective of the work has been achieved through the application of both general and specific scientific methods. In particular the analysis and synthesis allowed to study the social and economic context of the state in the framework of joining the WTO the consequences of such membership and to identify the key areas for improvement of this step for Russia. Statistical techniques were used in the process of gathering information about the key economic indicators. The fundamental method was comparativelegal which made it possible to draw parallels in joining the WTO by various states. Results basing on the measures taken by China both before and after joining the WTO as well as evaluation of their implication the conclusion was made about its successful experience. The actions before joining were very effective. In particular they are applicable to the fields of agriculture automotive industry investment policy etc. The measures of nonaddress subsidizing maintaining the socioeconomic stability in the country the export orientation of the economy along with functioning of special economic zones with joint ventures are in the authors39 opinion constructive actions for Russiarsquos adaptation to the WTO. Scientific novelty for the first time the thesis is put forward about the similarity of the Russia and China conditions when joining the WTO. The analysis is made of the complex measures preceding and following the joining. The necessity is grounded of reflecting the China39s positive and negative experiences in the Russian policy. Practical significance the main provisions and conclusions can be used in the research activity in addressing the issues of Russiarsquos

Russia's accession to the WTO as an important factor of the country's integration into the world economy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Linetsky Alexander

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Russia's accession to the WTO is an efficient instrument of the country's integration into the globalized world economy. However, it can adversely affect a number of enterprises and industries within the national economy. Thus, there is a need to develop a methodology for the assessment of the preparedness for operating under WTO membership conditions, which can be practically applied in the development of measures aimed at increasing the competitiveness of economic entities. This determines the objective of the research. This article offers the author's assessment of the reasonability of Russia's accession to the WTO and suggests methodological approaches to the assessment of preparedness of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation for functioning in the new economic conditions based on the algorithm of choosing a system of indicators, as well as the organisation of enterprise monitoring according to this system, which makes it possible to formulate rational administrative decisions in order to minimise the adverse effects of Russia's accession to the WTO. The major result of the research is the conclusion that, although the objective of identifying the start position of the constituent entities before the accession to the WTO and its possible implications is quite difficult to attain, it is both theoretically and practically feasible.

Trade, Labor, Legitimacy

OpenAIRE

Guzman, Andrew

2003-01-01

The relationship between international trade and labor standards is one of several controversial issues facing the WTO. Proponents of a trade-labor link argue that labor is a human rights issue and that trade sanctions represent a critical tool in the effort to improve international working conditions. Opponents argue that a link between trade and labor would open the door to protectionist measures that would target low wage countries and harm the very workers the policy is intended to help. ...

Dispute resolution in NAFTA and the WTO: a useful guide for SADC ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

In the process of developing, structuring and formalising the mechanism for settlement of trade disputes in the SADC region, the system for the settlement of disputes in both NAFTA and the WTO can serve as a useful guide for SADC and even more so for the African Union. The swift, fair and just settlement of especially ...

Multilateral trade measures in a post-2012 climate change regime? What can be taken from the Montreal Protocol and the WTO?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang Zhongxiang

2009-01-01

The climate-trade nexus gains increasing attention as governments are taking great efforts to forge a post-2012 climate change regime to succeed the Kyoto Protocol. This raises the issues of the scope of trade-related measures and of when and how they could be used. This paper discusses how far trade-related measures should be incorporated in that context. Drawing on an analogy to the Montreal Protocol and comparing developing country's climate mitigation and adaptation needs with the funding available, the paper argues that such measures should initially be applied only among Annex I or II countries. To discipline the use of unilateral trade measures at the international level, the paper emphasizes a need to define comparable climate efforts. Moreover, the Lieberman-Warner bill in the US Senate-taken as a proxy for future US climate legislation-is assessed, and found to be neither effective nor likely to be WTO-consistent. The paper is concluded by arguing that, in order to encourage developing countries to do more to combat climate change, developed countries should focus on carrots. Sticks can be incorporated, but only if they are credible and realistic and serve as a useful supplement to push developing countries to take actions or adopt policies and measures earlier than would otherwise have been the case.

77 FR 63917 - WTO Dispute Settlement Proceeding Regarding China-Certain Measures Affecting the Automobile and...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-10-17

... Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization (``WTO Agreement'') concerning certain... Medium- and Long-Term Science and Technology Development Plan (2006-2020); Circular of the General Office... Government of Zhejiang Province on Promoting the Stable and Healthy Development of Province-Wide Foreign...

WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION – REFORM IT OR CHANGE IT?

OpenAIRE

Sterian Maria Gabriela

2013-01-01

The failure of Doha Round is a serious step backward for the WTO and the multilateral trading system. Some analysts already discussed in their research about the round as being already closed and they propose the developing of a new program within the organization. WTO still remains a very important institution due to its proven role in encouraging states not to take protectionist measures during the recent economic crisis, but the global trade governance reform must reflect all the changes a...

How does the World Trade Organization know? The mobilization and staging of scientific expertise in the GMO trade dispute.

Science.gov (United States)

Bonneuil, Christophe; Levidow, Les

2012-02-01

The World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement procedure is a key arena for establishing global legal norms for what counts as relevant knowledge. As a high-profile case, the WTO trade dispute on GMOs mobilized scientific expertise in somewhat novel ways. Early on, the Panel put the dispute under the Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Agreement through a new legal ontology; it classified transgenes as potential pests and limited all environmental issues to the 'plant and animal health' category. The selection of scientific experts sought a multi-party consensus through a fast adversarial process, reflecting a specific legal epistemology. For the SPS framing, focusing on the defendant's regulatory procedures, the Panel staged scientific expertise in specific ways that set up how experts were questioned, the answers they would give, their specific role in the legal arena, and the way their statements would complement the Panel's findings. In these ways, the dispute settlement procedure co-produced legal and scientific expertise within the Panel's SPS framework. Moreover, the Panel operated a procedural turn in WTO jurisprudence by representing its findings as a purely legal-administrative judgement on whether the EC's regulatory procedures violated the SPS Agreement, while keeping implicit its own judgements on substantive risk issues. As this case illustrates, the WTO settlement procedure mobilizes scientific expertise for sophisticated, multiple aims: it recruits a source of credibility from the scientific arena, thus reinforcing the standard narrative of 'science-based trade discipline', while also constructing new scientific expertise for the main task--namely, challenging trade restrictions for being unduly cautious.

Book Review - V Pogoretskyy, Freedom of Transit and Access to Gas Pipeline Networks Under WTO Law (Cambridge University Press, 2017)

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Marhold, Anna

2017-01-01

In Freedom of Transit and Access to Pipeline Networks under WTO Law, the author appropriately introduces the topic by stating that energy is featuring increasingly prominently as a topic in international trade law. Indeed, while being a dormant issue in the World Trade Organization (“WTO” forum for

Put Rossii v WTO / Maksim Medvedkov

Index Scriptorium Estoniae

Medvedkov, Maksim

2006-01-01

Vene delegatsiooni juht Venemaa WTO-ga liitumise läbirääkimistel vastab küsimustele, mis puudutavad USA positsiooni neil läbirääkimistel, WTO-ga liitumise võimalikke tagajärgi Venemaale liitumise esimeses etapis, endiste NSVL-i vabariikide ja Venemaa vaheliste erimeelsuste võimalikku mõju Venemaa liitumisele WTO-ga

Ukraine's Membership in the World Trade Organization

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sergio Marchi

2004-02-01

Full Text Available The WTO is a multilateral organization that seeks to ensure that international trade relations are governed by the rule of law and not by the rule of power. It comprises a network of contractual rules and commitments capable of being monitored and enforced multilaterally. Ukraine’s accession to the WTO has been marked by notable achievements in the areas of legislation and bilateral agreements with member-states regarding market access. Outstanding issues in Ukraine’s accession include agriculture, industry policy, trade-related investment measures (TRIMs, technical barriers to trade (TBT, sanitary and phyto-sanitary (SPS measures, and intellectual property rights. While completion of the process relies on Ukraine’s efforts alone, progress is being made and is expected to reach a successful conclusion.

Is world trade law a barrier to saving our climate? Questions and answers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bernasconi-Osterwalder, N.; Norpoth, J.

2009-09-01

The present 'Questions and Answers' provide an overview of the various climate-related measures and policies that fall under the scope of the WTO (World Trade Organization) and offers an initial assessment of their WTO-compatibility. Is the WTO blocking progress in the fight against climate change? This was the question at the origin of this legal analysis. With this paper and its simple question and answer format, we hope to dispel some myths and shed some light on the reality of world trade rules in their relation with climate-friendly measures. In the end, we hope to encourage policy-makers in Europe and around the world not to see the WTO as an insurmountable barrier and not to use it as an excuse against strong action on climate change.

The precautionary principle and/or risk assessment in World Trade Organization decisions: a possible role for risk perception.

Science.gov (United States)

Goldstein, Bernard; Carruth, Russellyn S

2004-04-01

Risk analysis has been recognized and validated in World Trade Organization (WTO) decision processes. In recent years the precautionary principle has been proposed as an additional or alternative approach to standard risk assessment. The precautionary principle has also been advocated by some who see it as part of postmodern democracy in which more power is given to the public on health and safety matters relative to the judgments of technocrats. A more cynical view is that the precautionary principle is particularly championed by the European Community as a means to erect trade barriers. The WTO ruling against the European Community's trade barrier against beef from hormone-treated cattle seemed to support the use of risk assessment and appeared to reject the argument that the precautionary principle was a legitimate basis for trade barriers. However, a more recent WTO decision on asbestos contains language suggesting that the precautionary principle, in the form of taking into account public perception, may be acceptable as a basis for a trade barrier. This decision, if followed in future WTO trade disputes, such as for genetically modified foods, raises many issues central to the field of risk analysis. It is too early to tell whether the precautionary principle will become accepted in WTO decisions, either as a supplement or a substitute for standard risk assessment. But it would undermine the value of the precautionary principle if this principle were misused to justify unwarranted trade barriers.

Southern African Development Community (SADC) trade legal ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Article XXIV of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) lays down the legal principles with which regional trade agreements have to conform. Based on these principles, WTO members have the mandate to determine the legality of Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) under the GATT. Article XXIV permits both ...

World Trade Organization Negotiations: The Doha Development Agenda

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Fergusson, Ian F

2008-01-01

The World Trade Organization's (WTO) Doha Development Round of multilateral trade negotiations resumed in 2007 after being suspended in July 2006 after key negotiating groups failed to break a deadlock on agricultural tariffs and subsidies...

Modelling the Asymmetric Volatility in Hog Prices in Taiwan : The Impact of Joining the WTO

NARCIS (Netherlands)

C-L. Chang (Chia-Lin); B-W. Huang (Bing-Wen); M-G. Chen (Meng-Gu)

2010-01-01

textabstractPrices in the hog industry in Taiwan are determined according to an auction system. There are significant differences in hog prices before, during and after joining the World Trade Organization (WTO). The paper models growth rates and volatility in daily hog prices in Taiwan from 23

A study on effect of world trade organization on Iran's membership on export of Iranian handmade carpet

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mansoureh Golmeymi

2013-10-01

Full Text Available World Trade Organization (WTO has been established to facilitate fringe trade in the world and there are many studies associated with the effect of WTO membership on export of various countries. This paper presents an empirical investigation to find the effect of WTO membership on export of Iranian handmade carpet. The survey uses insights from 80 experts who have at least ten years of related job experiences in carpet industry by performing an expletory and using descriptive and quantitative method for analyzing the data. The results of the survey indicate that Iran's membership in WTO will most likely reduce the sales price of handmade carpet. In addition, Iran's membership in WTO will increase scientific and professional power in handmade carpet. It will also help industry get more exposure into international market.

Contesting the Neoliberal Project for Agriculture: Productivist and Multifunctional Trajectories in the European Union and Australia

Science.gov (United States)

Dibden, Jacqui; Potter, Clive; Cocklin, Chris

2009-01-01

The liberalisation of agricultural trade is strongly contested as an international policy project. In the context of the current World Trade Organisation (WTO) Doha trade round, concerns revolve around the implications of freer trade for rural livelihoods and environments. Analysis of this complex and morally charged issue offers important…

Doha round of WTO negotiations and the domestic support for agriculture in Serbia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Popović Vesna

2007-01-01

Full Text Available Beside the fact that the green box essential inspection has, obviously, not been carried out, the long expected modality draft in the agricultural sector for July 2006 is full of opposing ponts of view and conflicting solutions to the problem. Thus, the negotiations have been completely suspended, as the very result of the lack of agreement in the field of agriculture (market approach and internal support. It is expected that Doha round of WTO negotiations should result with a significant improvement in reduction of trade distortion support. Serbia is in the process of joining the WTO and is intensively working on meeting the obligations that are expected to be completed in the process; in this case, in the field of internal support to agriculture. .

The Food Safety Modernization Act: a barrier to trade? Only if the science says so.

Science.gov (United States)

McNeill, Naomi

2012-01-01

The Food Safety Modernization Act improves oversight of America's food safety system. Title III, which regulates imported food, may create extra burdens for importers and therefore act as a barrier to trade. What will be on trial before the World Trade Organization (WTO), however, is not the law's content, but the science supporting it. Under the WTO regime, food safety laws that could restrict the free movement of food commodities must be sufficiently justified by scientific evidence. Member states must engage in risk assessments and regulate food imports in a manner that is "no more restrictive than necessary" to protect against the health risks identified by scientific evidence. This article examines the requirements of the WTO to evaluate the FSMA's legality under WTO rules. It analyzes the case law of the WTO Panel and Appellate Body and compares the FMSA to the EU's General Food Law.

Redesigning the World Trade Organization for the Twenty-First ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

15 déc. 2009 ... Two high-level commissions — the Sutherland report in 2004 and the Warwick Commission report in 2007 — addressed the future of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and made proposals for incremental reform. This book goes further. It explains why institutional reform of the WTO is needed at this ...

Trade and investment rules for energy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2009-09-15

Rules that govern energy trade is an issue that has generated increasing concern everywhere, from the standpoint of both the security of supply for consumers and security of demand for suppliers. This concern reflects the importance of rules that comprehensively address the needs from supply and demand point of view and integrate the international fabric of energy trade. The GATT and the WTO Agreement define trans-border movement of energy but leave many aspects unclear, particularly as efforts accelerate to control carbon emissions. This timely report by a WEC Task Force of experts with legal standing in the energy business identifies the most pressing issues relating to energy trade and suggests actions and measures which, if implemented, would provide clarity and answer many questions. More importantly, these measures would strengthen the WTO and coming rounds of negotiations.

Developing a normative critique of international trade law: special & differential treatment

OpenAIRE

Garcia, Frank J.

2007-01-01

Although the problem of trade and inequality is central to the resolution of the WTO Doha Round and to contemporary trade policy in general, it is currently undertheorized from a normative perspective. In this paper I develop a normative critique of WTO special and differential treatment law, as a case study of how normative political theory can be applied to international economic law. Using Rawls' theory of Justice as Fairness, I argue both that special and differential treatment can play a...

Trade liberalization and tuberculosis incidence: a longitudinal multi-level analysis in 22 high burden countries between 1990 and 2010.

Science.gov (United States)

Bozorgmehr, Kayvan; San Sebastian, Miguel

2014-05-01

Trade liberalization is promoted by the World Trade Organization (WTO) through a complex architecture of binding trade agreements. This type of trade, however, has the potential to modify the upstream and proximate determinants of tuberculosis (TB) infection. We aimed to analyse the association between trade liberalization and TB incidence in 22 high-burden TB countries between 1990 and 2010. and findings A longitudinal multi-level linear regression analysis was performed using five different measures of trade liberalization as exposure [WTO membership, duration of membership, trade as % of gross domestic product, and components of both the Economic Freedom of the World Index (EFI4) and the KOF Index of Globalization (KOF1)]. We adjusted for a wide range of factors, including differences in human development index (HDI), income inequality, debts, polity patterns, conflict, overcrowding, population stage transition, health system financing, case detection rates and HIV prevalence. None of the five trade indicators was significantly associated with TB incidence in the crude analysis. Any positive effect of EFI4 on (Log-) TB incidence over time was confounded by differences in socio-economic development (HDI), HIV prevalence and health financing indicators. The adjusted TB incidence rate ratio of WTO member countries was significantly higher [RR: 1.60; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.12-2.29] when compared with non-member countries. We found no association between specific aggregate indicators of trade liberalization and TB incidence. Our analyses provide evidence of a significant association between WTO membership and higher TB incidence, which suggests a possible conflict between the architecture of WTO agreements and TB-related Millennium Development Goals. Further research is needed, particularly on the relation between the aggregate trade indices used in this study and the hypothesized mediators and also on sector-specific indices, specific trade agreements and

COMPETITIVENESS ОF CHINESE ECONOMY AFTER JOINING WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V. S. Shlik

2008-01-01

Full Text Available The paper contains analysis of the China’s membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO. The advantages and disadvantages of WTO joining and also prospects and unforeseen difficulties are given in the paper. The People’s Republic of China has already been a full-member of WTO for 6 years. The Chinese Government has mainly fulfilled all the conditions which were imposed for WTO joining. They concerned customs legislation that presupposed a considerable reduction of custom duties, an access to the service market for foreign investors, an increase of responsibility for violation of intellectual property rights. Many of these conditions have been fulfilled in advance.

Trade and health: an agenda for action

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Richard D; Lee, Kelley; Drager, Nick

2009-01-01

The processes of contemporary globalisation are creating ever-closer ties between individuals and populations across different countries. The health of a population, and the systems in place to deliver health care, are affected increasingly by factors beyond the population and health system. The Lancet’s Series on trade and health has provided an overview of these links between international trade, trade liberalisation, and health, and raised the key issues that face the health community. In this final paper in the Series, we call for a substantial and sustained effort by those within the health profession to engage with issues of trade, to strengthen institutional capacity in this area, and to place health higher on the agenda of trade negotiations. The rapid rise of trade agreements and treaties, as well as trade that occurs beyond these institutional boundaries, means that further action is required by a range of actors, including WHO, the World Bank, the World Trade Organization (WTO), regional agencies, foundations, national governments, civil society, non-governmental organisations, and academics. The stewardship of a domestic health system in the 21st century requires a sophisticated understanding of how trade affects, and will affect, a country’s health system and policy, to optimise opportunities to benefit health and health care while minimising the risks posed though the assertion of health goals in trade policy. To acheive this will place a premium on all those engaged in health to understand the importance of trade and to engage with their counterparts involved in trade and trade policy. We hope that this Series has prompted the reader to become involved in these efforts. PMID:19167056

Trade and health: an agenda for action.

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Richard D; Lee, Kelley; Drager, Nick

2009-02-28

The processes of contemporary globalisation are creating ever-closer ties between individuals and populations across different countries. The health of a population, and the systems in place to deliver health care, are affected increasingly by factors beyond the population and health system. The Lancet's Series on trade and health has provided an overview of these links between international trade, trade liberalisation, and health, and raised the key issues that face the health community. In this final paper in the Series, we call for a substantial and sustained effort by those within the health profession to engage with issues of trade, to strengthen institutional capacity in this area, and to place health higher on the agenda of trade negotiations. The rapid rise of trade agreements and treaties, as well as trade that occurs beyond these institutional boundaries, means that further action is required by a range of actors, including WHO, the World Bank, the World Trade Organization (WTO), regional agencies, foundations, national governments, civil society, non-governmental organisations, and academics. The stewardship of a domestic health system in the 21st century requires a sophisticated understanding of how trade affects, and will affect, a country's health system and policy, to optimise opportunities to benefit health and health care while minimising the risks posed though the assertion of health goals in trade policy. To acheive this will place a premium on all those engaged in health to understand the importance of trade and to engage with their counterparts involved in trade and trade policy. We hope that this Series has prompted the reader to become involved in these efforts.

Tobacco control and the World Trade Organization: mapping member states' positions after the framework convention on tobacco control.

Science.gov (United States)

Eckhardt, Jappe; Holden, Chris; Callard, Cynthia D

2016-11-01

To note the frequency of discussions and disputes about tobacco control measures at the World Trade Organization (WTO) before and after the coming into force of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). To review trends or patterns in the positions taken by members of the WTO with respect to tobacco control measures. To discuss possible explanations for these observed trends/patterns. We gathered data on tobacco-related disputes in the WTO since its establishment in 1995 and its forerunner, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), prior-FCTC and post-FCTC. We also looked at debates on tobacco control measures within the WTO more broadly. To this end, we classified and coded the positions of WTO member states during discussions on tobacco control and the FCTC, from 1995 until 2013, within the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Committee and the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Council. There is a growing interest within the WTO for tobacco-related issues and opposition to tobacco control measures is moving away from high-income countries towards low(er) income countries. The growing prominence of tobacco issues in the WTO can be attributed at least in part to the fact that during the past decade tobacco firms have been marginalised from the domestic policy-making process in many countries, which has forced them to look for other ways and forums to influence decision-making. Furthermore, the finding that almost all recent opposition within the WTO to stronger tobacco regulations came from developing countries is consistent with a relative shift of transnational tobacco companies' lobbying efforts from developed to developing countries. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

British American Tobacco's tactics during China's accession to the World Trade Organization.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhong, Fei; Yano, Eiji

2007-04-01

China entered the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001 after years of negotiations. As a WTO member, China had to reduce tariffs on imported cigarettes and remove non-tariff barriers to allow foreign cigarettes to be more competitive in the Chinese market. Among foreign tobacco companies, British American Tobacco (BAT) was the most active lobbyist during China's WTO negotiations. To review and analyse BAT's tactics and activities relating to China's entry into the WTO. Internal tobacco industry documents were reviewed and are featured here. Industry documents were searched mainly on the website of BAT's Guildford Depository and other documents' websites. 528 documents were evaluated and 142 were determined to be relevant to China's entry into the WTO. BAT was extremely active during the progress of China's entry into the WTO. The company focused its lobbying efforts on two main players in the negotiations: the European Union (EU) and the US. Because of the negative moral and health issues related to tobacco, BAT did not seek public support from officials associated with the WTO negotiations. Instead, BAT lobbyists suggested that officials protect the interests of BAT by presenting the company's needs as similar to those of all European companies. During the negotiation process, BAT officials repeatedly spoke favourably of China's accession into the WTO, with the aim of presenting BAT as a facilitator in this process and of gaining preferential treatment from their Chinese competitor. BAT's activities clearly suggest that tobacco companies place their own interests above public health interests. Today, China struggles with issues of tobacco control that are aggravated by the aggressive practices of transnational tobacco companies, tobacco-tariff reductions and the huge number of smokers. For the tobacco-control movement to progress in China, health advocates must understand how foreign tobacco companies have undermined anti-tobacco activities by taking advantage

Doha round of WTO negotiations and trade liberalization in Serbian agriculture

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Popović Vesna

2008-01-01

Full Text Available The accession of Serbia to the WTO is expected in 2008. In negotiations process, the most difficult is to reach agreement in agriculture. This sector is very sensitive in market access for biotechnological, economical and social reasons. The level of sensitivity varies between production branches. In the course of defining the schedules of market access commitments, it is crucial to keep in mind the need of reconciliation dynamics and level of market liberalization with the obligations comprised in the EU Stabilization and Association Agreement. Export support policy also must conform to the Doha negotiations commitments.

Organising Learning: Informal Workplace Learning in a Trade Union Child-Care Campaign

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, Tony

2008-01-01

Purpose: Trade unions, like many other membership-based social movement organisations, are confronted by the challenge of growth and revitalisation. Declining membership numbers, an increasingly restrictive legislative framework, and dramatic changes in modes of employment have combined to challenge many unions to rethink the way they work. In…

The budgeting and reporting process of a multinational organisation across regions and trade centres

OpenAIRE

Robusti, Fiorenza

2012-01-01

In the contemporary international business environment, a multinational organisation faces great challenges when it comes to budgeting and reporting. The complexity of budgeting and reporting is even greater when it implies the coordination of budgets and reports of trade centres located in other countries than the country of origin. A multinational organisation often adopts the participative budgeting method. The purpose of participative budgeting is to involve managers at lower manage...

World Trade Organization: U.S. Experience in Dispute Settlement System: The First Five Years

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

2000-01-01

.... Established in January 1995 as a result of the Uruguay Round of international trade negotiations, the WTO administers rules for international trade and provides a forum for conducting trade negotiations...

Bo Xilai :China will honor its World Trade Organization(WTO) commitments. Banking and telecommunications market sectors would be opened in time

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

无

2006-01-01

@@ Minister of Commerce Bo Xilai promised on September 4 that China will honor its WTO commitments. At a ceremony to mark China's five-year WTO partnership, Bo Xilai promised this to commercial leaders of Europe present again. Bo said all market sectors would be opened in time, referring especially to banking and telecommunications.

Negotiating a Plurilateral Agreement on Trade in Services

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Agnes Ghibuțiu

2014-01-01

Full Text Available This paper analyses the ongoing plurilateral negotiations for a new Agreement on Trade in Services. Its aim is to answer to the following set of questions: (1 What are the motivations behind these negotiations as well as the objectives of the new plurilateral trade in services agreement? How will the architecture of the new agreement look like? (2 What are the interests involved in negotiating this new plurilateral agreement on trade in services? and (3 How will it fit into the multilateral trading system revolving around the WTO? According to the findings of the paper, the new deal that is promoted by 23 like-minded WTO Members, including the EU, is a policy response to disappointment over the protracted multilateral talks and the very impasse of the Doha Round. Yet, the stakes on negotiating an ambitious market opening for services are quite high, given the importance of services in international trade and particularly their crucial role in global production networks, that dominate nowadays global production, trade and investments.

How to model a negligible probability under the WTO sanitary and phytosanitary agreement?

Science.gov (United States)

Powell, Mark R

2013-06-01

Since the 1997 EC--Hormones decision, World Trade Organization (WTO) Dispute Settlement Panels have wrestled with the question of what constitutes a negligible risk under the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement. More recently, the 2010 WTO Australia--Apples Panel focused considerable attention on the appropriate quantitative model for a negligible probability in a risk assessment. The 2006 Australian Import Risk Analysis for Apples from New Zealand translated narrative probability statements into quantitative ranges. The uncertainty about a "negligible" probability was characterized as a uniform distribution with a minimum value of zero and a maximum value of 10(-6) . The Australia - Apples Panel found that the use of this distribution would tend to overestimate the likelihood of "negligible" events and indicated that a triangular distribution with a most probable value of zero and a maximum value of 10⁻⁶ would correct the bias. The Panel observed that the midpoint of the uniform distribution is 5 × 10⁻⁷ but did not consider that the triangular distribution has an expected value of 3.3 × 10⁻⁷. Therefore, if this triangular distribution is the appropriate correction, the magnitude of the bias found by the Panel appears modest. The Panel's detailed critique of the Australian risk assessment, and the conclusions of the WTO Appellate Body about the materiality of flaws found by the Panel, may have important implications for the standard of review for risk assessments under the WTO SPS Agreement. © 2012 Society for Risk Analysis.

Preferential Trade Agreements and the Law and Politics of GATT Article XXIV

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Alavi, Amin

2010-01-01

The tasks Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs) perform are expressed in their scope and covered issues, thus in order to be WTO compatible these aspects of PTAs should comply with the relevant WTO rules. This paper examines which aspects of PTAs can violate these rules and therefore can be challe...... be challenged before the WTO Dis-pute Settlement Body, who may initiate such cases and why there hasn´t been more cases dealing with this im-portant issue....

Contenciosos brasileiros na Organização Mundial do Comércio (OMC: pauta comercial, política e instituições Brazil litigation in the WTO: trade mix, politics and institutions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniel Arbix

2008-12-01

Full Text Available O presente estudo busca analisar a formulação da política comercial brasileira, de relevância e complexidade crescentes, no caso das demandas brasileiras ao Órgão de Solução de Controvérsias (OSC da Organização Mundial do Comércio (OMC. Examina-se a centralização de tal política no Poder Executivo com foco em seus processos decisórios, a partir do contexto econômico e político pertinente para a seleção das demandas apresentadas a tal mecanismo de solução de controvérsias. Além de se perscrutar o funcionamento da Câmara de Comércio Exterior (Camex e sua interação com outros órgãos estatais, investiga-se a dinâmica da condução dos contenciosos e de suas repercussões na agenda comercial da OMC. Constata-se que, à margem do desenho institucional focalizado na Camex, a escolha das demandas responde à pauta comercial e ao impacto nas negociações internacionais do país, acompanhando a pauta de exportação e os principais parceiros comerciais do Brasil, no marco da Rodada Doha da OMC. Marcadas por constrangimentos internos e externos, portanto, as estratégias sobre litígios comerciais internacionais demandam transparência e cooperação aperfeiçoadas com o setor privado.This study seeks to analyze Brazil's foreign trade policy, which is of growing importance and complexity, in the particular case of litigation with the WTO's Dispute Settlement Body. Such policy centralization with the Executive Branch is examined with focus on the decision making processes, with grounds on the political and economical context relevant to the selection of disputes to be initiated with the mentioned dispute settlement mechanism. Brazilian Chamber of Foreign Commerce (Camex's operations are scrutinized, as well as its interactions with other state bodies, which is followed by an investigation of the dynamics of the disputes' conduction and their repercussion on the WTO's trade agenda. Perceived results are that, despite decisions

The Challenges Facing the Multilateral Trading System in Addressing Global Public Policy Objectives

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christophe Bellmann

2013-02-01

Full Text Available Despite a record-breaking 14.5 per cent increase in world merchandise exports, the effects of the financial crisis and global recession are still hampering faster economic recovery. Relatively high oil prices combined with persistent unemployment and measures designed to reduce budget deficits have undermined short-term growth prospects. While South–South trade continues to explode, trade imbalances – i.e. the gap between exports and imports – widened in 2010 compared to 2009 (though smaller than pre-crisis levels. Meanwhile, trade negotiations under the Doha Round have reached an impasse, generating uncertainties about the future of the World Trade Organization (WTO as a negotiating forum. Under these circumstances, should the system rethink its decision-making process founded upon the predominance of member states, the principle of consensus and the notion of single undertaking, as some critics have suggested? And, if so, how could such a reform agenda be initiated at the WTO? Moreover, beyond the negotiating function of the WTO, the paralysis of the system also raises urgent questions about the ability of the system to respond to pressing challenges of our times, such as trade and climate change, or food security and price volatility.

How do international trade obligations affect policy options for obesity prevention? Lessons from recent developments in trade and tobacco control.

Science.gov (United States)

von Tigerstrom, Barbara

2013-06-01

Regulatory measures, including taxes and subsidies on food and beverage products, food labelling requirements, regulation of food content and regulation of food marketing, have been proposed to encourage healthier eating and prevent obesity. The objective of this article is to explore the extent to which international trade agreements affect governments' choices to use such regulatory measures. It reviews key provisions of relevant World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements and their implications. Some insights can be gained by examining 2 recent developments in the WTO regarding tobacco control: a current dispute involving Australia's plain packaging law and its effect on trademarks, and a recent decision involving the United States law banning flavoured cigarettes. This decision said that the ban did not restrict trade more than necessary to fulfil its legitimate health objective, but it was discriminatory because it banned imported products (clove cigarettes) while exempting domestic products (menthol cigarettes) with similar characteristics. The conclusion we can draw from this decision is that WTO member states probably enjoy a significant degree of latitude in developing food regulations as part of an obesity prevention strategy, so long as those do not disproportionately affect imported products and therefore raise questions of discrimination. The approach taken in this case encourages the adoption of public health policies that are consistent with strong scientific evidence, but may restrict governments' ability to make political compromises, which could frustrate some proposals. The ongoing development of WTO law will continue to affect policy choices in public health. Copyright © 2013 Canadian Diabetes Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Education Imports and Exports in the Framework of the World Trade Organization and Adjustments of Education Legislation and Policy Making in China

Science.gov (United States)

Mansheng, Zhou

2009-01-01

Commitments on trade in education services constitute a vital part of China's promises after securing World Trade Organization (WTO) membership. This paper provides a detailed analysis of the forms of educational imports and exports in the framework of WTO and examines the Chinese government's efforts to adjust education legislation and policy…

The Russian Trade-Remedy System : peculiarities and future prospects / Sherzod Shadikhodjaev

Index Scriptorium Estoniae

Shadikhodjaev, Sherzod

2010-01-01

Venemaa kaubanduse parandusmeetmete süsteemi iseärasused võrreldes WTO reeglitega. Agreement on Implementation of Article VI of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (1994, Marrakesh Agreement). Russian Trade-Remedy Law (2003)

The potential impact of the World Trade Organization's general agreement on trade in services on health system reform and regulation in the United States.

Science.gov (United States)

Skala, Nicholas

2009-01-01

The collapse of the World Trade Organization's (WTO) Doha Round of talks without achieving new health services liberalization presents an important opportunity to evaluate the wisdom of granting further concessions to international investors in the health sector. The continuing deterioration of the U.S. health system and the primacy of reform as an issue in the 2008 presidential campaign make clear the need for a full range of policy options for addressing the national health crisis. Yet few commentators or policymakers realize that existing WTO health care commitments may already significantly constrain domestic policy options. This article illustrates these constraints through an evaluation of the potential effects of current WTO law and jurisprudence on the implementation of a single-payer national health insurance system in the United States, proposed incremental national and state health system reforms, the privatization of Medicare, and other prominent health system issues. The author concludes with some recommendations to the U.S. Trade Representative to suspend existing liberalization commitments in the health sector and to interpret current and future international trade treaties in a manner consistent with civilized notions of health care as a universal human right.

Pharmaceutical patents and access to essential medicines in sub ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) has reawakened old arguments over the impact of the intellectual property (IP) system on public access to essential medicines. As used here, essential medicines are those needed in symptom management, ...

The Plights of African Resources Patenting through the Lenses of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Background: Just as developing states are blessed with natural resources capable of transforming their economies into a positive direction, the imposed World Trade Organisation's (WTO) mores continue to relegate them to status of underdevelopment. The consequences of this on investment, trade and finance in Third ...

THE EFFECTS OF THE WTO AND THE TTIP AGREEMENT ON THE CROATIAN ECONOMY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ana Vizjak

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Immediately after becoming independent on 15 January 1991, the Republic of Croatia became a member of the IMF. Although, as a successor of the former Yugoslavia, it had full GATT membership, and thus membership in the WTO, the Croatian government did not know how to exercise its rights and therefore had to go through the entire procedure in order to access the organisation in 2000. Presently, Croatia is the 28th Member State of the EU and has scarce information about the TTIP, the effects of which will directly affect Croatia as well as all Member States. The purpose of this paper is to realistically analyse the possible effects on our economy in relation to this globally important agreement. The TTIP is a trade agreement between the EU and the USA which has an important economic and geo-strategic interest, since its role is connecting two powerful economies and their common position on the global market as well as long-term pacesetting in relation to other regions in the world, which refers to the standard and the way of doing business. Therefore, we can conclude that the long-term strategic goal is market integration and establishment of grid plans which, once established, will not be able to undergo significant changes. The aim of this paper is to examine the default hypothesis and thus establish facts in relation to trends in international trade and its adaptation to globalization and economic changes in the world as well as its impact on Croatia. The scientific methods used in this paper are methods of systematic analysis, the dialectical and logical method, mostly in the inductive-deductive combination, and vice versa. The scientific contribution is reflected in the development of scientific thought about the importance of the effects of globalization on trade and the economy in general in the world and in Croatia.

WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION – REFORM IT OR CHANGE IT?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sterian Maria Gabriela

2013-07-01

Full Text Available The failure of Doha Round is a serious step backward for the WTO and the multilateral trading system. Some analysts already discussed in their research about the round as being already closed and they propose the developing of a new program within the organization. WTO still remains a very important institution due to its proven role in encouraging states not to take protectionist measures during the recent economic crisis, but the global trade governance reform must reflect all the changes and realities. The transition is being made toward a more regionalized and preferential global trade and the emergence of strong developing countries shape the whole multilateral trade negotiations. The important growth rates in emerging countries are translated also in strong demand for representation in global trade governance. Objectives: This paper aims to underline the role of multilateralism as form of international cooperation, the link with global economic governance and what concerns academic community in terms of having a reform of it. Prior Work: It has been tried to emphasizing the concepts already developed by known researchers in the field. Approach: The approach is a more theoretic one done in a comparative manner with emphasis on results and future research. The critical method approach is done with qualitative results. Results: The key results are related to pros and cons of reforming the World Trade Organization, as well as presenting the criticisms and proposals for having a second World Trade Organization. Implications: The implications are varied in terms of studying the concepts and addresses researchers in the field, but also lecturers and students. Value: The main added value is the compared approach of the traditional WTO as it derived from General Agreement on Tariff and Trade and the proposal for a new one and its formal relationship with the global economic governance.

Direct taxation and the WTO Agreements

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Karsten Engsig

2002-01-01

Pursuant to the report published in the dispute concerning the US tax treatment of foreign sales corporations (FSC) the articles analyses the implication of the report for the tax systems of the WTO Members. Furthermore a parallel is drawn between the development with the WTO and within the Europ...

Global Trade Alert | CRDI - Centre de recherches pour le ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Global Trade Alert (GTA) will provide information in real time on national measures taken during the current global economic downturn that are likely to discriminate against foreign commerce. GTA will complement and go beyond World Trade Organization (WTO) and World Bank monitoring initiatives by identifying affected ...

The role of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) to facilitate the international trade in animals and animal products.

Science.gov (United States)

Brückner, G K

2009-03-01

The international trade in animals and animal products has become a sensitive issue for both developed and developing countries by posing an important risk for the international spread of animal and human pathogens whilst at the same time being an essential activity to ensure world-wide food security and food safety. The OIE has since its founding in 1924, applied a democratic and transparent decision-making process to continuously develop and review international standards for animal health and zoonoses to facilitate trade in animals and animal products. The role of the OIE is also mandated by the World Trade Organization (WTO) as international reference point for standards related to animal health. In support of its overall objective of promoting animal health world-wide, the OIE has also launched several other initiatives such as the improvement of the governance of veterinary services within its member countries and territories and to enhance the availability of diagnostic and scientific expertise on a more even global geographical distribution. Several trade facilitating concepts such as country, zonal and compartment freedom from disease as well the trade in disease free commodities has been introduced to enhance the trade in animals and animal products for all its members including those from developing and transitional countries who are still in the process of enhancing to full compliance with international sanitary standards.

Browse Title Index

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Items 151 - 171 of 171 ... Vol 4 (2013), World Trade Organisation (WTO): Trade rules/agreements and developing countries, Abstract PDF. Emeka Adibe. Vol 6 (2015), Xenophobia: A crime against humanity and its attendant implications on human rights, Abstract PDF. Simon-Peter Ayooluwa St. Emmanuel. 151 - 171 of 171 ...

Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights – Blessing or Curse? A ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

adhesion of Mauritius to the World Trade Organisation (WTO). It examines the harsh response of the law enforcement institutions and the heavy price that weaker and more vulnerable people have had to pay and queries whether Mauritius implemented the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights agreement ...

The Level of African Engagement at the World Trade Organization from 1995 to 2010.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joan Apecu

2013-06-01

Full Text Available This article analyses the level of individual and collective participation of African World Trade Organization (WTO Members in the Organization over a 15 year period, from 1995 to 2010. Specifically, it compares participation levels in three core areas of the WTO: regular committee work; Doha multilateral negotiations; and, dispute settlement. Primary data are collected and examined. Analysis showed that individual and collective participation by African WTO Members was nominal, minimal and largely ineffectual in relation to the group's significant membership share, in areas identified as priority, and compared to members' participation from other regions. The results of the analysis strongly suggest that the described level of participation of African countries is explained by the continuing inertia of a “special and differential exemption orientation”; misalignment in coordinating capital-driven domestic trade policy and economic reforms with the African WTO "Geneva frontline"; misallocation of negotiators across the core areas of work; a small trade share; and, to a lesser extent, specialised capacity handicaps. Furthermore, analysis indicated that the degree of engagement of participation of African WTO Members could be explained by levels of personal commitment and professional engagement of individual negotiators, regardless of capacity constraints and weaknesses. There were evident relationships between the level of African participation and the governance and institutional structures from which negotiators originated. Negotiators from systems with fragile democracies and weak governance structures tended to be tentative, largely inactive, inconsistent in participation and ineffectual in engagement. Within this overarching explanatory framework, specific variables have intervened in different combinations in the three areas of work to influence the levels of engagement, such as trade share levels, specific commercial interests, and

Government Procurement : Market Access, Transparency, and Multilateral Trade Rules

OpenAIRE

Evenett, Simon J.; Hoekman, Bernard M.

2004-01-01

The authors examine the effects on national welfare and market access of two public procurement practices-discrimination against foreign suppliers of goods and services and nontransparency of the procedures used to allocate government contracts to firms. Both types of policies have become prominent in international trade negotiations, including the Doha Round of the World Trade Organization (WTO) trade talks. Traditionally, the focus of international trade agreements has been on market access...

The Southern African Development Community Trade Legal Instruments Compliance with Certain Criteria of GATT Article XXIV

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A Saurombe

2011-07-01

Full Text Available Article XXIV of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT lays down the legal principles with which regional trade agreements have to conform. Based on these principles, WTO members have the mandate to determine the legality of Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs under the GATT. Article XXIV permits both regional and bilateral preferential trade agreements leading to the formation of customs unions and free trade areas, and seeks to integrate them in the multilateral trading system envisioned for the world. SADC is an RTA created under this Article. Notwithstanding the controversies surrounding the provisions and interpretation of Article XXIV, this paper seeks to establish the extent to which the SADC Protocol on Trade and free trade area comply with WTO rules. An analysis of selected Article XXIV provisions and the SADC Trade Protocol provisions will be undertaken in trying to establish this compliance.

World Trade Organization: U.S. Experience in Dispute Settlement System: The First Five Years

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

2000-01-01

... of multilateral trade rules. In addition, the Uruguay Round agreements established a new dispute settlement system, replacing that under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the predecessor to the WTO...

78 FR 76700 - Procurement Thresholds for Implementation of the Trade Agreements Act of 1979

Science.gov (United States)

2013-12-18

... International Procurement Policy, Office of the United States Trade Representative, (202) 395-9646 or scott... the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Government Procurement, Chapter 15 of the United... OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE Procurement Thresholds for Implementation of the...

The trade regime and the climate regime. Institutional evolution and adaptation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brewer, Thomas L.

2003-01-01

This article addresses concerns that the multilateral trade regime centered in the WTO and the emerging climate regime may conflict in ways that could be damaging to either or both. The article discusses the institutional and diplomatic context of these concerns, and it identifies the kinds of issues that are in question. The analysis suggests that there are opportunities for win-win outcomes in the interactions of the two regimes, for instance in the possibility of reducing fossil fuel subsidies. However, there are also problematic areas where they intersect. A core issue-and as yet an unresolved one-is whether and how emission credit trading and other activities envisioned by the Kyoto Protocol would be subject to WTO rules. The resolution of this issue will affect many other issues as well. Additional specific issues about the interactions of particular provisions in WTO agreements and the Kyoto Protocol are analyzed in a subsequent companion article in Climate Policy

Trade Facilitation in Ethiopia:

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Tilahun_EK

so doing, it attempts to examine how Ethiopia's WTO Accession and trade facilitation ... the more expensive imports, exports and production becomes rendering. Ethiopian ..... can reserve the right to refuse requests of importers for the fifth valuation method to ..... units may find it easier to deal with post clearance audit. In the ...

48 CFR 252.225-7045 - Balance of Payments Program-Construction Material Under Trade Agreements.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

.... Designated country means— (1) A World Trade Organization Government Procurement Agreement (WTO GPA) country... another country, has been substantially transformed in a Free Trade Agreement country into a new and... Program-Construction Material Under Trade Agreements. 252.225-7045 Section 252.225-7045 Federal...

GLOBALIZATION AND TRADE LIBERALIZATION: “A THREAT OR AN OPPORTUNITY”?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrei-Stefan Enghiş

2006-07-01

Full Text Available The present paper attempts to evaluate the global economic system through the perspective of neoliberalism, which advocates for the continuous liberalization of trade and the progressive opening of the markets in different economic sectors. Seeking to observe the neoliberal vision on the world economy, the study relies on two speeches delivered by the former European Union’s Trade Commissioner, Pascal Lamy in a time span of four years, between 2000 and 2004, a period marked by two important WTO Ministerial Conferences: the Doha 2001 WTO Ministerial Conference and the Cancun 2003 WTO Ministerial Conference. Nonetheless, in order to provide a balanced analysis of the world economic system, the study provides a brief introspection into the other theoretical vision, alterglobalism, which advocates for a different understanding of the relations between trade liberalization, state intervention in the economy and the reduction of the existent economic disparities. The analysis is divided into three sections: the first section portrays the two antithetical visions, neoliberalism and alterglobalism, while the second one focuses exclusively on the person of Pascal Lamy and on the speeches that represent the core of this study. The third section consists in a comparative analysis of the two divergent economic perspectives, trying to identify the main opposing points, as well as those points on which the two economic perspectives may converge. The conclusion looks closely at the relations between globalization and trade liberalization and the criticism brought about by alterglobalism, the archrival of neoliberalism and trade liberalization. It also considers the relation between the two neoliberal speeches of the former EU Trade Commissioner, attempting to identify potential links or divergent attitudes between the two.

PRINSIP-PRINSIP GATS (GENERAL AGREEMENT ON TRADE IN SERVICES TERHADAP PERDAGANGAN JASA PENDIDIKAN TINGGI

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alberta Hartiana

2017-05-01

Full Text Available International trade in higher education belongs to the more complex reality in the international trade in services, become global trends and reform in system of higher education all over the world. This research is aimed at finding out both modes of supply and principles of GATS regarding international trade in services. The main objective of the GATS is creating a credible and reliable system of international trade rules; ensuring fair and equitable treatment of all members; stimulating economic activity through guaranteed policy bindings and promoting trade and development through progressive liberalization. This study used normative research. The method used for collecting data was the statute approach. Primary legal sources derived from WTO Trade in Services Division regarding GATS obligations and the principles of the international trade in services. The result of this study, it was found that, there were four modes of supply trade in education under GATS (article 1:2 such as: cross-border supply; consumption abroad; commercial presence and delivery abroad; and the principles of GATS divided into two categories; Firstly, unconditionally obligations, such as the Most-Favoured Nation (article II GATS and Transparency (article III GATS apply directly and automatically to all WTO members and services sector regardless of whether WTO member schedule commitment or not; Secondly, conditionally obligations such as: National Treatment (article XVII and Market Access (article XVI  and only applies to commitment listed in national schedules. Perdagangan internasional dalam pendidikan tinggi milik realitas yang lebih kompleks dalam perdagangan internasional di bidang jasa, menjadi tren global dan reformasi dalam sistem pendidikan tinggi di seluruh dunia. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui model-model pasokan dan prinsip-prinsip GATS mengenai perdagangan internasional di bidang jasa. Tujuan utama dari GATS adalah menciptakan sistem yang kredibel

75 FR 80038 - Notice of Meetings of the Agricultural Policy Advisory Committee for Trade and the Agricultural...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-12-21

...Notice is hereby given that the Agricultural Policy Advisory Committee for Trade (APAC) and the Agricultural Technical Advisory Committees for Trade (ATAC) will hold closed meetings on January 13, 2011. The advisory committees are administered by USDA and the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR). The meetings are closed to the public in accordance with the Trade Act of 1974, 19 U.S.C. 2155(f)(2), and the Government in the Sunshine Act, 5 U.S.C. 552b(c)(4) and (6). USTR has determined that public access to this meeting would seriously compromise the development by the U.S. Government of trade policy priorities, negotiating objectives, or bargaining positions with respect to the operation of trade agreements and other matters arising in connection with the development, implementation, and administration of the trade policy of the United States. Topics will include Doha Round negotiations in the World Trade Organization (WTO), WTO accession negotiations, and negotiations in bilateral and regional free trade agreements.

Protection of industry competitiveness, climate policy, and WTO

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cros, Ch.

2007-01-01

This report analyses the possibilities left by the WTO to its members to compensate an additional cost which would result from a policy of struggle against climate change. In a first part, the author identifies the existing possibilities within WTO rules themselves: rules based of production processes, border tax adjustments, subsidies. In a second part, he questions the exception regime established by the GATT's article X X which allows under some circumstances some measures to be implemented which are not compliant with WTO rules

The Rights of Private Economic Actors Under the World Trade Organization Agreements in Indonesia

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Intan Soeparna

2012-09-01

Full Text Available Nothing in the Uruguay Round mentions directly about rights of private economic actors. It seems that the relationship to private economic actors (or may be individual does not exist within the WTO Agreements, because as a general rule, private parties are not legal subjects of the international legal order. However, this article will prevail upon this situation, by looking closer at the essence of the WTO Agreements to discern the rights of private economic actors that derive from the WTO. The main question of this article is to what extent then Indonesia is dealing with the rights of private economic actors under the WTO Agreements? The background of this questionis because four years after ratifying the WTO Agreements, Indonesia has been facing what is arguably the most serious multidimensional crisis in 1997, some difficult situations have arisen from the crisis; therefore, the society hesitated to accept the open world trading system. The society seemed look askance to the implementation of the WTO Agreements. But Indonesian Government took major step to reduce the skepticism of society toward liberalization, by readjusting its national laws conform to the WTO Agreements with the intention to support the rights of national economic actors under the WTO Agreements in order to achieve total benefits of the WTO rules.

Teaching International Economics and Trade--Concepts in International Relations

Science.gov (United States)

Starbird, Caroline; DeBoer, Dale; Pettit, Jenny

2004-01-01

The purpose of this book is to introduce students to real-life issues in international economics. The sections of the book are: (1) The Advantages of Trade; (2) Judging NAFTA; (3) Does Globalization Benefit Poor Countries?; (4) Pocket Guide to International Financial Institutions; (5) What Do You Know about the WTO?; (6) Free Trade and Shifting…

The Algerian Foreign Trade between the Multilateral Trading System and the Regionalism

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Khayreddine Belaaze

2014-04-01

Full Text Available This contribution aims at highlighting a major challenge facing global trade and trade in developing countries. Indeed, regional and preferential trade agreements are now more than ever inconsistent and incoherent and one of the principles of the World Trade Organization, the clause of the most favored nation requiring eliminated all forms of discrimination between trading parties, but what we see in regional trade agreements that the preferential tariffs based on a principle of discrimination. All regional trade agreements granting preferential tariffs between member countries, these preferences do not include the remains of non-member countries (rest of world. On the other hand, preferential tariffs are lower than MFN rates. Meanwhile, the number of regional agreements has doubled since 1995 date creation of the WTO, and Algeria like other developing countries considered one of countries which have not benefit a lot from this situation.

The EU as an actor at the WTO: its strengths and weaknesses throughout history

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rosana GARCIANDÍA GARMENDIA

2012-06-01

Full Text Available During the last decade, many reforms took place in the European Union legal and policy framework. Some of those reforms were motivated by the participation of the European Union and its member States in the World Trade Organization. This paper aims to analyze the role of the European Union as an actor in that organization, paying special attention to its mixed legal nature – EU and Member States. With that purpose, the evolution of the relationship between the EU member States and the EU itself as simultaneous actors at the WTO is studied. The division of competences is also reviewed. Finally, the analysis of the EU position in different negotiation rounds (Uruguay, Doha for the agricultural sector is reviewed as an example of the evolution in the protection of European interests. The paper shows that some changes in the Treaty of Lisbon have strengthened the legal framework for the EU to be heard with a unique voice in the WTO

Latin American think tank helps trade talks smarten up | CRDI ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

The Latin American Trade Network (LATN) was created to fill an obvious gap, recalls economist Andrés Rius. Latin American governments needed good research to be able to participate effectively in negotiations then under way at the World Trade Organization (WTO) and elsewhere. Those talks were shaking up the ways ...

Open Day at the World Trade Organization

CERN Multimedia

2009-01-01

On Sunday 6 September, the World Trade Organization will open its doors to the public. Throughout the day there will be guided tours of the building, which will reveal the many works of art donated by countries over the years; on the main terrace, food stands will give visitors a flavour of the worldwide membership of the WTO and provide the opportunity to sample regional specialities; and children can have fun with face painting, a bouncy castle and a drawing contest on the theme "Draw me globalization" and/or "Draw me the WTO". The full programme of activities

9th January 2012 - Indonesian Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador Triansyah Djani to to the United Nations, WTO and other International Organisations in Geneva signing the guest book with Head of International Relations F. Pauss and Adviser E. Tsesmelis, visiting the LHC tunnel at Point 5 and CMS underground experimental area with Collaboration Spokesperson J. Incandela.

CERN Document Server

Estelle Spirig

2012-01-01

9th January 2012 - Indonesian Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador Triansyah Djani to to the United Nations, WTO and other International Organisations in Geneva signing the guest book with Head of International Relations F. Pauss and Adviser E. Tsesmelis, visiting the LHC tunnel at Point 5 and CMS underground experimental area with Collaboration Spokesperson J. Incandela.

US files WTO complaints against Brazil over requirement for "local working" of patents.

Science.gov (United States)

Elliott, R

2000-01-01

At the end of May 2000, the US (later joined by the European Communities) filed a complaint against Brazil at the World Trade Organization (WTO), alleging Brazil was in violation of its obligations under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (the TRIPS Agreement) and the 1994 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Brazilian legislation that came into force in 1997 establishes that, in order to enjoy exclusive patent rights in Brazil, the holder of a patent on an invention must satisfy a "local working" requirement. In other words, the patent holder must "work" the patent in Brazil to enjoy full patent protection. If it fails to do this, the law says it shall be subject to the possibility of the government issuing a compulsory license, allowing someone else to use the invention and pay a royalty fee to the patent holder.

Internationalisering en interne regulering: Europese Unie milieu-, gezondheids- en consumentenbeschermingsregels 'in de schaduw van de WTO'

OpenAIRE

De Ville, Ferdi

2011-01-01

How and to what extent internationalization affects domestic politics is one of the most important and debated perennial questions in international political economy. This doctoral thesis takes a particular angle at this question by studying the influence of the World Trade Organization (WTO), its substantial rules and its dispute settlement mechanism, on European Union (EU) decision-making processes on health, environmental and consumer regulation. Starting with refuting the widely but m...

Deliberative Engagement within the World Trade Organization: A Functional Substitute for Authoritative Interpretations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Creamer, Cosette; Godzimirska, Zuzanna

2016-01-01

The transition from the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) dispute settlement proceedings to the Dispute Settlement Mechanism (DSM) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) represented a notable instance of judicialization within international economic governance. Since it began ruling......) prior to adoption of the dispute settlement rulings. We argue that such an increase would better enable the DSM to consider the interpretive preferences of the WTO membership as a whole, thus enabling it to better fulfill its fiduciary duties and its responsibility of deliberative engagement...... with Members in particular. This Article specifies how the proposal would work in practice and addresses potential limitations and obstacles to its implementation....

WTO uks läks Venemaa ees lukku

Index Scriptorium Estoniae

2008-01-01

Pärast Gruusia konflikti USA kaubandusministri Carlos Gutierreze Venemaa WTO-sse astumise vastast avaldust ütles Venemaa lahti mitmest WTO-ga sõlmitud lepingust ning on juba varemgi loobunud läbirääkimiste käigus järeleandmiste tegemisest

Effects of WTO on the Textile Industry on Developing Countries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Syed Abdul Sattar Shah

2013-07-01

Full Text Available The current investigates the Effects of WTO on the Textile Industry on Developing Countries. Data were collected from various secondary sources and data is analyzed by using SPSS-20 version statistical software. It was revealed that WTO more industrialized countries consented to export fewer textiles while less industrialized countries enjoyed increased quotas for exporting their textiles. Bangladesh was expected to suffer the most from the ending of the MFA because it was expected to face more competition, particularly from China, it has tried to maintain its competitiveness in the post-quota era. It was further revealed that It has also been examined that all over the world textile industries are facing high inflation which is the hottest issue due to which the cost of doing business is going higher and higher day by day. The Chinese, Indian, Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi textile manufacturers are also out of those affected ones whose major issues are associated with increased cost of production. China’s dominance of the global garments trade has also been affected due to the rise in the costs of material, labour, energy, environmental protection and high interest rate. Furthermore, the environmental standard is also a barrier to many Chinese enterprises; even most of the Chinese enterprises have inputted environmental Standard.

75 FR 23223 - Meetings of the Agricultural Policy Advisory Committee for Trade and the Agricultural Technical...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-05-03

...Notice is hereby given that the Agricultural Policy Advisory Committee for Trade (APAC) and the Agricultural Technical Advisory Committees for Trade (ATACs) will hold closed meetings on May 6, 2010. The advisory committees are administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR). The meetings are closed to the public in accordance with the Trade Act of 1974, 19 U.S.C. 2155(f)(2), and the Government in the Sunshine Act, 5 U.S.C. 552b(c)(4)(6). USTR has determined that public access to the meetings would seriously compromise the development by the U.S. government of trade policy priorities, negotiating objectives, or bargaining positions with respect to the operation of trade agreements and other matters arising in connection with the development, implementation, and administration of the trade policy of the United States. Topics will include Doha Round negotiations in the World Trade Organization (WTO), WTO accession negotiations, and negotiations in bilateral and regional free trade agreements.

After Doha: Evolution or Revolution in the Trading System?

OpenAIRE

Hufbauer, Gary; Pischedda, Costantino

2007-01-01

We forecast a six-month extension of the Trade Promotion Authority, until December 2007, so that the Doha Development Round can be brought to a conclusion. With an extension of TPA, we expect shallow results will be achieved in the DDR during the rest of 2007, with many of the negative consequences described in our first scenario. To keep the WTO in the game and to keep hope alive, we predict that, at the end of DDR negotiations, WTO ministers will announce a series of plurilateral talks for ...

Ukraine’s Accession to the WTO: Strategy and Impediments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Serhiy Lakhno

2005-03-01

Full Text Available This paper focuses on issues surrounding Ukraine’s internal efforts for WTO accession given the importance of completing the negotiation process prior to the December 2005 Hong Kong Ministerial Conference. The paper is divided into two sets of issues: first, Ukraine’s prospects of acquiring WTO membership, including procedural questions, in the near future, and second, the substantive conditions for completing the accession process and the associated problems that require immediate attention. Among other matters, the paper describes the current procedure for WTO accession and proposes an optimum scenario for Ukraine’s membership, identifying the necessary measures, timeframes and risks that threaten the prescribed tasks. It also highlights major institutional problems that are hindering the harmonization of Ukrainian laws with GATT/WTO rules and offers a WTO-consistent legislative and regulatory action plan with specific proposals on amending relevant laws. The paper also illustrates the major problematic aspects of multilateralism that are impeding the completion of the negotiations. Furthermore, the author offers several proposals concerning approaches to and techniques for addressing these challenging issues.

Trade-related Electronic Commerce Issues in the OECD

OpenAIRE

Chang-In Yoon

1998-01-01

The trade committee of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has begun the study of the trade related to electronic commerce since 1997. The scale of the study on one hand has avoided the fact of copy and duplication of WTO and its organizational principles, on the other hand it has played a supplementary and supportive function. At present, digital-related product, such as computers, software and travel is the key point to the trade which resorts to electronic commerce...

A theory of global trade law and the WTO

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Delimatsis, Panagiotis

2015-01-01

Trade regulation may never have been in more flux than it is now. Other than the emergence of ‘megaregionals’ (such as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership-TTIP or the Trans-pacific Partnership-TPP) and the difficulties in finalizing the Doha Development Agenda, increased heterogeneity

Reforming the Multilateral Decision-Making Mechanism of the WTO ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Developing countries, like those making up BRICS, stand ready to contribute to the construction of a new international architecture, to bring the voices of the south together on global issues and to deepen their ties in various areas. Keywords: World Trade Organisation, International Trade Reform, Doha Round, Emerging ...

SVHC in imported articles: REACH authorisation requirement justified under WTO rules.

Science.gov (United States)

Schenten, Julian; Führ, Martin

2016-01-01

The purpose of the REACH Regulation is to ensure a high level of protection of human health and the environment as well as the free circulation of substances on the internal market while enhancing competitiveness and innovation. To this end, REACH introduces, among other instruments, the authorisation regime for substances of very high concern (SVHC) that are listed on Annex XIV of the regulation. After expiration of the transitional period for each Annex XIV-SVHC, articles, such as most products of daily use, produced in the European Economic Area (EEA) may not contain such substances unless an authorisation was granted for the specific use or this use falls within the scope of an exemption from the authorisation requirement. The authorisation scheme does, however, only apply to SVHC used in the EEA. As a consequence, REACH does not regulate SVHC entering the European market as part of imported articles which burden human health and the environment. Moreover, from an economic perspective, domestic articles are subject to stricter requirements than those which are produced abroad, putting actors from within the EEA at competitive disadvantage and thus impeding the intention of REACH to enhance competitiveness and innovation. One option to close this regulatory gap could be to extend the authorisation requirement to SVHC present in imported articles. A legal appraisal on behalf of the German Environment Agency (UBA) assesses whether such option would be in accordance with the specifications of WTO world trade law. It concludes that, measured by the standards of the WTO dispute settlement practice, such an extended authorisation scheme would neither violate the principles of national treatment and most-favoured nation treatment. Also, such regulation would not constitute an unnecessary obstacle to trade, since the extended authorisation requirement would pursue a legitimate objective covered by the regulatory autonomy of the EU and, furthermore, the regulation would

Evolving Norms at the Intersection of Health and Trade

Science.gov (United States)

Drope, Jeffrey; Lencucha, Raphael

2014-01-01

There has been growing tension at the intersection of health and economic policymaking as global governance has increased across sectors. This tension has been particularly evident between tobacco control and trade policy, as the international norms that frame them – particularly the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and the World Trade Organization (WTO) – have continued to institutionalize. Using five case studies of major tobacco-related trade disputes from the principal multilateral system of trade governance – the WTO/General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade – we trace the evolution of these interacting norms over nearly 25 years. Our analytic framework particularly focuses on the actors that advance, defend and challenge these norms. We find that an increasingly broad network, which includes governments, intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations and members of the epistemic community, is playing a more active role in seeking to resolve these tensions. Moreover, key economic actors are beginning to incorporate health more actively in their messaging and activities. We also demonstrate that the most recent resonant messages reflect a more nuanced integration of the two norms. The tobacco control example has direct relevance to related policy areas, including environment, safety, access to medicines, diet, and alcohol. PMID:24603086

WTO Accession, Foreign Bank Entry, and the Productivity of Chinese Manufacturing Firms

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lai, Tat-kei; Qian, Zhenjie; Wang, Luhang

2016-01-01

After China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in December 2001, foreign banks are allowed to enter the Chinese banking market in phases. Using firm-level data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China which cover all state-owned and non state-owned manufacturing firms...... with sales over 5 million RMB, we examine the relationship between foreign bank entry and the industry-level productivity growth of China’s manufacturing sector. Our empirical results suggest that (a) on average, opening up a region for foreign bank entry has no impact on aggregate productivity growth, (b...

Reforming the Multilateral Decision-making Mechanism of the WTO: What is the Role of Emerging Economies?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Amos Saurombe

2013-12-01

Full Text Available The paper focuses on the future of global economic governance in the light of the current state of multilateral trade negotiations. The aim is to analyse identified key historical issues at the heart of the decision-making system of the World Trade Organization (WTO. The current and ongoing Doha Round of trade negotiations and the multilateral system reflect inequalities that still prevail in the global trade architecture. Is there a need for a paradigm shift? The paper will provide recommendations on how reform of the multilateral decision-making structures should focus on promoting the interests of developing countries that have historically been marginalised. Developing countries, like those making up BRICS, stand ready to contribute to the construction of a new international architecture, to bring the voices of the south together on global issues and to deepen their ties in various areas.

77 FR 30355 - Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement: United States-Korea Free Trade Agreement...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-05-22

... already a designated country under the WTO GPA. Although the rule now opens up Government procurement to... Korea is already party to the World Trade Organization Government Procurement Agreement. DATES... note)). The Republic of Korea is already party to the World Trade Organization Government Procurement...

Climate change and WTO : boundary mediation on certified emission reductions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Ho Cheol

2011-07-01

This book mentions climate change and WTO with is climate change true? International effort for reduce of greenhouse gas with UNFCCC, Kyoto protocol, Copenhagen Accord and Cancun Agreement, WTO norm, discussion on introduction of boundary mediation on certified emission reductions, analysis on regulation related WTO norm, violation of regulation on border measure of prohibition, violation of principle on GATT, justification, except through Article 20 of GATT, assessment of policy and supplementation on the law.

Using the WTO/TBT enquiry point to monitor tendencies in the regulation of environment, health, and safety issues affecting the chemical industry.

Science.gov (United States)

Pio Borges Menezes, Rodrigo; Maria de Souza Antunes, Adelaide

2005-04-01

The growing importance of technical regulation affecting the use and sale of chemical products is a topic of interest not only for the chemical industry, but also for governments, nongovernmental organizations, consumers, and interested communities. The results of such regulation on behalf of the environment, health and safety of individuals, as well as its economic effects on industrial activity, are well understood in the United States and recently in the European Union. In less developed countries, however, the general level of public understanding of these issues is still minimal. It is common knowledge that the so-called "regulatory asymmetry" between countries at different levels of development contributes to the establishment of technical barriers to trade. Such asymmetries, however, also have other impacts: the displacement of polluting industrial sectors to countries which have less demanding regulations, the concentration of unsafe and harmful environmental conditions in certain parts of the globe, and the competitive disadvantage for industries located in countries where control is more rigid. This study analyses information on a wide range of technical regulations issued by World Trade Organization (WTO) members, and focuses on those regulations that affect the chemical industry. This information is available through the WTO Enquiry Points, organizations created in each country to administrate the Technical Barriers to Trade Agreement (TBT). This article consists of an analysis of 4,301 notifications of technical regulations by WTO member states in the 7-year period following the establishment of the WTO in 1995. Starting from this mass of information, 585 notifications that affect the circulation or use of chemical products were isolated. Of this group, 71% refer to only 15 countries. This group of notifications was further classified according to their motivation (the environment, health, safety), by the type of product affected (medications, fuels

A WORLD-SYSTEMS PERSPECTIVE OF THE WTO DOHA DEVELOPMENT ROUND

OpenAIRE

Panagakou Georgopoulou, Ilia

2013-01-01

The following study is an historical analysis of the WTO Doha Round negotiations using a world-systems perspective. The thesis tries to answer the following research question: why is the Doha Development Round not producing the desired and expected results? To answer this question, this study has used primary material from the WTO online archives, especially from the biennial sessions of the Ministerial Conference, in order to assess WTO member states’ positions on the topics discussed, as we...

The trading relationship between the EU and Mercosur: the mediatory role of Brazil

OpenAIRE

Santos, Filipa Daniela Gomes dos

2015-01-01

Dissertação de mestrado em European and Transglobal Business Law The global multilateralism has been the option for the expansion of trade and economic investments. The objectives of free trade exceeded the traditional notion of trade in goods liberalization to include contemporary topics such as services, investment and intellectual property and to be consistent with the rules established by the World Trade Organization (WTO). The interest of developing countries to impleme...

The Challenges for the Multilateral Trading System Raised by the Ongoing Structural Transformations in the Global Economy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Agnes Ghibuțiu

2012-04-01

Full Text Available Over the last decade, international trade has been growing faster than global production, steadily increasing interdependence among nations. Sustained trade growth has been accompanied by profound changes in the patterns of trade flows, reflecting new production structures emerging under the impact of rapid progress in the development of transport, communications and information technologies, major shifts in the patterns of demand, rapid expansion of global production networks, and increasing integration of developing countries into the world economy. While global trade relations experienced a dramatic transformation during the last decade, the multilateral trading system and the WTO – the venue for international trade cooperation – failed to keep pace with the rapidly changing trade environment. Consequently, the world trade rule-book that is currently guiding international trade relations as a result of the Uruguay Round (1986-1994 and the creation of the WTO (in 1995 is stuck in the requirements of 20st century trade. Improving and adjusting multilateral trade rules and disciplines ranked among the main objectives of the Doha Round launched in 2001. However, trade negotiations have been stalled since 2008. And with this impasse, the legislative function of the WTO responsible for the elaboration of new rules has been also blocked, hindering thus the process of adjustment. This paper addresses the main challenges confrunting the multilateral trading system both in the long and short-term in its endeavour to adjust to the new realities of 21st century trade. More specifically, it takes a look at the key problems arising for international cooperation in trade from: (1 the continually shifting weight of economic power and influence within the world economy; (2 the dynamic spread of global production networks operated by TNCs; and (3 the explosion of regionalism and preferential trade agreements. Finally, the paper highlights the vital

Trade Facilitation Indicators and their Potential Impact on Trade Between the Countries of South-Eastern Europe

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Toševska-Trpčevska Katerina

2016-11-01

Full Text Available In this paper we base our analysis on previous OECD findings and analysis of trade facilitation indicators for assessing relative economic and trade impact of specific trade facilitation measures for the countries of South-Eastern Europe. In the analysis we plan to include all CEFTA-2006 members, except Moldova, and other countries which are part of this region: Bulgaria, Romania and Greece. We plan to construct twelve trade facilitation indicators (TFIs that correspond to the main policy areas under negotiations at the WTO. The indicators are composed from seventy-eight variables, whose values are drawn from publicly available data. We plan to use these indicators in gravity model in order to estimate the impact of those policy areas on trade volumes between the countries of the region. The use of individual trade facilitation indicators should also enable countries to better assess which trade facilitation measures deserve priority.

Which Antidumping Cases Reach the WTO?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kokko, Ari; Tingvall, Patrik Gustavsson; Videnord, Josefin

the different levels of disputes, as cases proceed from notifications to requests for consultations and third party adjudication at the WTO. The US is the main user of AD measures, as well as the main target for complaints at the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body. However, emerging markets have increasingly started...... using AD law to protect their domestic firms. We find that the typical AD notification is submitted by an upper middle-income country, and it focuses on a medium low-technology industry with differentiated products, but low relationship-specificity. The most typical complainant at the WTO is also...

The Government's Role in Facing the Injustice of Global Trade

OpenAIRE

Sood, Muhammad

2013-01-01

Despite the controversy about the liberalization of trade, however the government of Indonesia has ratified the WTO provisions by the discharge of the Act Number 7 Year 1994 concerning the Agreement on establishment of the World Trade Organization. This is a fact of law that formed base on the political will of the Indonesian government to encourage the free trade system as an impact of the circulation of the vital flow of goods, services, capital and labor among countries in both the regiona...

WTO og skatteret

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Karsten Engsig

2005-01-01

Artiklen analyserer hvordan WTO-retten, særligt GATT-, GATS- og subsidieaftalen, kan påvirke indholdet af national skatteret. Udover en drøftelse af princippet om national behandling og mest begunstigelsesprincippet drøftes hvordan subsidieaftalen kan påvirke de nationale principper om global con...... contra territorial beskatning og reglerne om transfer pricing....

Reform at the top: What's next for the WTO? A second life? A socio-political analysis

OpenAIRE

Daniel Drache

2011-01-01

A fundamental change is taking place in the global economy, and the standoff in the Doha Round has raised many questions about the World Trade Organization’s troubled architecture (Khor, 2009). So far, the quest for renewed policy coherence in the rules-based multilateral system has produced stalemate rather than reform. The analysis that follows explores the proposition that, without the metaphoric ‘knife at its throat’ to shock it to its senses, the WTO will continue in the short term to be...

The scientific rationale for the World Organisation for Animal Health standards and recommendations on avian influenza.

Science.gov (United States)

Pasick, J; Kahn, S

2014-12-01

The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) prescribes standards for the diagnosis and control of avian influenza, as well as health measures for safe trade in birds and avian products, which are based on up-to-date scientific information and risk management principles, consistent with the role of the OIE as a reference standard-setting body for the World Trade Organization (WTO). These standards and recommendations continue to evolve, reflecting advances in technology and scientific understanding of this important zoonotic disease. The avian influenza viruses form part of the natural ecosystem by virtue of their ubiquitous presence in wild aquatic birds, a fact that human intervention cannot change. For the purposes of the Terrestrial Animal Health Code (Terrestrial Code), avian influenza is defined as an infection of poultry. However, the scope of the OIE standards and recommendations is not restricted to poultry, covering the diagnosis, early detection and management of avian influenza, including sanitary measures for trade in birds and avian products. The best way to manage avian influenza-associated risks to human and animal health is for countries to conduct surveillance using recommended methods, to report results in a consistent and transparent manner, and to applythe sanitary measures described in the Terrestrial Code. Surveillance for and timely reporting of avian influenza in accordance with OIE standards enable the distribution of relevant, up-to-date information to the global community.

Nutrition issues in Codex: health claims, nutrient reference values and WTO agreements: a conference report.

Science.gov (United States)

Aggett, Peter J; Hathcock, John; Jukes, David; Richardson, David P; Calder, Philip C; Bischoff-Ferrari, Heike; Nicklas, Theresa; Mühlebach, Stefan; Kwon, Oran; Lewis, Janine; Lugard, Maurits J F; Prock, Peter

2012-03-01

Codex documents may be used as educational and consensus materials for member governments. Also, the WTO SPS Agreement recognizes Codex as the presumptive international authority on food issues. Nutrient bioavailability is a critical factor in determining the ability of nutrients to provide beneficial effects. Bioavailability also influences the quantitative dietary requirements that are the basis of nutrient intake recommendations and NRVs. Codex, EFSA and some national regulatory authorities have established guidelines or regulations that will permit several types of health claims. The scientific basis for claims has been established by the US FDA and EFSA, but not yet by Codex. Evidence-based nutrition differs from evidence-based medicine, but the differences are only recently gaining recognition. Health claims on foods may provide useful information to consumers, but many will interpret the information to mean that they can rely upon the food or nutrient to eliminate a disease risk. NRVs are designed to provide a quantitative basis for comparing the nutritive values of foods, helping to illustrate how specific foods fit into the overall diet. The INL-98 and the mean of adult male and female values provide NRVs that are sufficient when used as targets for individual intakes by most adults. WTO recognizes Codex as the primary international authority on food issues. Current regulatory schemes based on recommended dietary allowances are trade restrictive. A substantial number of decisions by the EFSA could lead to violation of WTO agreements.

BANANAS III (ARTIC

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Fr. Ikenga

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) is the international legal personality ... Introduction ... The second section .... Concessions - basically deal with tariffs and fiscal policies .... Secondly, it may reject such application where the covered agreement ... the principles and procedures set out in Article 22.3 DSU had not been ...

First test of WTO mechanism for procuring generic medicines under compulsory licence, via Canada's Access to Medicines Regime.

Science.gov (United States)

Elliott, Richard

2007-12-01

In July 2007, Rwanda became the first nation to initiate use of a procedure under the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO) that is supposed to let developing countries import lower-cost, generic medicines produced in other countries under compulsory licences. And two months later, based on Rwanda's initiative, Canada's Commissioner of Patents issued the first compulsory licence under this system to permit the production of a patented AIDS drug to that country.

Where do developing countries go after Doha?:An analysis of WTO positions and potential alliances

OpenAIRE

Bjørnskov, Christian; Lind, Kim Martin Hjorth

2002-01-01

In the wake of the November 2001 Ministerial Conference in Doha, the positions of most members of the World Trade Organisation diverge, reflecting a large extent of disagreement within the organisation. This paper attempts to organise these positions and thereby inspire a debate on the possibility of collusion in the coming round of trade negotiations with a particular focus on the options of developing countries. Members' positions on a range of issues identified as important in the coming r...

Trade in services: examples for SADC | Lehloenya | Journal for ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Notwithstanding the adverse conditions, opportunities exist in the legal framework developed under the WTO for developing countries to participate more meaningfully in trade in service. These include, inter alia, the possibility of collaborating with foreign firms and benefiting from their experience, as well as establishing ...

The Best of Both Worlds? Free Trade in Services and EU Law on Privacy and Data Protection

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Yakovleva, S.; Irion, K.

2016-01-01

The article focuses on the interplay between European Union (EU) law on privacy and data protection and international trade law, in particular the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and the WTO dispute settlement system. The argument distinguishes between the effects of international

Coverage of the WTO's Agreement on Government Procurement: Challenges of Integrating China and other Countries with a Large State Sector into the Global Trading System

OpenAIRE

Wang Ping

2007-01-01

The WTO's plurilateral Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA) is a significant WTO instrument to develop disciplines regulating government procurement. A recent major review of the GPA has led to a revised text, likely to enter into force in 2007. In the meanwhile, China, a country with a large state sector, has promised to initiate GPA accession negotiations by the end of 2007.The article provides a critical assessment of the extent to which the recent review of the coverage of the GPA ha...

Law, Democracy & Development - Vol 3, No 1 (1999)

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Governing rules and principles of the WTO: Its scope and future development in the context of globalisation · EMAIL FREE FULL TEXT EMAIL FREE FULL TEXT · DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT. Brigitte Stern, 1-14. Globalisation, the World Trade Organisation and the implications for developing countries ...

Performance of African Agricultural Exports and External Market Access Conditions under International Trade Reforms

OpenAIRE

Nyangito, Hezron Omare

2004-01-01

Sub Saharan African agriculture is currently facing challenges in international trade with respect to external market access conditions and competition in world markets as a result of trade liberalization efforts under the world trade organization (WTO) agreements and in particular the agreement on agriculture (AoA). This paper presents the performance of agricultural exports for selected countries and indicates external market barriers faced and the resulting implications of the barriers on ...

75 FR 11986 - Public Comments for Multilateral Negotiations in the World Trade Organization on Expansion of the...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-03-12

... the World Trade Organization on Expansion of the Lists of Pharmaceutical Products Receiving Zero... members of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The specific information being sought is described in the... World Health Organization (WHO). (Table 1 currently includes INNs from WHO lists 1-93.) Prefixes and...

Monitoring the impact of trade agreements on national food environments: trade imports and population nutrition risks in Fiji.

Science.gov (United States)

Ravuvu, Amerita; Friel, Sharon; Thow, Anne-Marie; Snowdon, Wendy; Wate, Jillian

2017-06-13

Trade agreements are increasingly recognised as playing an influential role in shaping national food environments and the availability and nutritional quality of the food supply. Global monitoring of food environments and trade policies can strengthen the evidence base for the impact of trade policy on nutrition, and support improved policy coherence. Using the INFORMAS trade monitoring protocol, we reviewed available food supply data to understand associations between Fiji's commitments under WTO trade agreements and food import volume trends. First, a desk review was conducted to map and record in one place Fiji's commitments to relevant existing trade agreements that have implications for Fiji's national food environment under the domains of the INFORMAS trade monitoring protocol. An excel database was developed to document the agreements and their provisions. The second aspect of the research focused on data extraction. We began with identifying food import volumes into Fiji by country of origin, with a particular focus on a select number of 'healthy and unhealthy' foods. We also developed a detailed listing of transnational food corporations currently operating in Fiji. The study suggests that Fiji's WTO membership, in conjunction with associated economic and agricultural policy changes have contributed to increased availability of both healthy and less healthy imported foods. In systematically monitoring the import volume trends of these two categories of food, the study highlights an increase in healthy foods such as fresh fruits and vegetables and whole-grain refined cereals. The study also shows that there has been an increase in less healthy foods including fats and oils; meat; processed dairy products; energy-dense beverages; and processed and packaged foods. By monitoring the trends of imported foods at country level from the perspective of trade agreements, we are able to develop appropriate and targeted interventions to improve diets and health. This

International trade. Multinational aspects.

Science.gov (United States)

Ozawa, Y

2000-01-01

Of numerous regional economic agreements, the European Union (EU), the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), South American Common Market (MERCOSUR), the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and the Australia-New Zealand Closer Economic Relations Agreement are examples that are actively pursuing regional integration for freer trade of animals and animal products. The World Trade Organization (WTO) believes that regional and multinational integration initiatives are complements rather than alternatives in the pursuit of more open trade. In the efforts to harmonize SPS standards among multilateral trading nations, it is recommended that national requirements meet the standards developed by the OIE and the FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius Commission as the minimum requirements rather than adopting the standards of the lowest common denominator. Regional grouping may hinder multilateral or bilateral trade between the countries of a group and those of the other groups. How to eliminate such non-tariff barriers as traditional trade custom remains to be examined. Ongoing activities of VICH (Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Registration of Veterinary Medical Products) may pave the way for more open trade in pharmaceutical products between multilateral regional groups.

WTO - den fjerde dimension i dansk international skatteret?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Karsten Engsig

2000-01-01

På baggrund af en netop afgjort sag vedrørende beskatning af de amerikanske Foreign Sales Corporations (FSC), undersøges det hvordan WTO-aftalerne, herunder særligt subsidie-aftalen, kan få betydning for national skatteret.......På baggrund af en netop afgjort sag vedrørende beskatning af de amerikanske Foreign Sales Corporations (FSC), undersøges det hvordan WTO-aftalerne, herunder særligt subsidie-aftalen, kan få betydning for national skatteret....

China’s Entrance to the WTO and Financial Reform

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ki-Soon Park

2000-09-01

Full Text Available The openness and liberalization of China’s financial market is expected to accelerate with her entrance to the WTO. China plans to carry out liberalization measures, including the expansion of the Renminbi business scope. Openness and liberalization will expedite the integration of internal and external sectors, thereby making the domestic financial market more vulnerable to environmental changes. Consequently, China should establish a strong financial system to efficiently cope with the contagion effects of an external financial crisis. However, China’s financial system is still very weak, mainly due to the enormous bad loans to SOEs (state-owned enterprises. Accordingly, the Chinese government should carry out financial reform measures such as strengthening the financial supervision system, dealing with bad bank loans and restructuring the financial institutions. On the whole, China’s entrance to the WTO is expected to have a positive influence on her financial sector by accelerating such reform policies as financial reform and SOE reform. Entrance to the WTO will make society recognize the necessity of reform and openness. The Chinese government can decide to push some difficult reform policies which would not have been considered without WTO entrance.

Legalisation and privatisation in global governance: the case of WTO dispute settlement

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Strange, Michael Stewart

. In this paper, emphasis is placed on the dual operation of legalisation and privatisation as particular logics which both help define which ideas become constitutive of global governance. Legalisation and privatisation – as two particularly dominant logics for conducting global governance – are important, since...... they help frame the type of governance embodied within contemporary International Organisations. . To understand what role these logics play, the paper will outline the logics of legalisation and privatisation in global governance and exemplify with the case of the WTO dispute settlement process. However......, first it is important to consider how governance at the global level is made possible – that is where the authority resides – in order to appreciate the way the logics of legalisation and privatisation shape this form of governance....

Ethical food standard schemes and global trade

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Daugbjerg, Carsten; Botterill, Linda Courtenay

2012-01-01

Global food trade embodies a range of different interpretations of the nature of food and its role in society. On the one hand, the WTO food regulation regime, in particular the SPS agreement, is based upon a somewhat instrumental value of food consumption in which food is seen as a commodity...... base of each institution while giving expression to both materialist and postmaterialist understandings of the nature of food....... to be traded in accordance with international trade rules. At the same time, a number of private standards, such as GlobalG.A.P and various organic standards, are emerging which embody broadly postmaterialist values that suggest that food purchasing and consumption are also social, ethical and perhaps even...

Unilateral Measures addressing Non-Trade Concerns. A Study on WTO Consistency, Relevance of other International Agreements, Economic Effectiveness and Impact on Developing Countries of Measures concerning Non-Product-Related Processes and Production Methods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Van den Bossche, P.; Schrijver, N.; Faber, G.

2007-01-01

Over the last two years, the debate in the Netherlands on trade measures addressing non-trade concerns has focused on two important and politically sensitive issues, namely: (1) the sustainability of the large-scale production of biomass as an alternative source of energy; and (2) the production of livestock products in a manner that is consistent with animal welfare requirements. In February 2007 a report was issued on the 'Toetsingskader voor Duurzame Biomassa', the so-called Cramer Report. This report discusses the risks associated with large-scale biomass production and establishes a list of criteria for the sustainable production of biomass. These criteria reflect a broad range of non-trade concerns, including environmental protection, global warming, food security, biodiversity, economic prosperity and social welfare. The report recognizes that the implementation of the criteria (including the establishment of a certification system) will require careful consideration of the obligations of the Netherlands under EU and WTO law. Governments called upon to address non-trade concerns may do so by using different types of measures. Prominent among these are measures concerning processes and production methods of products. In the present study, these issues are examined primarily with regard to existing, proposed or still purely hypothetical measures for implementing the Cramer criteria for the sustainable production of biomass. Several other, non-energy-related issues are discussed in this report

Africa's Developmental Impasse: Some Perspectives and ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

2010-02-17

Feb 17, 2010 ... capitalistic system affords African leaders and thinkers the opportunity to break loose of the .... changes for the benefit of the African people. But in most ... when the World Trade Organisation (WTO) was set up. One of the main .... of assets built up throughout years of sacrifices by the people. Therefore,.

Medicine procurement and the use of flexibilities in the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, 2001–2016

NARCIS (Netherlands)

't Hoen, Ellen F. M.; Veraldi, Jacquelyn; Toebes, Brigit; Hogerzeil, Hendrik

Millions of people, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, lack access to effective pharmaceuticals, often because they are unaffordable. The 2001 Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) adopted the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual

Liberalisation of Trade in Health Services and the Implication for ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

... hence proxy measure of health services were utilised in the paper and this might blur the expected impacts. The implication of the paper is for African countries to adequately participate in GATS as it involves trade in health services. Key Words: Liberalisation, health system, mortality, services supply modes, WTO, general ...

The electricity exchange. On the organisation and latent functions of electricity exchange trading as seen from the viewpoint of market sociology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Giacovelli, Sebastian

2014-01-01

Electricity exchange trading in Germany has existed since the year 2000. Since this time, the Leipzig electricity exchange, a reference market for off-exchange electricity trading, has operated in an environment marked by both criticism and acceptance. Taking this field of controversy as a point of departure the present empirical study in market sociology undertakes to investigate the organisation and latent functions of electricity exchange trading. The ensuing analysis provides answers to questions as to how prices are formed on the electricity exchange and what officially incommunicable functions are served by price formation on exchanges.

Assessment of the Vaccine Industry in Iran in Context of Accession to WTO: a Survey Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Amir Hashemi Meshkini

2012-08-01

Full Text Available Background :The vaccine industry is one of the most important health-related industries. It can be affected by accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO because of probable dramatic changes in the business environment. Iran has already initiated accession negotiations. Purpose of the study In this paper, we investigate the position of, challenges to, and opportunities for vaccine manufacturing in Iran with regard to accession to the WTO. Methods:This is a qualitative and cross sectional study. To collect information, we designed a questionnaire and interviewed some of the vaccine industry's key opinion leaders in Iran. Before the interviews were conducted, the questionnaires were sent to these individuals by email. Results:According to the interviewees, the country's main challenges with regard to accession to the WTO are the lack of firm internal intellectual property (IP rules, not being recognized as pre-qualified by the World Health Organization (WHO, the use of old equipment, and a lack of cooperation with global vaccine companies. Major conclusions Iran's local vaccine industry, with a long history and international reputation that could be used as an advantage, is faced with several challenges, such as problems with keeping up with Current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP, a lack of adequate and meaningful investment in research and development (R&D, and limitations on private sector participation in the production of vaccines. Gradual privatization of the industry, improved international relations, utilization of the R&D power of small hi-tech companies, consistent education of human resources, and modernization of infrastructures and equipment are among the suggested solutions.

Assessment of the vaccine industry in Iran in context of accession to WTO: a survey study.

Science.gov (United States)

Hashemi Meshkini, Amir; Kebriaeezadeh, Abbas; Dinarvand, Rasoul; Nikfar, Shekoufeh; Habibzadeh, Mohammadgafar; Vazirian, Iman

2012-08-30

The vaccine industry is one of the most important health-related industries. It can be affected by accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) because of probable dramatic changes in the business environment. Iran has already initiated accession negotiations. In this paper, we investigate the position of, challenges to, and opportunities for vaccine manufacturing in Iran with regard to accession to the WTO. This is a qualitative and cross sectional study. To collect information, we designed a questionnaire and interviewed some of the vaccine industry's key opinion leaders in Iran. Before the interviews were conducted, the questionnaires were sent to these individuals by email. According to the interviewees, the country's main challenges with regard to accession to the WTO are the lack of firm internal intellectual property (IP) rules, not being recognized as pre-qualified by the World Health Organization (WHO), the use of old equipment, and a lack of cooperation with global vaccine companies. Iran's local vaccine industry, with a long history and international reputation that could be used as an advantage, is faced with several challenges, such as problems with keeping up with Current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP), a lack of adequate and meaningful investment in research and development (R&D), and limitations on private sector participation in the production of vaccines.Gradual privatization of the industry, improved international relations, utilization of the R&D power of small hi-tech companies, consistent education of human resources, and modernization of infrastructures and equipment are among the suggested solutions.

Free trade or just trade? The world trade organisation, human rights ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

User

Organisation (WIPO).101 At the national level, patent protection varied between .... anti-competitive abuse of intellectual property rights by right holders. ...... Measures Affecting the Importation of Milk and the Exportation of Dairy Products.

Capital Mobility, Corporate Protection, and Trade Policy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Egerod, Benjamin Carl Krag; Justesen, Mogens Kamp

Capital mobility and corporate lobbying are often emphasized as key drivers of international trade policy. Most empirical research on the topic, however, has focused on the industry level or some level of geographical aggregation. We address this gap by examining the role of firm-level capital...... it with financial data on the firms filing them – a total of roughly 1,000 companies from 25 WTO countries in the period 2005-2015. Using spatial autoregressive (SAR) models, we show that companies with less mobile assets are, on average, more likely to be successful when petitioning for trade protection...

The challenge of reforming the WTO dispute settlement understanding

OpenAIRE

Hauser, Heinz; Zimmermann, Thomas A.

2003-01-01

Die im Mai 2003 abgelaufene Frist für den Abschluss der Verhandlungen über Verbesserungen und Klarstellungen zum WTO-Übereinkommen über dei Streitschlichtung (Dispute Settlement Understanding; DSU) unter dem Doha-Mandat wurde verfehlt. Die WTO-Mitglieder einigten sich jedoch im Juli 2003 auf eine Verlängerung des Verhandlungsmandates bis Ende Mai 2004. Der vorliegende Beitrag fasst die Verhandlungen zur Überprüfung des Streitschlichtungsverfahrens ("DSU review") kurz zusammen. Die Hauptstreit...

Trade Measures for Regulating Transboundary Movement of Electronic Waste

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gideon Emcee Christian

2017-08-01

Full Text Available International trade in used electrical and electronics equipment (UEEE provides an avenue for socio-economic development in the developing world and also serves as a conduit for transboundary dumping of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE also referred to as electronic waste or e-waste. The latter problem arises from the absence of a regulatory framework for differentiating between functional UEEE and junk e-waste. This has resulted in both functional UEEE and junk e-waste being concurrently shipped to developing countries under the guise of international trade in used electronics. Dealing with these problems will require effective regulation of international trade in UEEE from both exporting and importing countries. Although, the export of e-waste from the European Community to developing countries is currently prohibited, significant amount of e-waste from the region continue to flow into developing countries due to lax regulatory measures in the latter. Hence, there is need for a regulatory regime in developing countries to complement the prohibitory regime in the major e-waste source countries. This paper proposes trade measures modelled in line with WTO rules which could be adopted by developing countries in addressing these problems. The proposed measures include the development of a compulsory certification and labelling system for functional UEEE as well as trade ban on commercial importation of UEEE not complying with the said certification and labelling system. The paper then goes further to examine these proposed measures in the light of WTO rules and jurisprudence.

The politics of trade and industrial policy in Africa: forced consensus?

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

In principle, the countries are free to choose whatever policies that serve their interests best. In practice, both WTO rules and the globalization process are rapidly altering ...... Relative price distortions, such as trade taxes and investment subsidies, are ...... Hong Kong and Singapore are slightly behind, followed by Malaysia, ...

Recent Trends in World Trade and International Negotiations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christophe Bellmann

2010-03-01

Full Text Available World trade in 2009 was dominated by the worst financial and economic crisis in decades. Global output shrank. So did the volume of international trade. Despite bearing no responsibility for the crisis, the poorer developing countries have fared the worst. China, Brazil and India saw exports drop by between a fifth and a third in the second half of 2008, but countries not belonging to the top 20 developing country exporters were hit even harder. Trade and GDP growth have started to pick up again, but some economists fear a “double-dip” recession. If unemployment continues to grow, it may become harder for governments to resist protectionist pressures. In terms of the WTO negotiations, the crisis cuts both ways. Governments are preoccupied with more immediate concerns. But the crisis has shattered the sense that protectionism was unthinkable, making a trade deal seem more valuable. The G-20 major economies have called for concluding the Doha Round in 2010, but it remains to be seen whether this pledge will amount to anything. The number of bilateral trade deals continues to grow, with Switzerland an enthusiastic participant. Some of these deals have been criticised for “WTO-plus” obligations, particularly regarding intellectual property. Meanwhile, there are real grounds for arguing that the Doha Round agenda does not reflect many current problems, especially climate change. With the US and the EU threatening to impose tariffs on exports from emerging economies with no hard emissions caps, it is clear that governments need to find some way of discussing the new challenges confronting the global economy.

Multilateral Organization vs. Bilateral Negotiations: A Case of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Namhoon Kwon

2001-12-01

Full Text Available In the 1990s, the issue of intellectual property rights (IPR protection gained a prominent place on the international trade agenda, which led to the establishment of the trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPs as a part of the WTO regime. Two questions are asked regarding this development: whether a multilateral organization such as the WTO performs better than bilateral negotiations in resolving IPR disputes, and what happened around the 1990s to create an environment favorable to the establishment of a multilateral organization. To deal with these issues, this paper takes the IPE (international political economy approach. Using a very simple game theory model, I derive the cases in which a multilateral organization has better performances. Then, it is used to show that political pressures due to the growth of the US trade deficit in the late 1980s could have been the reason that a multilateral organization became the institutional equilibrium.

Lessons from SARS and H1N1/A: employing a WHO-WTO forum to promote optimal economic-public health pandemic response.

Science.gov (United States)

Mackey, Tim K; Liang, Bryan A

2012-02-01

No formal system exists to review trade restrictions imposed during international public health emergencies rapidly. Failure to put one in place creates disincentives for surveillance and reporting, thereby undermining protection efforts. The 2003 SARS outbreak exposed weaknesses in global governance that caused uncoordinated public health and economic responses. New International Health Regulations (IHR), applied first during the 2009 H1N1 influenza outbreak, demonstrated improvement. Yet they failed to allow for management of public health emergencies in a way that balanced threats to health and those to economies and trade. Establishment of a joint WHO-WTO committee to adjudicate these conflicts might better achieve that balance.

The Effect of Foreign Trade Policy Transparency on Integration of Ukraine in the World Economy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yakovchenko Victoria S.

2018-02-01

Full Text Available The article is concerned with the interdependence between dynamics of the international trade and economic relations development and the existing level of foreign trade policy transparency in accordance with the provisions of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement. The effect of observance of transparency principle in foreign trade policy on forming the transaction costs in foreign trade is analyzed. A comparative analysis of the influence of import duties and transaction costs on the formation of Ukraine’s foreign trade barriers is carried out. Prospects of the national export-import activity development under increasing transparency of foreign trade policy of Ukraine and other world countries are determined.

A ROAD AHEAD FROM CANCUN? WEIGHING UP SOME GIVE-AND-TAKE SCENARIOS IN A DDA SPIRIT

OpenAIRE

Shakur, Shamim; Rae, Allan N.; Chatterjee, Srikanta

2004-01-01

Given that around 20 percent of the members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) are identified as least developed countries (LDC's), global trade negotiations, resumed after the Cancun fiasco of September 2003, must address some major development issues in the spirit of the Doha Development Agenda (DDA), if they are to make any headway. This will, predictably, involve some sensible give-and-take not only between the developed countries and the LDC's, but also amongst the LDC's themselves, a...

Directions of U.S. Farm Programmes under a Freer Trade Environment

OpenAIRE

Luther G. Tweeten

2001-01-01

For the new round of WTO multilateral trade liberalisation negotiations to be successful, the world will need to be more enthusiastic and flexible about opening markets. Partisans will need to submerge their self-interests, and the U.S. will need to take the initiative for more open markets. This paper makes the case that only modest changes in the U.S. domestic grain, oilseed, and cotton programmes are needed for compatibility with global free trade. The Federal Agricultural Improvement and ...

USA tõstis tõkkepuu Vene WTO-püüdlustelt / Krister Paris

Index Scriptorium Estoniae

Paris, Krister, 1977-

2006-01-01

USA ja Venemaa leppisid põhimõtteliselt kokku tingimustes, mille täitmise korral saab Venemaa WTO-ga liituda. Liitumise peavad heaks kiitma kõik WTO liikmesmaad, raskeks võib osutuda heakskiidu saamine Gruusialt

Walking a Tightrope: World Trade in Manufacturing and the Benefits of Binding

OpenAIRE

Patrick Messerlin

2008-01-01

Negotiators in Geneva are still struggling to conclude the Doha Round of multilateral trade talks at the World Trade Organization (WTO). However, after seven years of negotiations, many people - and especially many industrialists in Europe and the United States - are not convinced that the negotiations are worth the efforts being put into them. These doubts have been fueled by the modesty of recent estimates of the gains on the table in the negotiations on Non-Agricultural Market Access (NAMA...

Multilateral aspects of advanced regulatory cooperation: considerations for a Canada-EU Comprehensive Trade Agreement (CETA)

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mathis, J.

2012-01-01

This article considers equivalency recognition for goods and for services in the context of the applicable WTO agreements and provisions. The discussion of equivalency arises from certain elements presented by the Canada-EU Comprehensive Trade Agreement (CETA), in which economically developed

Tvistbilæggelse i WTO

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Alavi, Amin

2004-01-01

Etablering af en Dispute Settlement Mechanism (DSM) til bilæggelse af tvister mellem WTOs medlemmer er et vigtigt element i WTO, og et element der er unikt i forbindelse med internationale organisationer. Artiklen præsenterer først strukturen af DSM og analyserer dernæst erfaringerne med brugen af...

Assessment of the vaccine industry in Iran in context of accession to WTO: a survey study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hashemi Meshkini Amir

2012-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The vaccine industry is one of the most important health-related industries. It can be affected by accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO because of probable dramatic changes in the business environment. Iran has already initiated accession negotiations. Purpose of the study In this paper, we investigate the position of, challenges to, and opportunities for vaccine manufacturing in Iran with regard to accession to the WTO. Methods This is a qualitative and cross sectional study. To collect information, we designed a questionnaire and interviewed some of the vaccine industry’s key opinion leaders in Iran. Before the interviews were conducted, the questionnaires were sent to these individuals by email. Results According to the interviewees, the country’s main challenges with regard to accession to the WTO are the lack of firm internal intellectual property (IP rules, not being recognized as pre-qualified by the World Health Organization (WHO, the use of old equipment, and a lack of cooperation with global vaccine companies. Major conclusions Iran’s local vaccine industry, with a long history and international reputation that could be used as an advantage, is faced with several challenges, such as problems with keeping up with Current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP, a lack of adequate and meaningful investment in research and development (R&D, and limitations on private sector participation in the production of vaccines. Gradual privatization of the industry, improved international relations, utilization of the R&D power of small hi-tech companies, consistent education of human resources, and modernization of infrastructures and equipment are among the suggested solutions.

Environmental risk, precaution, and scientific rationality in the context of WTO/NAFTA trade rules.

Science.gov (United States)

Crawford-Brown, Douglas; Pauwelyn, Joost; Smith, Kelly

2004-04-01

This article considers the role of scientific rationality in understanding statements of risk produced by a scientific community. An argument is advanced that, while scientific rationality does impose constraints on valid scientific justifications for restrictions on products and practices, it also provides flexibility in the judgments needed to both develop and apply characterizations of risk. The implications of this flexibility for the understanding of risk estimates in WTO and NAFTA deliberations are explored, with the goal of finding an intermediate ground between the view that science unambiguously justifies or rejects a policy, and the view that science is yet another cultural tool that can be manipulated in support of any decision. The result is a proposal for a dialogical view of scientific rationality in which risk estimates are depicted as confidence distributions that follow from a structured dialogue of scientific panels focused on judgments of evidence, evidential reasoning, and epistemic analysis.

GOVERNING THE TAXATION OF DIGITIZED TRADE

OpenAIRE

RAHUL MUKHERJI

2002-01-01

The paper highlights the challenges for international taxation due to digitized trade. Digitization makes it easy to penetrate foreign markets without the need for physical presence in the buyer’s country. This phenomenon has generated debates on the salience of source versus residence-based taxation, the definition of permanent establishment, and, the administration of consumption taxes. The WTO has not been able to engage effectively in this area. The paper notes both the inadequacy of unil...

GLOBALIZATION & REGIONALIZATION IN INTERNATIONAL TRADE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ramona Frunză

2009-12-01

Full Text Available The concept of globalization refers to the growing interdependence of countries, resulting from the increasing integration of trade, finance, investments, labor markets and ideas in one globalmarketplace. The most important elements of this process are the international trade and the cross-border investment flows. Economic globalization has increased the specialization of workers, while the companies compete in global markets. Even globalization has recently become a common topic in academic discourse, many economists focused, from the 1980s and 1990s, in addition to globalization, on regionalization - the growth of networks of interdependence within multinational regions of the world. The recent decades arecharacterized by the fact that the world trade grew faster than world output, which implies that an increasing share of world GDP crosses international borders. The trend is explained, mostly, by thesubstantially declining of the trade barriers during the same period, as a result of successive trade negotiation rounds under the auspices of the GATT/WTO, unilateral trade liberalization and regional tradeagreements. Even there are global connections between all the countries, the strongest political and economic integration is being created within a few specific regions of the world: Europe, North America and East Asia.

Environmental implications of China's WTO accession

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vennemo, Haakon; Aunan, Kristin; He, Jianwu; Hu, Tao; Li, Shantong; Rypdal, Kristin

2005-01-01

China's accession to the WTO in 2001 completed the country's entry into the global economy. We investigate environmental implications of WTO-accession. There are several hypotheses in this area: The scale hypothesis says that production is scaled up and in turn, pollution increases. The composition hypothesis says that composition of industries changes and pollution reflects the new composition. The technique hypothesis says that production methods become cleaner and pollution decreases. We analyze the relative strength of the hypotheses by means of an environmental CGE-model, and in the case of air pollution find support for a composition effect in favor of clean industries. Thanks to the composition effect, emissions to air of greenhouse gases fall. Emissions of particles and SO2 also fall, but emissions of NOx and VOC rise. Since particle and SO2-emissions fall we estimate that public health improves (author)

Environmental impacts of China's WTO-accession

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vennemo, Haakon; Aunan, Kristin; Rypdal, Kristin; He, Jianwu; Li, Shantong; Hu, Tao

2008-01-01

China's accession to the WTO in 2001 completed the country's entry into the global economy. We investigate environmental implications of WTO-accession. There are several hypotheses in this area: The scale hypothesis says that production is scaled up and in turn, pollution increases. The technique hypothesis says that production methods become cleaner and pollution decreases. The composition hypothesis says that composition of industries changes and pollution reflects the new composition. We analyse the relative strength of the hypotheses by means of an environmental CGE-model, and in the case of air pollution find support for a composition effect in favour of clean industries. Thanks to the composition effect, emissions to air of greenhouse gases fall. Emissions of particles and SO 2 also fall, but emissions of NO x and VOC rise. Since particle and SO 2 -emissions fall we estimate that public health improves. (author)

China's Cotton Policy and the Impact of China's WTO Accession and Bt Cotton Adoption on the Chinese and U.S. Cotton Sectors

OpenAIRE

Cheng Fang; Bruce A. Babcock

2003-01-01

In this paper we provide an analysis of China's cotton policy and develop a framework to quantify the impact of both China's World Trade Organization (WTO) accession and Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) cotton adoption on Chinese and U.S. cotton sectors. We use a Chinese cotton sector model consisting of supply, demand, price linkages, and textiles output equations. A two-stage framework model provides gross cropping area and total area for cotton and major subsitute crops from nine cotton-produci...

Fashioning a New Regime for Agricultural Trade: New Issues and the Global Food Crisis

OpenAIRE

Thomas J. Schoenbaum

2011-01-01

This article examines the impact of issues such as the global food crisis, export controls on agricultural products, and food security on the agricultural trade negotiations currently underway in connection with the Doha Development Agenda convened by the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001. These important issues, which were not foreseen when the negotiations began, must now be squarely faced. Many international organizations, such as the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, t...

CHANGES IN STRUCTURE OF ROMANIA'S INTERNATIONAL TRADE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

CECILIA IRINA RABONTU

2014-05-01

Full Text Available Evolution of structural changes in Romanian trade is somewhat interesting if you look at it from the perspective of mutations that occurred in the categories of goods and services subject to international trade. After the Revolution of 1989, the Romanian economy has gone through dramatic changes that had determinate a total reconfiguration of foreign trade. At the same time, the economic instability has had further repercussions on the Romanian economy manifested through higher prices, reduced wages or earnings, reduced employment and rising unemployment, increasing interest rates on loans due to the devaluation of the national currency, increase value-added tax, consumption reduction etc. We proposed in this paper an analyze for a significant period of time evolution of international trade in goods and services of Romania in order to establish the main categories of goods traded but Romania's main trading partners, too. In order to achieve the central goal of this paper we will use statistical data found in the databases provided by the WTO, Eurostat and the National Statistical Institutes and statistical methods to support our initiative.

Greenhouse gas credits trade versus biomass trade – weighing (Workshop Summary)

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Junginger, H.M.; Faaij, A.P.C.; Robertson, K.; Woes-Gallasch, S.; Schlamadinger, B.

2006-01-01

A workshop entitled ‘Greenhouse gas credits trade versus biomass trade – weighing the benefits’, jointly organised by IEA Bioenergy Tasks 38 (GHG Balances of Biomass and Bioenergy Systems) and 40 (Sustainable International Bioenergy Trade: Securing Supply and Demand), and ENOVA, took place in

MECHANISMS OF DOMESTIC FOOD SUPPORT IN THE WTO

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Марина Львовна Яшина

2014-05-01

Full Text Available After Russia has become a member of WTO it influenced on the position of native producers and requires some supporting action from the government.The purpose of this research is to offer opportunities to support the producers and agroprocessors on the terms of WTO.The scientific importance of this research consists in proving that Russian agriculture needs government support based on the nature of market economics and theUSexample as the world’s largest agricultural producer. Practical importance consists in exploring and improving specific events that are held inUlyanovskregion on the terms of WTO’s regulations.Problems of food security are considered from the position of the unity of theory and practice based on macroeconomic and microeconomic approaches. General scientific methods of cognition and traditional methods of economic analysis are used in the article.General results of the research: opportunities to support AIC on the terms of WTO are designated; particular qualities of government support for agro producers in the USA are analyzed; types and forms of supporting native producers and agroprocessors in Ulyanovsk region are considered. Conclusion of the need of improving support of AIC in the way as native food assistance is made.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.12731/2218-7405-2013-9-100

Brazilian international and inter-state trade flows: an exploratory analysis using the gravity model

OpenAIRE

Paz, Lourenço Senne

2003-01-01

Recent efforts toward a world with freer trade, like WTO/GATT or regional Preferential Trade Agreements(PTAs), were put in doubt after McCallum's(1995) finding of a large border effect between US and Canadian provinces. Since then, there has been a great amount of research on this topic employing the gravity equation. This dissertation has two goals. The first goal is to review comprehensively the recent literature about the gravity equation, including its usages, econometric s...

The rising tide of green unilateralism in world trade law. Options for reconciling the emerging north-south conflict

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Biermann, F.

2000-12-01

This paper argues that to reconcile the objectives of free trade and environmental protection, limited reforms of international trade law are required. There is a need to guarantee, first, that universally accepted international environmental agreements that mandate trade-restrictions remain compatible with international trade law, in particular with the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Second, it is necessary to ensure that the interests of small and vulnerable states are protected against environmental unilateralism of the major trading nations. This reform agenda could be realized, it is argued, through an authoritative interpretation of international trade law by the Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO). This interpretation should stipulate that environmentally-motivated trade restrictions which are related to processes and production methods, and which are intended to protect environmental goods outside the importing country, be compatible with WTO law, but only if mandated by international environmental agreements that have been previously accepted by the Ministerial Conference. This paper outlines the rationale for such authoritative interpretation and offers a possible legal draft. This clarification of the relationship between international environmental and international trade law would protect the sovereign right of smaller trading nations, particularly developing countries, to enact their own environmental standards as may be appropriate and feasible according to their specific situation. It would also maintain the supremacy of multilateralism in both international trade and environmental policies, as opposed to unilateral action. The principle of international co-operation and the rule of law would be strengthened, and attempts to use the international trade system for the enforcement of unilaterally decided environmental standards would be precluded. (orig.)

Subsidy regulation in WTO Law : Some implications for fossil fuels and renewable energy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Marhold, Anna

2016-01-01

This contribution discusses WTO subsidies disciplines in the context of the energy sector. After laying out the relevant disciplines, it will discuss the paradox of WTO law with respect to subsidies towards fossil fuels vis-à-vis those towards renewable energy. It is clear that subsidies on clean

Sustainable Production and Trade Discrimination: An Analysis of the WTO

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

María Alejandra Calle Saldarriaga

2018-02-01

Full Text Available This article aims to examine the legality of trade measures addressing environmental conditions of production (PPMs in the context of non-discrimination provisions under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT  and the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement.  It shows that the notion of de facto discrimination is still a sensitive subject in the analysis of origin-neutral measures, including those based on environmental PPMs. Much of the discussion regarding PPMs focuses on the issue of ‘like products’. The interpretation of ‘likeness’ has also served to classify PPMs into the two categories of product related and non-product related. Such distinction rests on how the PPM affects the final product. However, it is important to analyse to what extent these measures can accord less favourable treatment to like products. The author argues that this requires a competition analysis. This article also elucidates how depending upon the applicable law (the TBT Agreement or the GATT PPMs are likely to face different legal challenges, particularly in terms of less favourable treatment. The author also assesses the possibility of transposing concepts such as ‘legitimate regulatory distinctions’ stemming from the TBT jurisprudence into GATT cases involving PPMs, and whether there will be an additional ‘test’ for PPMs characterised as TBT measures. This article is based on an extensive literature review and doctrinal legal research

Access to medicines and distributive justice: breaching Doha's ethical threshold.

Science.gov (United States)

Kiddell-Monroe, Rachel

2014-08-01

The global health crisis in non-communicable diseases (NCDs) reveals a deep global health inequity that lies at the heart of global justice concerns. Mirroring the HIV/AIDS epidemic, NCDs bring into stark relief once more the human consequences of trade policies that reinforce global inequities in treatment access. Recognising distributive justice issues in access to medicines for their populations, World Trade Organisation (WTO) members confirmed the primacy of access to medicines for all in trade and public health in the landmark Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health of 2001. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

International trade and environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Posada, Luis Guillermo

1998-01-01

The international trade conventional theory not only continues being supported upon the classic principle of comparative advantage, but also, in response to the rationality inherent to the traditional economic system, al so neglects considering the biophysical conditions under which transable goods are produced. The linkage of environment to trade is a recent concern, and it is explained on the basis that the first one has become a barrier for the second one. The environmental cause defenders, so as the free market advocates, are exposing their arguments in a context in which not necessarily to build viable solutions to the conflict is possible. The world economy behavior and tendencies do not offer the conditions needed so as that the official thesis in which the GATT - Rio - WTO thought can be summarized and the positive linkage towards the environmental quality, explicitly claimed by that thesis, becomes reality. Form these considerations, it is argument in this article in the direction of establishing a new international trade pattern and also some ideas are presented as to its characterization ecological economic view

The new EU regulations for food safety

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nicola Comodo

2007-03-01

Full Text Available The inspirational principles of the norms known as the “Hygiene package”: the framework of new perspectives on food safety. At the beginning of the 1980s, all member states of the World Trade Organisation (WTO subscribed to international agreements regarding strategies for food production and its marketing. These agreements, known as TRIPS (Agreement on Trade- Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Services and TRIMS (Agreement on Trade-Related Investment Measures [1] signalled the beginning of a new, globalized, commercial strategy on food products which has also caused importantrepercussions within the European boundaries, but with some fundamental differences.

Trade and Climate Change

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Laura

2013-01-01

Bidraget om handel og klima indeholder anbefalinger til et fremtidigt arbejdsprogram i WTO. Bogen der er redigeret af fhv. vicegeneraldirektør for WTO, Alejandro Jara og professor Simon Evenett indeholder en række kapitler om, hvad der bør forhandles i WTO post Bali....

Problems in the WTO Agriculture Agreement and the Current State and Prospects for Agricultural Negotiations: The Perspective of a Participant in the Uruguay Round Negotiations (Japanese)

OpenAIRE

YAMASHITA Kazuhito

2005-01-01

The World Trade Organization's dispute settlement panels and the appellate body ruled on two important agricultural cases recently, just as concerns were being raised over the excessive juridification of WTO procedures. The cases in question are the United States' subsidies on upland cotton and the European Union's export subsidies on sugar. The verdicts in the both cases were quite different from the conclusions Uruguay Round negotiators would have reached. When negotiators negotiate an agre...

The Aalborg Model in the Ruins: Project-Centred Pedagogy under GATS and Globalisation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

McIlvenny, Paul; Raudaskoski, Pirkko Liisa

Recently, the Danish higher education sector has become more aware of the issues of academic freedom, democratic control, deregulation and privatisation, eg. with the new university reform law. But we note that not many are as aware of the issues that lie beyond the national debate. The question...... of what the University stands for in an age of globalisation hangs in the air. In fact, there are big changes looming that threaten the whole fabric of public higher education in Denmark and globally. The danger comes from neoliberal global institutions such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO......) and the World Bank (EdInvest), as well as from the private lobby groups such as Global Alliance for Transnational Education (GATE). By implementing the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), the WTO stands to have an immeasurable impact on the funding, provision, staffing, democracy and content...

The EU Seal Products Ban – Why Ineffective Animal Welfare Protection Cannot Justify Trade Restrictions under European and International Trade Law

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Martin Hennig

2015-03-01

Full Text Available In this article, the author questions the legitimacy of the general ban on trade in seal products adopted by the European Union. It is submitted that the EU Seal Regime, which permits the marketing of Greenlandic seal products derived from Inuit hunts, but excludes Canadian and Norwegian seal products from the European market, does not ensure a satisfactory degree of animal welfare protection in order to justify the comprehensive trade restriction in place. It is argued that the current ineffective EU ban on seal products, which according to the WTO Appellate Body cannot be reconciled with the objective of protecting animal welfare, has no legal basis in EU Treaties and should be annulled.

Evaluating the effect of domestic support on international trade

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Urban, Kirsten; Brockmeier, Martina; Jensen, Hans Grinsted

We use the Mercantilist Trade Restrictiveness Index (MTRI) to develop an extended index that measures the overall trade effects of domestic support payments in a general equilibrium framework environment. Our index is capable of analyzing the development of the trade restrictiveness of domestic...... support payments over time and across countries and of comparing these payments with other protection instruments. Furthermore, our index helps evaluate agricultural policy reforms that introduce changes into the composition of domestic support payments. We conduct this analysis with an extended version...... of the GTAP model and database using the EU as an example. Thus, we incorporate detailed EU domestic support payments taken from the OECD Producer Support Estimate (PSE) tables in the GTAP framework and reconcile PSE data with the WTO classification scheme. Although our index slightly increases from 2004...

Global trade and health: key linkages and future challenges.

Science.gov (United States)

Bettcher, D W; Yach, D; Guindon, G E

2000-01-01

Globalization of trade, marketing and investment has important implications for public health, both negative and positive. This article considers the implications of the single package of World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements for public health research and policy, focusing on three themes: commodities, intellectual property rights, and health services. The main aims of the analysis are as follows: to identify how trade issues are associated with the transnationalization of health risks and possible benefits; to identify key areas of research; and to suggest policy-relevant advice and interventions on trade and health issues. The next wave of international trade law will need to take more account of global public health issues. However, to become more engaged in global trade debates, the public health community must gain an understanding of the health effects of global trade agreements. It must also ensure that its own facts are correct, so that public health is not blindly used for political ends, such as justifying unwarranted economic protectionism. "Healthy trade" policies, based on firm empirical evidence and designed to improve health status, are an important step towards reaching a more sustainable form of trade liberalization.

Contesting Constitutionalism: Constitutional Discourse at the WTO

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lawrence, J.C.

2013-01-01

Debates about ‘constitutionalism’ have become an important trend in WTO scholarship. Despite over two decades of interest, however, a coherent definition of the term and its content remain out of reach. This paper argues that ‘constitutionalism’ should be approached not as something that can be

Support for international trade law: The US and the EU compared.

Science.gov (United States)

Eckhardt, Jappe; Elsig, Manfred

2015-10-01

In this article we compare US and EU support for bilateral and multilateral international trade law. We assess the support for international law of both trading blocs by focusing on the following four dimensions: leadership, consent, compliance and internalization. Although we find strong support for international trade law from both the US and the EU in general, we also witness some variation, most notably in relation to the design of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) and compliance with World Trade Organization (WTO) law. Turning to explaining these (moderate) differences, we argue that outcomes in US trade policy can best be explained by a domestic political factor, namely the direct influence of interest groups. Although the involvement of societal interests also goes a long way in explaining EU behavior, it does not tell the entire story. We posit that, in EU trade policy, institutions are a particular conditioning factor that needs to be stressed. Moreover, we suggest that foreign policy considerations in managing trade relations have characterized EU's support for international trade law.

Gruusia suleb Venemaale pääsu WTO-sse

Index Scriptorium Estoniae

2006-01-01

Gruusia lubas toetada Venemaa astumist WTO-sse vaid juhul, kui Venemaa hakkab kasutama Gruusia kontrollitavaid seaduslikke tollipunkte. Praegu kasutab Venemaa tollipunkte, mis asuvad Lõuna-Osseetia ja Abhaasia territooriumil

Rhetoric and the law, or the law of rhetoric: How countries oppose novel tobacco control measures at the World Trade Organization.

Science.gov (United States)

Lencucha, Raphael; Drope, Jeffrey; Labonte, Ronald

2016-09-01

The tobacco industry has developed an extensive array of strategies and arguments to prevent or weaken government regulation. These strategies and arguments are well documented at the domestic level. However, there remains a need to examine how these arguments are reflected in the challenges waged by governments within the World Trade Organization (WTO). Decisions made at the WTO have the potential to shape how countries govern. Our analysis was conducted on two novel tobacco control measures: tobacco additives bans (Canada, United States and Brazil) and plain, standardized packaging of tobacco products (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, EU and UK). We analyzed WTO documents (i.e. meeting minutes and submissions) (n = 62) in order to identify patterns of argumentation and compare these patterns with well-documented industry arguments. The pattern of these arguments reveal that despite the unique institutional structure of the WTO, country representatives opposing novel tobacco control measures use the same non-technical arguments as those that the tobacco industry continues to use to oppose these measures at the domestic level. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The concept of “Like Products” under Article 2.1 of the TBT Agreement: a View from the Interpretation Criteria of the WTO

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrés Felipe Esteban Tovar

2016-01-01

Full Text Available This article seeks to evaluate the interpretation carried out by the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB of the wto about the concept of “like products” under article 2.1 of the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT in recent cases (United States-Clove cigarettes, United StatesTuna II and United States-COOL, with the end of suggesting certain interpretative elements in accordance with the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties which could have influenced a different interpretation of “like products”by the DSB.

THE EUROPEAN UNION’S TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE ACP:ENTRAPPED BY ITS OWN RHETORICAL STRATEGY?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lotte Drieghe

2008-12-01

Full Text Available This paper deals with the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs between the European Union (EU and the group of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP countries. It addresses the question why the EU firmly insisted on upholding the negotiating deadline for these new trade agreements, despite the very damaging consequences; these hastily initialed trade deals entailed. Regional integration in the South was hampered; the development of the friendly image of the EU got a serious blow; the EU did not manage to include the WTO plus issues, and the prospect of full EPAs at later stage is not guaranteed. We first qualify the Union’s argument to the expiry of a waiver by the World Trade Organization (WTO, which legitimized the former trade regime, and placed an external and insurmountable pressure on the negotiations. There is no rational explanation for Europe’s harsh attitude on the EPA deadline, since neither legal, nor economic interests would have been harmed, if the deadline had been postponed. The main argument advanced in this article addresses whether the EU had to push through these trade deals, because it had entrapped itself through its own ‘rhetorical action’. In its negotiation discourse, the European Commission (EC had so often emphasized the deadline together with the fact that there were no alternatives to EPAs, that it could not change its mind overnight, when at the end of the 2007 negotiations they were still going nowhere. The Union was forced to keep up with the deadline it had imposed upon itself with the risk of losing all its credibility.

Subsidies in WTO Law and Energy Regulation : Some Implications for Fossil Fuels and Renewable Energy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Marhold, Anna

2018-01-01

This contribution discusses WTO subsidies disciplines in the context of the energy sector. After laying out the relevant disciplines, it will discuss the paradox of WTO law with respect to subsidies towards fossil fuels vis-à-vis those towards renewable energy. It is clear that subsidies on clean

WTO läbimurde ootel / Tõnis Arnover

Index Scriptorium Estoniae

Arnover, Tõnis, 1952-

2006-01-01

Maailma Kaubandusorganisatsioonis oodatakse Suure Leppe sündi, mis oleks kasulik ekspordist huvitatud avatud majandusega riikidele. Vt. samas: Tähtsamad huvigrupid WTO-s; Šveitsi valem kärbib kõrgeid tariife; Mauritius pelgab oma kaupade konkurentsivõime kahanemist; Eestit huvitavad tööstuskaupade eksportimise lisavõimalused; Mina sulle, sina mulle

From Doha to El Dorado? : the WTO, agricultural liberalisation and the false promise of free markets\\ud

OpenAIRE

Richardson, Ben

2010-01-01

The trade talks at the Doha Round of the World Trade Organisation have stuttered along since 2001 with seemingly little prospect for conclusion. Nevertheless, the conviction\\ud remains that the round should be finished lest significant economic gains be passed over and the long run trading interests of developing countries damaged. In this reading, it is insufficient political will among world leaders that has prevented poor countries from moving towards a fair and free trading environment. B...

Transparency and public participation in WTO dispute settlement

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ahlborn, C.S.; Pfitzer, J.H.

2009-01-01

In order to offer a comprehensive analysis of transparency and public participation in the WTO dispute settlement system, this memorandum first considers the current participatory practice throughout the various steps of the dispute settlement process. Secondly, the current state of the DSU

Milline saab olema uuenenud WTO põllumajandusleping? / Ruve Schank

Index Scriptorium Estoniae

Šank, Ruve, 1954-

2003-01-01

Uuenenud WTO põllumajanduslepinguga hakkab riiklik toetus üha vähem olema seotud tootmisega, selle asemel toetatakse lihtsalt maal elamist ja seal töötamist põllumajandusega mitte otseselt seotud aladel

Environmental implications of China's WTO accession

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Vennemo, Haakon; Aunan, Kristin; He, Jianwu; Hu, Tao; Li, Shantong; Rypdal, Kristin

2005-07-01

China's accession to the WTO in 2001 completed the country's entry into the global economy. We investigate environmental implications of WTO-accession. There are several hypotheses in this area: The scale hypothesis says that production is scaled up and in turn, pollution increases. The composition hypothesis says that composition of industries changes and pollution reflects the new composition. The technique hypothesis says that production methods become cleaner and pollution decreases. We analyze the relative strength of the hypotheses by means of an environmental CGE-model, and in the case of air pollution find support for a composition effect in favor of clean industries. Thanks to the composition effect, emissions to air of greenhouse gases fall. Emissions of particles and SO2 also fall, but emissions of NOx and VOC rise. Since particle and SO2-emissions fall we estimate that public health improves (author)

“INTERNATIONAL TRADE – ENVIRONMENT” RELATIONSHIP IN THE CONTEXT OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Margareta Timbur

2013-07-01

Full Text Available The overall aim of this paper lies on presenting a short pragmatic image of the main aspects concerning the impact of international trade on the environment, on the one hand, and the impact of environmental policies and regulations on the international trade, on the other hand. Also, this article examines the multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs focused on the use of environmental trade measures. In the same context, we discuss about the most important international institution with the regulatory powers in international trade – environment relationship which is considered to be GATT/WTO.Although, the international trade-environment relationship is a very debated internationally, in Romania it is not sufficiently addressed either theoretical or practical. Taking into account the transition period and the consequences of the global economic crisis which still will affect Romania a period of time; our country promotes simultaneous strengthening and optimizing of trade and environmental policies in sustainable development framework.

China and the world trading system : will 'in and up' be replaced by 'down and out'?

OpenAIRE

WINTERS, L Alan

2015-01-01

This paper examines the integration of China into the world trading system, focusing on the size and nature of the shocks that this implied for the world economy and the reactions to those shocks proposed by policy makers and academics. While the WTO has acted as a forum in which many of the adjustment pressures created by China’s rapid growth were dealt with fairly constructively, the recent shift by the United States and the EU to mega-regional trade deals, notably the Tran-Pacific Partners...

The General Agreement on Trade in Services

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francina Esteve García

1995-07-01

Full Text Available The conclusion of GATS and its inclusion as an annex in the constitutive Agreement of the World Trade Organization (WTO responds to the need for disposing of a stable juridical instrument which, given the current economic interdependence between States, can be applied to the international trade in services.One of the main new features of this agreement is its field of application given that it includes all service sectors (except those provided for in the name of governmental authorities and the four forms of carrying out trade in services and, as regards the principle of market access and that of national treatment, will be regulated according to those respective obligations which the Members have assumed.In exchange for not accepting the exclusion of any service sector, the negotiations concerning some fundamental sectors could not be totally closed and deadlines were extended in order to unblock the most controversial themes.One of the fundamental principles of the GATS is the most favoured nation clause of inconditional character but its consecration has been attenuated by the possibility of maintaining important exceptions in its application. The principle of transparency is also essential in the field of services, given that this sector is characterised by large public interventionism in access regulation and the exercise of the different economic activities which form it.The balance of the GATS is globally positive given that it includes a multilateral framework of principles and disciplines which is administered in the headquarters of the WTO, which have been accepted by a great majority of States within the international community and which remain subject to the WTO’s mechanism for the solution of differences.However, the opening of the market and the suppression of restrictions which derive from internal regulations have not been achieved given that, orientating itself around the objectives of national politics, liberalization is

Social justice: The link between trade liberalisation and sub-Saharan Africa's potential to achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goals by 2015

OpenAIRE

Chigara, B

2008-01-01

Copyright © 2008 Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM). The possible impact of the unintended worst possible effects of the current multilateral WTO sponsored trade liberalisation project on Sub-Saharan Africa’s potential to realise the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the target date of 2015 is examined. The article shows that the WTO’s current approach to trade liberalisation is nurturing and strengthening economic inequalities between and within economic regions ...

The politics behind the implementation of the WTO Paragraph 6 Decision in Canada to increase global drug access.

Science.gov (United States)

Esmail, Laura C; Kohler, Jillian Clare

2012-04-03

The reform of pharmaceutical policy can often involve trade-offs between competing social and commercial goals. Canada's Access to Medicines Regime (CAMR), a legislative amendment that permits compulsory licensing for the production and export of medicines to developing countries, aimed to reconcile these goals. Since it was passed in 2004, only two orders of antiretroviral drugs, enough for 21,000 HIV/AIDS patients in Rwanda have been exported. Future use of the regime appears unlikely. This research aimed to examine the politics of CAMR. Parliamentary Committee hearing transcripts from CAMR's legislative development (2004) and legislative review (2007) were analysed using a content analysis technique to identify how stakeholders who participated in the debates framed the issues. These findings were subsequently analysed using a framework of framing, institutions and interests to determine how these three dimensions shaped CAMR. In 2004, policy debates in Canada were dominated by two themes: intellectual property rights and the TRIPS Agreement. The right to medicines as a basic human right and CAMR's potential impact on innovation were hardly discussed. With the Departments of Industry Canada and International Trade as the lead institutions, the goals of protecting intellectual property and ensuring good trade relations with the United States appear to have taken priority over encouraging generic competition to achieve drug affordability. The result was a more limited interpretation of patent flexibilities under the WTO Paragraph 6 Decision. The most striking finding is the minimal discussion over the potential barriers developing country beneficiaries might face when attempting to use compulsory licensing, including their reluctance to use TRIPS flexibilities, their desire to pursue technological development and the constraints inherent in the WTO Paragraph 6 Decision. Instead, these issues were raised in 2007, which can be partly accounted for by experience in

The politics behind the implementation of the WTO Paragraph 6 Decision in Canada to increase global drug access

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Esmail Laura C

2012-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The reform of pharmaceutical policy can often involve trade-offs between competing social and commercial goals. Canada's Access to Medicines Regime (CAMR, a legislative amendment that permits compulsory licensing for the production and export of medicines to developing countries, aimed to reconcile these goals. Since it was passed in 2004, only two orders of antiretroviral drugs, enough for 21,000 HIV/AIDS patients in Rwanda have been exported. Future use of the regime appears unlikely. This research aimed to examine the politics of CAMR. Methods Parliamentary Committee hearing transcripts from CAMR's legislative development (2004 and legislative review (2007 were analysed using a content analysis technique to identify how stakeholders who participated in the debates framed the issues. These findings were subsequently analysed using a framework of framing, institutions and interests to determine how these three dimensions shaped CAMR. Results In 2004, policy debates in Canada were dominated by two themes: intellectual property rights and the TRIPS Agreement. The right to medicines as a basic human right and CAMR's potential impact on innovation were hardly discussed. With the Departments of Industry Canada and International Trade as the lead institutions, the goals of protecting intellectual property and ensuring good trade relations with the United States appear to have taken priority over encouraging generic competition to achieve drug affordability. The result was a more limited interpretation of patent flexibilities under the WTO Paragraph 6 Decision. The most striking finding is the minimal discussion over the potential barriers developing country beneficiaries might face when attempting to use compulsory licensing, including their reluctance to use TRIPS flexibilities, their desire to pursue technological development and the constraints inherent in the WTO Paragraph 6 Decision. Instead, these issues were raised in 2007

WTO kokkulepe viib piima hinna alla / Silja Lättemäe

Index Scriptorium Estoniae

Lättemäe, Silja, 1952-

2005-01-01

18. detsembril 2005. a. Hongkongis toimunud Maailma Kaubandusorganisatsiooni (WTO) tippkohtumisel saavutatud põllumajanduse-alaseid kokkuleppeid kommenteerib põllumajandusministeeriumi asekantsler Andres Oopkaup

A Strategic Analysis of Import of the WTO Accession on China's Telecommunications Industry

OpenAIRE

Lei, Zhang

2007-01-01

The dissertation is divided into two parts, namely, an overview of China's telecommunications industry and the strategic analysis of the influence of China's telecom industry accession to the WTO. Based on the several strategic management classical frameworks, the main aim of this piece of research is to analyze the external and internal environment of China's telecommunication industry and the impact of China's entry into WTO on this industry. Specifically, this aim is decomposed into the fo...

The role of veterinary epidemiology and veterinary services in complying with the World Trade Organization SPS agreement.

Science.gov (United States)

Zepeda, C; Salman, M; Thiermann, A; Kellar, J; Rojas, H; Willeberg, P

2005-02-01

The agreement on the application of sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS agreement) was one of the major products of the GATT's Uruguay round of multilateral trade negotiations, signed in Marrakesh on 15 April 1994. This agreement and others are part of the treaty that established the World Trade Organization (WTO). The WTO superseded the GATT as the umbrella organization for international trade (WTO, 1998a). The SPS agreement's main intent is to provide guidelines and provisions to member countries to facilitate trade while taking measures to protect human, animal or plant life or health. The agreement dictates that all sanitary measures must be scientifically based and not more restrictive than required to avoid the risk identified. The agreement recommends the use of international standards from the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), Codex Alimentarius (CAC) and the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) as the basis for import requirements. If a country chooses to apply more restrictive measures than those in the international standards, it has to justify its position through a risk analysis, thus avoiding the use of sanitary and phytosanitary measures as unjustified barriers to trade. More than ever, veterinary services worldwide are faced with having to fulfill a crucial role in protecting their country's animal health status, provide sound surveillance information on the occurrence of diseases within their territories, and conduct scientifically valid risk analyses to establish justified import requirements. During the past two decades, most countries have experienced resource reduction in their veterinary services. The effect of these policies has been severe, in many cases leading to an inability of veterinary services to conduct their disease prevention and control duties. There is a clear inconsistency between the demands placed on veterinary services and the current level of funding and support they are receiving, particularly in

Trade and climate change

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tamiotti, L.; Teh, R.; Kulacoglu, V. (World Trade Organization (WTO), Geneva (Switzerland)); Olhoff, A.; Simmons, B.; Abaza, H. (United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) (Denmark))

2009-06-15

The Report aims to improve understanding about the linkages between trade and climate change. It shows that trade intersects with climate change in a multitude of ways. For example, governments may introduce a variety of policies, such as regulatory measures and economic incentives, to address climate change. This complex web of measures may have an impact on international trade and the multilateral trading system. The Report begins with a summary of the current state of scientific knowledge on climate change and on the options available for responding to the challenge of climate change. The scientific review is followed by a part on the economic aspects of the link between trade and climate change, and these two parts set the context for the subsequent parts of the Report, which looks at the policies introduced at both the international and national level to address climate change. The part on international policy responses to climate change describes multilateral efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to the effects of climate change, and also discusses the role of the current trade and environment negotiations in promoting trade in technologies that aim to mitigate climate change. The final part of the Report gives an overview of a range of national policies and measures that have been used in a number of countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to increase energy efficiency. It presents key features in the design and implementation of these policies, in order to draw a clearer picture of their overall effect and potential impact on environmental protection, sustainable development and trade. It also gives, where appropriate, an overview of the WTO rules that may be relevant to such measures. (author)

Challenges to developing countries after joining WTO: risk assessment of chemicals in food

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen Junshi

2004-01-01

FAO/WHO encourages member countries to develop national food control measures based on risk assessment in order to assure proper protection level to consumers and facilitate fair trade. This is particularly important for developing countries as WTO members because it is clearly stated in the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) Agreement that: (a) SPS measures should be based on risk assessment techniques developed by relevant international organizations; and (b) Codex standards which is based on risk assessment are regarded as the international norm in trade dispute settlement. When conducting risk assessment on food chemicals (including additives and contaminants) in developing countries, in most cases it is not necessary to conduct their own hazard characterization because the ADIs or PTWIs of food chemicals developed by international expert groups (e.g. JECFA) are universally applicable and also developing countries do not have the resources to repeat those expensive toxicological studies. On the other hand, it is necessary to conduct exposure assessment in developing countries because exposure to food chemicals varies from country to country. This is not only crucial in setting national standards, but also very important for developing countries to participate in the process of developing Codex standards. In addition to food standard development, risk assessment is also useful in setting up priorities in imported food inspection and evaluating the success of various food safety control measures

Challenges to developing countries after joining WTO: risk assessment of chemicals in food.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Junshi

2004-05-20

FAO/WHO encourages member countries to develop national food control measures based on risk assessment in order to assure proper protection level to consumers and facilitate fair trade. This is particularly important for developing countries as WTO members because it is clearly stated in the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) Agreement that: (a) SPS measures should be based on risk assessment techniques developed by relevant international organizations; and (b) Codex standards which is based on risk assessment are regarded as the international norm in trade dispute settlement. When conducting risk assessment on food chemicals (including additives and contaminants) in developing countries, in most cases it is not necessary to conduct their own hazard characterization because the ADIs or PTWIs of food chemicals developed by international expert groups (e.g. JECFA) are universally applicable and also developing countries do not have the resources to repeat those expensive toxicological studies. On the other hand, it is necessary to conduct exposure assessment in developing countries because exposure to food chemicals varies from country to country. This is not only crucial in setting national standards, but also very important for developing countries to participate in the process of developing Codex standards. In addition to food standard development, risk assessment is also useful in setting up priorities in imported food inspection and evaluating the success of various food safety control measures.

48 CFR 25.400 - Scope of subpart.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... Government Procurement Agreement (WTO GPA), as approved by Congress in the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (Pub... covered by the WTO GPA; (4) The Caribbean Basin Trade Initiative (CBTI) (determination of the U.S. Trade... Panama, must be treated as eligible products in acquisitions covered by the WTO GPA); (5) The Israeli...

Disputas comerciais e magnanimidade: um estudo do mecanismo de solução de controvérsias da Organização Mundial de Comércio à luz da teoria dos movimentos Magnanimity and WTO disputes: an examination of early settlement in trade disputes using theory of moves

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cristiane de Andrade Lucena Carneiro

2008-01-01

Full Text Available Por que disputas comerciais no âmbito da Organização Mundial de Comércio (OMC são decididas predominantemente de forma amigável, não obstante a existência de um sofisticado mecanismo quasi-adjudicatório para a resolução dessas controvérsias? Como explicar a preferência da parte que inicia uma disputa pela solução amigável, quando se sabe que a OMC, em média, decide 64% dos casos a favor do iniciante? Este artigo analisa padrões de solução de controvérsias no sistema do Acordo Geral de Tarifas e Comércio e da Organização Mundial de Comércio (GATT/OMC, por meio da teoria dos movimentos (BRAMS, 1994, com o propósito de estudar as escolhas estratégicas disponíveis para as partes. Propõe-se que, no sistema do GATT/OMC, as partes em uma disputa comercial agem de forma magnânima quando abrem mão do melhor resultado em um jogo. Esta ação é racional porque ela oferece à parte demandada maiores chances de se alcançar uma solução amigável da disputa. Esse comportamento não encontra explicação satisfatória no conceito de equilíbrio míope da teoria dos jogos tradicional. Em contrapartida, a teoria dos movimentos incorpora a noção de equilíbrio não-míope ao seu modelo de tomada de decisões. Este artigo explica o comportamento não-míope e racional dos jogadores quando estes buscam o segundo melhor resultado no jogo. Três disputas comerciais ilustram a análise e caracterizam situações em que: (i a solução amigável advém do comportamento magnânimo; (ii a solução amigável ocorre a despeito do comportamento magnânimo; e (iii não há solução amigável.Why most trade disputes in the World Trade Organization (WTO end in a friendly settlement, despite the existence of a sophisticated dispute settlement mechanism? How can we explain the complainant's preference for a friendly settlement when we know that the WTO decides 64% of the cases in favor of the complainant? In this article I discuss patterns

U.S. trade dispute with China over rare earth elements

Science.gov (United States)

Showstack, Randy

2012-03-01

The U.S. government has brought a new trade case against China over rare earth elements (REE) as well as tungsten and molybdenum, President Barack Obama announced on 13 March. Japan and the European Union also have taken similar actions against China about REEs, which are a group of 17 chemically similar metallic elements that are used in a variety of electronic, optical, magnetic, and catalytic applications. REEs are plentiful in the Earth's crust, although China currently has about 37% of the world's reserves and accounts for more than 95% of the world's production of the elements, according to the British Geological Survey. The United States has requested consultations with China at the World Trade Organization (WTO) concerning "China's unfair export restraints on rare earths, as well as tungsten and molybdenum," the Office of the United States Trade Representative announced in a 13 March statement.

〈論文〉WTO 協定の義務違反の蔓延によるその規範性の脆弱化

OpenAIRE

濱田, 太郎

2017-01-01

[概要]WTO 協定は一括受諾により先進国途上国を問わず同一の義務を課す。しかし，多数の途上国が様々な義務に違反し，事実上違反が放置され，その一部が追認されるに至る。こうした違反は，紛争解決制度ではなく，WTO の内部機関が加盟国からの国内法令等の通報を審査する国際コントロールを通じて明らかになる。国内法令通報義務違反は，形式的に手続法違反である通報義務違反であると同時に，当該協定を実施していないことは明白であるから，同時に実体的義務・主観的義務の違反を伴う。強力な紛争解決制度を備え高度に「法化」した WTO 協定において，履行する意思と能力を無視した過大な義務が課され，実体的義務・主観的義務の違反が顕在的・潜在的に蔓延しており，WTO 体制の正当性や条約規範の規範性が脆弱化される危機が起こっている。[Abstract]The World Trade Organization（WTO）has a strong and effective dispute settlement mechanism to promote compliance with the WTO agreemen...

Economies in transition and the WTO process / David Roberts

Index Scriptorium Estoniae

Roberts, David

2004-01-01

Ilmunud ka: Vozdeistvije protsessa VTO na selskoje hozjaistvo v ekonomitsheskihh sistemahh perehoda : 26-29 julja 2003 goda, Tallinn, Estonija : materialõ konferentsii. - Tallinn, 2004, lk. 141-152. Üleminekuperioodiga maade probleemidest põllumajanduse arendamisel seotuna WTO protsessiga. Vt. samas riikide ülevaadet. Graafikud. Diagrammid

75 FR 81533 - Antidumping Proceedings: Calculation of the Weighted Average Dumping Margin and Assessment Rate...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-12-28

... non-dumped comparisons. Several World Trade Organization (``WTO'') dispute settlement reports have... methodologies have been challenged as being inconsistent with the World Trade Organization (``WTO'') General... DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE International Trade Administration 19 CFR Part 351 [Docket No. 101130598...

Environmental impacts of a free trade agreement between China and Norway

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fauchald, Ole Kristian; Vennemo, Haakon

2012-11-01

The report assesses the likely impacts of the FTA for environmental policies, regulations and the physical environment. The analysis covers the main parts of the FTA: Trade in goods, trade in services and investments, and is limited to those parts of the FTA that are assumed to have the greatest effects. The analysis is based on scenarios setting out possible results of the negotiations. These scenarios build on existing obligations in the WTO seen in conjunction with the public documents that the negotiations are based upon. The report contains the following core elements: 1. The details of a baseline scenario. 2. Two scenarios based on possible outcomes of the negotiations - a free trade scenario and a green trade scenario. 3. Screening and scoping in light of input from consultations with public authorities, non-governmental organizations and the team of Chinese researchers. 4. Five case studies that focus on effects of the FTA on trade and investment between Norway and China, and the resulting environmental consequences. 5. Five regulatory studies that focus on effects of the FTA for environmental rules and policy.(auth)

Carbon-related border tax adjustment: mitigating climate change or restricting international trade?

OpenAIRE

Kaufmann, Christine; Weber, Rolf H

2011-01-01

Border tax adjustments in the form of carbon taxes on products from countries with lax environmental production standards or in the form of a required participation in an emissions allowances' trading system have become a heavily debated issue under WTO law. Such an adjustment might be permissible if energy taxes as indirect taxes are applied on inputs during the production process. Compliance with the Most Favoured Nation principle has less practical importance than the not-yet settled liken...

Die WTO in Hongkong: Zwischenergebnisse einer "Entwicklungsrunde"

OpenAIRE

Küblböck, Karin; Six, Clemens

2006-01-01

Die sechste Ministerkonferenz der Welthandelsorganisation (WTO), die von 13. bis 18. Dezember 2005 in Hongkong stattfand, war mit dem Anspruch angetreten, die Agenda der Doha-Entwicklungsrunde, also die B erücksichtigung der Interessen und ökonomischen Bedürfnisse der Entwicklungsländer und insbesondere der am wenigsten entwickelten Staaten, um wesentliche Schritte im Hinblick auf einen erfolgreichen Abschluss voranzubringen. Die Ergebnisse sind vor dem Hintergrund des Anspruches dieser Verha...

ETHIOPIA'S ACCESSION TO THE WORLD TRADE ORGANISATION ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

which could be relevant to Ethiopia to devise successful strategies and avoid ... Acronyms. GATS General Agreement on Trade in Services .... services; v. preparation of indigenous traditional medicines; vi. ..... Tourism/ travel services. 66.73.

Using of Protectionism Policy Tools in the context of WTO from the Perspective of Dependency Theory

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Göksel KARAŞ

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Since the 1980s, when neoliberal policies have been intensively implemented, the distribution of income between developed and less developed countries in the world has begun to increase inequality. There are discourses that the neoliberal view suggests that today's wealthy countries are successful with free market economics, so that all countries in the world must move to a free market economy system and that neoliberal policies are the only way for development. According to the neoliberal policy which advocates the state neutrality in the economy, the role of the state in the economy should be reduced. As a result, weakening the effectiveness of government policy-setting and implementation in the economy is intended. Thus, developed countries direct the underdeveloped or developing countries in the direction of their own interests. The result of these discourses, the theory of dependence which states that there is a relationship between developed and underdeveloped countries based on power and control, that underdevelopment of underdeveloped countries should be sought in the development process of developed countries has come out. The aim of the study is to assess the results of the use of defense measures in the trade policy implemented under the World Trade Organization (WTO, based on the assumptions of the dependency theory. When the use of defense instruments in trade policy is examined, it appears that these instruments have been effectively used by developed countries that advocate and enforce the free market economy in the world.

77 FR 13956 - Federal Acquisition Regulation; Federal Acquisition Circular 2005-57; Small Entity Compliance Guide

Science.gov (United States)

2012-03-07

... Trade Organization Government Procurement Agreement (WTO GPA). This Free Trade Agreement now covers acquisition of supplies and services between $100,000 and the current WTO GPA threshold of $202,000. This...

Competing Transnational Regimes under WTO Law

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carola Glinski

2014-02-01

Full Text Available Against a common perception of CSR being a business concept without binding legal effect, this article discusses legitimate legal effects of private standards in public international law, using the issue of private labels as “international standards” under WTO law. WTO law shows certain openness for external transnational standards. This article argues that the references to “international standards” in the TBT Agreement can be applied for the selection between competing public or private norms that claim relevance. Thereby, the most legitimate standard for governing the problem at issue should be chosen. This is exemplified with the case of Tuna Dolphin II where the Appellate Body has emphasised the requirement of procedural legitimacy. The article argues that the requirements for legitimate standards depend on the interests at stake and that a private standard can well be more legitimate than a (competing public standard. As the justifying effect of Article 2.5 TBT mainly interferes with economic interests, a relevant “international standard” may well consist of a representative business standard, e.g. a private label. In contrast, an international standard in the terms of Article 2.4 TBT which interferes with a democratic decision in favour of public interests such as environmental protection must reflect these public interests in a legitimate way. The article concludes that CSR can play an important role in defining legally valid justifying or minimum standards in public international law.

U.S. Agricultural Export Credits after the WTO Cotton Ruling: The Law of Unintended Consequences

OpenAIRE

Benitah, Marc

2005-01-01

The recent WTO cotton ruling has led to a paradoxical result for the United States, a result that seems a textbook illustration of the "law of unintended consequences". Indeed, during the Uruguay Round negotiations of the present WTO agreements, the United States refused to put agricultural export credits in the category of agricultural export subsidies, where they would then have been subject only to reduction commitments. Paradoxically, the United States finds itself now in a position where...

Organising Sustainability Competencies through Quality Management: Integration or Specialisation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vanajah Siva

2018-04-01

Full Text Available A significant step in integrating environmental sustainability into daily operations is through product development. One way to achieve such integration of environmental considerations into product development is by relating sustainability competencies to practices of Quality Management. However, practices seem to vary for how competencies within environmental sustainability are organised in order to make sustainability more actionable. This study explores two ways of organising sustainability competencies in product development: integration and specialisation. The organisation of sustainability competency is illustrated through two cases; one case in which sustainability is integrated with the quality management competency, and the other in which a new competency focusing on sustainability has been added as a separate function in product development. It is suggested that the organisation of sustainability competency influences the extent of environmental impact. Further, trade-offs, such as material source versus weight may not be exploited when sustainability is integrated as one area of responsibility for another specialty competency, suggesting a lack of sufficient competency within environmental sustainability to recognise potential trade-offs between—for example—quality and environmental impact.

Opportunities of Trade in Services between the EU and Ukraine: the Case of Telecommunications Services under the GATS and the Association Agreement

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Batura, Olga; Kretova, Olga A.

This working paper studies the legal and regulatory conditions for trade in ser- vices between the European Union (EU) and Ukraine on the example of tele- communications services that are important carrier services for various busi- ness activities in the cross-border trade. The paper outlines...... the general frame- work for trade in services under the GATS as expressed in the commitments undertaken by Ukraine and examines the detailed provisions of the EU- Ukraine Association Agreement on trade liberalisation and regulatory approx- imation that is a WTO-extra agreement. It also provides an overview...... – the internal mar- ket treatment – is difficult to reach due to unclear and complicated rules on regulatory approximation. Key words: EU, Ukraine, trade in services, telecommunications services, liber- alisation, regulatory approximation...

Trade-related Electronic Commerce Issues in the OECD

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chang-In Yoon

1998-12-01

Full Text Available The trade committee of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD has begun the study of the trade related to electronic commerce since 1997. The scale of the study on one hand has avoided the fact of copy and duplication of WTO and its organizational principles, on the other hand it has played a supplementary and supportive function. At present, digital-related product, such as computers, software and travel is the key point to the trade which resorts to electronic commerce. It is predicted that this trend will go on. The study on electronic commerce could be summed up into three main components: First, according to the phase of the trade, it could be divided into advertisement, purchase, delivery and payment. Second, issues on electronic commerce in the international trade; such as the issue that leads to the unfairness and non-neutrality of the searching engine in international service trade. Besides, domain name, trademarks and the issue of middleman which exist at the moment in the electronic commerce are activated and will also be discussed. Third, issues of the trade policy related to the electronic commerce. For instance, the kernel principles which support the multi-trade regulation, including transparency, indiscrimination, anti-dumping, flexible trade, government arrangement, tariff and competition policy and so on. Under this background, we should explore way in formulating hypotheses with preconceived issues, validating the electronic commerce trade on the spot, actualizing the study on the application of electronic commerce coming with the GATS regulation, seeking the countermeasure in the future trade policy, such as benefit policy to the electronic commerce department and electronic commerce strategy approach of certain enterprises, etc.

Viimase hetke kokkulepe päästis WTO tippkohtumise / Heiki Suurkask

Index Scriptorium Estoniae

Suurkask, Heiki, 1972-

2005-01-01

Kuigi EL-i eelarvekõnelustel Brüsselis jäeti ühine põllumajanduspoliitika puutumata, sunnib WTO tippkohtumisel Hongkongis saavutatud lepe 2013. aastast alates EL-i põllumajanduse toetamist revideerima. Lisa: Politsei vahistas 900 meeleavaldajat

Construction of public discussions and the strategies of deproblimatization in the debate on Russia's accession to the WTO

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kazun Anastasia, D.

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Russia's accession to the WTO remained one of the most talked economic events for a long time. Representatives of various interest groups (both supporters and opponents of joining the organization attended in the public debate on this issue. The paper presents the results of the analysis of publications in the print media on Russia's accession to the WTO over a period from December 2010 to December 2013. The focuses of our attention are two time slots: one and a half years prior to the entry and one and a half years after. The total number of analyzed articles is 397. As a result of the research we made some conclusions about the features of the construction of the WTO's media image. The paper presents an analysis of the positions of representatives of different groups and an evaluation of their involvement in the discussion. In addition, we provide illustrations of basic strategies used for deproblematization of the Russia's accession to the WTO, as well as to make assumptions about the reasons for which such actions became necessary.

International standards in mitigating trade risks.

Science.gov (United States)

Thiermann, A B

2011-04-01

This paper describes the role of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), as a science-based and democratic standard-setting organisation that provides guidance on preventing the spread of animal diseases, including zoonoses, in international trade. The World Trade Organization is identified as the international institution with the legal power to encourage adherence to international standards and mediate trade disputes. The importance of assuring good governance and the credibility of national Veterinary Services through a process of official certification is identified as an essential component in the safety of trade. Private-public partnerships and the evolution of responsibilities are also identified as essential for the implementation of health guarantees such as compartmentalisation. The rapid emergence of private standards is described as a potential complement to the implementation of sanitary standards, as long as they are applied globally and in support of the OIE standards. Ultimately, the biggest challenge is for the international community to create the incentives and generate the political will for fair trade and for the universal recognition and application of the established international sanitary standards.

Implementation of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Standards in South ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

The establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995 was heralded as ushering in a new era of trade liberalization. This optimism was based on the understanding that the WTO would operate as a rules-based organization with regulations governing trade in agricultural commodities set out in the standards ...

The Impact of Trade Policies on Spiraling Prices in International Agricultural Commodity Markets

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Agnes Ghibuțiu

2011-07-01

Full Text Available Since the mid-2000s food prices have been on an upward trend. In the first months of 2011, agricultural commodity prices reached an all-time high, fuelling fears about the imminent outbreak of a new food crisis, similar to the 1973/74 and 2006/08 ones. Behind concerns about increased price levels and volatility in international agricultural commodity markets lie concerns about food security. Hence, the international community is now under pressure to urgently find solutions for tempering strong upward fluctuations in prices for many major food commodities. Trade policy changes are increasingly discussed as a major contributing factor to food price surges. This paper addresses some issues related to the recurrent global food crises from the perspective of trade policy, specifically export restrictions. After a brief review of the fundamental drivers of the upward trend in real food prices (rising global population and income, climate change, high oil prices, increasing cereal use for biofuel production, and financial speculation, it examines the upsurge in agricultural export restrictions over the recent years. Relying on WTO's trade policy monitoring exercise, it highlights typology, motivations and effects of the newly introduced export restrictions, and finds that a major factor behind their recent proliferation is the lack of effective and binding multilateral rules concerning these trade policy instruments. The paper argues that strenghtening and improving WTO's rules and disciplines is essential for mitigating increased price pressure and volatility as well as the associated food security risks. While the issue of export restrictions is currently the topic of discussions under the Doha Round, trade negotiations are in impasse since 2008. Hence, urgent and successful conclusion of the round would be an essential step. In the meanwhile, a closer regular monitoring of all forms of export restrictions would help to provide at least more

THE EFFECT OF PREFERENTIAL TRADE AREAS (PTAs IN THE PERSPECTIVE OF REGIONALISM: THE CASE OF ASEAN

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Abdurrahman Al-Faqiih

2016-03-01

Full Text Available The issue of regionalism particularly in the matter of preferential trade area is not an old fashion debate, but it becomes a prominent feature and a popular tool for global trading system. However, it does not mean that the regionalism might always bring benefit for any actor especially in terms of every national interest in the region. This paper would elaborate the effect of preferential trade area (PTAs establishment on the economic interest of ASEAN countries member. Through literature study, this paper concludes that the PTAs produce many positive benefits for the ASEAN countries member. The flexibility of partnerships and coverage selection under PTAs has helped ASEAN solve the crisis and increase efficiency as well as stimulate the main goal of global fair trade by expanding economic linkages. Thus, it could be said that PTAs enhance the multilateralism under the WTO system

Trade Policies and the Changing Patterns of Protectionism during the Global Financial and Economic Crisis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Agnes Ghibuțiu

2012-01-01

Full Text Available The Great Recession of 2008–09 provided a fertile ground for protectionist pressures to increase. It caused a negative shock to the global economy that is comparable with the Great Depression of the 1930s. International trade suffered a historical collapse in 2009, but trade flows quickly rebounded thereafter. And unlike the Great Depression of the 1930s, the recent global economic contraction did not trigger a massive wave of protectionism as expected. Despite important adjustments in many countries’ trade policies during the crisis and, hence, a quite notable increase in the incidence of protectionist measures, there is a widely shared belief that crisis related protectionism has been kept under control, being rather modest and limited compared with both the negative effects of the crisis and the initial concerns. A large agreement emerged also among analysts on the important role of WTO’s multilateral rules and disciplines in preventing exacerbation of economic nationalism and protectionism. The views on intensity, dynamics and potential impact of current contemporary protectionism continue, however, to diverge as they reflect in part the significant differences between the results of the different monitoring exercises, carried out particularly by the WTO and Global Trade Alert. But beyond these differences, the latest monitoring reports contain alarming signs of escalating protectionism over the post-crisis years due to the growing difficulties in the world economy. This paper takes a look at the main trends in global protectionism during and after the crisis and some of its potential implications. In doing so, the paper starts by contrasting protectionism that accompanied the Great Depression of the 1930s with the present-day protectionist phenomenon in order to briefly outline the peculiarities of the latter. Then it addresses the main factors contributing to staving off trade protectionism during the recent crisis. Relying on the

Huvirühmade võitlus takistab Venemaal WTO-ga liitumist / Margit Aedla

Index Scriptorium Estoniae

Aedla, Margit, 1970-

2003-01-01

Venemaa valitsus plaanib lõpetada liitumisläbirääkimised Maailma Kaubandusorganisatsiooniga(WTO) tuleva aasta jooksul, kuid majandussektor ei soovi loobuda suurtest impordibarjääridest ega sisse lasta tegijaid väljastpoolt

Trade, Environment & Animal Welfare

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Morrison, Peter; Nielsen, Laura

2013-01-01

Regulation of animal welfare and the environment under the WTO GATT and GATS Agreements - including introduction of the innovative idea of limiting consumption abroad (mode 2) for e.g. bull fights.......Regulation of animal welfare and the environment under the WTO GATT and GATS Agreements - including introduction of the innovative idea of limiting consumption abroad (mode 2) for e.g. bull fights....

78 FR 65220 - Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement: New Designated Country-Croatia (DFARS Case...

Science.gov (United States)

2013-10-31

... as a new designated country under the World Trade Organization Government Procurement Agreement (WTO..., 2012, the WTO Committee on Government Procurement accepted the European Union notification indicating..., this rule adds Croatia to the list of World Trade Organization Government Procurement Agreement...

Customs as Facilitation of Trade. Case of Albania.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Etleva Bajrami

2010-03-01

Full Text Available Economic cooperation and trade between countries of region is very important as a opening step for entering in big markets like EU-s. All agreements have a huge impact in customs administration for elimination of customs taxes and for facilitation of trade during customs crossing. Trade integration is seen as faster way for countries to complete all necessary condition for European Integration. This process requires fulfillment of all reforms, needed for approaches the development and integration between countries. This process is spread in time because of the feature and difference between society and their economies. Regional economic integration is considered an import component for longterm integration of South Eastern European countries in EU. Membership of Albania in WTO brings a number of free trade agreements, with the main purpose trade liberalization. The essences of these agreements have been liberalization of customs tariffs for increasing foreign trade and attract foreign investors. The loss of customs income will be compensating from imports increasing and economic development in general. The role of Customs has changed from one of a complete focus on revenue collection to a broad role encompassing components of revenue collection, trade facilitation and border security. Simplified customs procedures and documents are very important for improving relation of business and government and also improving business performance. The aim of this paper is to point out the roles, responsibilities and challenges of customs, for concluding this we have conducted a survey for analyzing the performance of customs in Albania.  

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF ACCESS TO PATENTED HIV/AIDS PHARMACEUTICAL MEDICINES THROUGH THE CANADIAN AND EU TRIPS FLEXIBILITIES MEASURES: ARE THEY EFFICACIOUS OR OVERLY BURDENSOME AND INEFFECTIVE MEASURES?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Omphemetse S Sibanda

2012-08-01

Full Text Available This paper evaluates the Canadian and the European Union's (EU implementation of the World Trade Organisation (WTO General Council Decision of 2003, which resolved that developed nations could export patented pharmaceutical drugs to member states in order to address public health challenges such as Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other epidemics, such states including Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA. The author makes a primarily textual appraisal of how and to what extent the Canada Access to Medicine Regime (CAMR and European Union (EU Regulations benefit, for instance, SSA countries in the WTO in their quest to make essential medicine more accessible. The author argues that although there are identifiable complexities inherent in the Canadian and the EU's access to pharmaceutical product regimes, there are far more important incentives and benefits that can be reaped in taking advantage of the respective systems. The author recommends that countries facing public health crises/emergencies, such as SSA countries, and non-governmental organisations (NGOs take advantage of the regulatory flexibilities of Canada and the EU in their efforts to provide their communities with essential HIV/AIDS treatment, and treatment for other diseases such as malaria. The author dismisses the arguments against TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property flexibilities-inspired legislation and similar measures as mostly mere rhetoric and hair-splitting, because they sometimes unwarrantedly dismiss a workable solution to public-health problems.

Eesti põllumajanduspoliitika ja WTO leping ei vasta Eesti rahvuslikele huvidele / Janno Reiljan

Index Scriptorium Estoniae

Reiljan, Janno, 1951-2018

2001-01-01

Eesti liitus Maailma Kaubandusorganisatsiooniga (WTO) endale ebasoodsatel tingimustel, mis ei võimalda meie põllumajandustoodetel välisturul konkureerida. Tabel: Eesti väliskaubandus põllumajandussaadustega. Autor: ERL. Parlamendisaadik

The European Union’s Trade Strategy and Its Reflections on Turkey: an Evaluation from the Perspective of Free Trade Agreements

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sait AKMAN

2010-04-01

Full Text Available This study attempts to assess implications, of European Union’s (EU new trade strategy and its Free Trade Agreements (FTAs with third countries, on Turkey-EU relations. It analyses critics raised in the context of FTAs and puts forward that the sustainability of the relations is contingent to the satisfaction of a set of criteria.The EU shifted its trade policy from sole reliance on multilateral trade negotiations towards initiatives for bilateral and preferential agreements (PTAs under its ‘Global Europe’ strategy which was adopted in 2006, to propose its trade policy agenda and priorities in accordance with its Lisbon Strategy. WTO Doha Round is currently in deadlock and it is improbable that it will be concluded in the near future. Partly for this reason, the EU tends to implement its policy objectives constantly through a set of FTAs. Turkey has to align its trade policy to the EU’s preferential regimes, pursuant to its obligations arising from the Customs Union (CU. Hence, it has concluded so far sixteen FTAs with relevant countries. On the other hand, the intensification of critics about the FTAs process and the CU brings impediments for Turkey to commit itself to its CU obligations in the next period. Two main motives can be cited as a reason: First, the EU trade strategy obviously considers the global context within which the EU rests; and the Member States’ interests, which are subsequently reflected into its FTAs. Nevertheless, a harmonious action by Turkey becomes onerous as long as EU trade priorities diverge from Turkey’s long term trade strategy. Second reason, aside from technical aspects of the CU, can be attributed to the ‘political uncertainty’ converged around the ‘open-endedness’ of the membership process, which in turn affects the CU, Turkey’s most vital linkage to the EU, and the commitments there from.

MULTILATERAL ENVIRONMENTAL AGREEMENTS AND THE TRADE MEASURES CONTAINED IN THESE AGREEMENTS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Margareta Timbur

2012-06-01

Full Text Available The environmental problems which the society is facing, ozone depletion, biodiversity loss, the spread of persistent organic pollutants, are a result of human activity with a worldwide impact, requiring immediate resolution. In this context, negotiation, signing and implementation of several multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs are one of the best solutions, affordable and reliable. The aim of this study is to analyze the commercial measures, which to some extent, ensure stability, security, and expansion of MEAs. The paper discusses, also, the efficiency, necessity and the influences of trade measures in MEAs and the WTO role in signing these agreements.

The electricity exchange. On the organisation and latent functions of electricity exchange trading as seen from the viewpoint of market sociology; Die Stromboerse. Ueber Form und latente Funktionen des boerslichen Stromhandels aus marktsoziologischer Sicht

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Giacovelli, Sebastian

2014-07-01

Electricity exchange trading in Germany has existed since the year 2000. Since this time, the Leipzig electricity exchange, a reference market for off-exchange electricity trading, has operated in an environment marked by both criticism and acceptance. Taking this field of controversy as a point of departure the present empirical study in market sociology undertakes to investigate the organisation and latent functions of electricity exchange trading. The ensuing analysis provides answers to questions as to how prices are formed on the electricity exchange and what officially incommunicable functions are served by price formation on exchanges.

77 FR 13951 - Federal Acquisition Regulation; Federal Acquisition Circular 2005-57; Introduction

Science.gov (United States)

2012-03-07

... Trade Organization Government Procurement Agreement (WTO GPA). This Free Trade Agreement now covers acquisition of supplies and services between $100,000 and the current WTO GPA threshold of $202,000. This... effective March 15, 2012. Dated: March 1, 2012. Richard Ginman, Director, Defense Procurement and...

Perception Of Trader Towards International Trade: A Diagnostic Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Muzaffar Asad

2010-12-01

Full Text Available In this article the authors have identified the significant factors that influence international trade in the light of traders. Foreign exchange transaction may prove to be helpful in managing currency risk which is associated with import and export of goods. The significance of multi-national firms over international trade has been discussed along with the impact of balance of payment over international trade and the measures taken by the government to create a balance in balance of payment and balance of trade. The considerations of countries while determining exchange rates have been elaborated in this paper. The numerous factors that affect decision making for International Traders and the rectifications are also discussed in this paper. The paper also discusses how various aspects induce an industry to change its course or completely shut down and how to deal with these lingering threats. On the basis of literature reviewed the variables that have been selected that may influence international trade include; trade quotas, brand name, WTO, NAFTA, SAFTA, ASIAN, GATT, e-commerce, international payment systems, product specialization, home industry, foreign reserves, government regulations, international market, dumping duties, trade policies, social crises, economic crises, balance of payments, change in value, and supply than demand. A questionnaire will be developed on the basis of above-mentioned variables. The respondents of questionnaire will be the traders in the international market, importers and exporters. The data will then be handled by the use of SPSS. Regression analysis will be conducted to identify the significant variables that have major impact on international trade. At the end the recommendations will be mentioned for getting maximum benefit from international trade.

Establishment approval in international trade of animal products

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rau, M.L.; Ge, L.; Valeeva, N.I.; Wagenberg, van C.P.A.

2012-01-01

This report provides an overview of different approaches of establishment approval as well as its implementation and organisation in international agrifood trade. The focus is on animal products as establishment approval is particularly used for exporting these products. Based on trade data, 8

Culture as a Determinant of Competitive Advantage in Trade

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dekuwmini Mornah

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Purpose: Culture plays a role in international trade much as it does in any other human activity. Attitudes and ways of life do matter even when a lucrative business opportunity exists, especially across national borders. This paper examines which aspects of culture give countries competitive edge in terms of bilateral trade performances. Specifically, do relatively higher scores in certain cultural dimensions have a deterministic effect on bilateral trade performance (terms of trade or bilateral trade balance? Methodology: We adopt empirical econometric estimation methods on trade data covering 59 countries and 29 years combined with the nine "Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE" culture dimensions, Our estimations were based on Robust Regression Analysis and Ordinary Least Squares methods. Findings: We find that indeed, certain aspects of culture enhance bilateral trade performance/competitiveness. Performance Orientation, Future Orientation, Institutional Collectivism, Gender Egalitarianism, Power Distance and Uncertainty Avoidance improve bilateral trade performance while Assertiveness, Humane Orientation and In-Group Collectivism impair it. Research limitations: Direct measures of international competitiveness are not readily available. So we had to adopt proxies for measuring international competitiveness. Implications: Many countries want to boost international competitiveness. However, in the current world order with multilateral trade agreements under the WTO and increased transferability of technology, governments are clipped in terms of available trade policy options. By understanding which aspects of culture promote bilateral competitiveness and performance, governments could take steps to maximize their competitiveness. For instance, when negotiating trade treaties, policy makers may benefit from the knowledge of culture's impact on competitive advantage when selecting partners. Originality/value: To

The informal economy employment impacts of trade liberalization & increased competition in export markets

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Morocco and United States. The overall logic of such measures was that liberalization and privatization would stimulate trade, support the requested modernization of the production systems and infrastructures, and enhance public administrations and services as well. Positive impacts on income, employments...... and privatization processes were implemented at the international level by the WTO's, at regional level by the establishment of free trade agreements between individual states on the southern and eastern Mediterranean rim and the EU [under the Barcelona Process] and by bilateral agreements as the one signed between...... to focus on the impacts of restructuring in the formal textile and clothing sectors (TC) which is the major employer in three Maghrib countries: Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. The textile and clothing sectors have been particularly exposed to increased competition in foreign and/or domestic markets...

The WTO Agreement on government procurement as a tool for Ukraine’s integration into the global value chains

OpenAIRE

GUZHVA IGOR

2015-01-01

The article deals with the features of modern internationalization of production and economic relations among economic entities around the world based on the global value chains formation. The essence and the basic provisions of the multilateral WTO Agreement on Government Procurement as the integration tool of Ukraine’s industries into the global value chains are revealed. The Ukraine’s government procurement reforming progress towards the relevant WTO rules and regulations full implementati...

The Ongoing WTO Negotiations on Agriculture: Issues and Options for Bangladesh

OpenAIRE

Donald McClatchy

2001-01-01

The negotiation on Agriculture is one of the vital components of WTO negotiation process which involved interests of the LDCs, including Bangladesh. The paper identified the interests of Bangladesh. The objective is to stimulate a discussion in turn assisting those responsible for decisions about Bangladesh’s evolving negotiating positions and strategy.

Worlds Apart Trading Together

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Evers, Kasper Grønlund

This study sets out to replace the out-dated notion of ‘Indo-Roman trade’ with a more informed perspective integrating the new findings of the last 30 years.In order to accomplish this, a perspective focusing on concrete demand from the ground up is adopted, also shedding light on the role...... of the market in long-distance exchange. Accordingly, the analysis conducted demonstrates that an economically highly substantial trade took place between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean in the 1st–6th century CE, altering patterns of consumption and modes of production in India andSouth Arabia as well...... as the Roman Empire.Significantly, it can be documented that this trade was organised at the centres of demand and supply, in Rome and India, respectively, by comparable urban associations, the transport in-between being handled by equally well-organised groups of seagoing merchants.Consequently, this study...

International standards, Agreements and Policy of food Irradiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Roberts, P.B.

1997-01-01

There are few internationally recognised standards and agreements related to irradiated foods. Codex Alimentarius has its General standard for Irradiated foods. This sets standards for the production of irradiated foods that are safe and nutritionally adequate. Guidelines for the proper processing of foods by irradiation are covered in the Codex Recommended International Code of Practice for the Operation of Radiation Facilities Used for the Treatment of Food. For irradiation as a quarantine treatment for fruit, vegetables and other plants, the relevant international organization is the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC), IPPC has no standards or guidelines for irradiation treatments. However, regional organizations within IPPC are moving towards recognition of irradiation as a technically viable and effective method of insect disinfestation. Especially notable are actions within the North American Plant Protection Organisation (NAPPO). NAPPO has endorsed a standard on the use of irradiation as a quarantine treatment. Other speakers have provided considerable detail on the Codex standard and on the situation with regard to quarantine issues. In this talk I will concentrate on irradiated foods as commodities that will be traded internationally in increasing amounts as we approach the next century. International trade is governed by bilateral arrangements. However, these arrangements should be consistent with the overarching multilateral agreements of the World trade Organization (WTO). The WTO Agreements do not refer directly to irradiation or irradiated foods. However, in this talk I will try to interpret the implications of the Agreements for trade in irradiated food. (Author)

International standards, Agreements and Policy of food Irradiation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Roberts, P.B. [Industrial and Biological Section. Institute of Geological and Nuclear Science. P.O. Box 31. Lower Hutt (New Zealand)

1997-12-31

There are few internationally recognised standards and agreements related to irradiated foods. Codex Alimentarius has its General standard for Irradiated foods. This sets standards for the production of irradiated foods that are safe and nutritionally adequate. Guidelines for the proper processing of foods by irradiation are covered in the Codex Recommended International Code of Practice for the Operation of Radiation Facilities Used for the Treatment of Food. For irradiation as a quarantine treatment for fruit, vegetables and other plants, the relevant international organization is the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC), IPPC has no standards or guidelines for irradiation treatments. However, regional organizations within IPPC are moving towards recognition of irradiation as a technically viable and effective method of insect disinfestation. Especially notable are actions within the North American Plant Protection Organisation (NAPPO). NAPPO has endorsed a standard on the use of irradiation as a quarantine treatment. Other speakers have provided considerable detail on the Codex standard and on the situation with regard to quarantine issues. In this talk I will concentrate on irradiated foods as commodities that will be traded internationally in increasing amounts as we approach the next century. International trade is governed by bilateral arrangements. However, these arrangements should be consistent with the overarching multilateral agreements of the World trade Organization (WTO). The WTO Agreements do not refer directly to irradiation or irradiated foods. However, in this talk I will try to interpret the implications of the Agreements for trade in irradiated food. (Author)

The impact of international trade on China's industrial carbon emissions since its entry into WTO

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ren, Shenggang; Yuan, Baolong; Ma, Xie; Chen, Xiaohong

2014-01-01

This paper employs the input–output (IO) approach to analyze the scale and structure of embodied carbon emissions of China's 19 industry sectors during 2001–2011 and constructs a regression model to establish the relationship between energy intensity, per capita output, trade openness, foreign direct investment (FDI), trade comparative advantage, environmental regulation, technology, and CO 2 emission intensity. Our results suggest that: China's international embodied carbon emission balance has been in a state of continuous growth for the period 2001–2011, and China has become a pollution haven; the relationship between per capita output and CO 2 emission is inverse N-typed and China's industries are in the rising stage of the curve; FDI and trade comparative advantage are two main elements boosting China's carbon emissions; trade openness, environmental regulation, and technology will lower the growth rate of China's industrial carbon emissions (ICEs). Consequently, China's policies should center on adjusting the industry structure and scale of FDI inflows, transforming industries with trade comparative advantages into a clean type, facilitating environmental regulation level, and bringing in and developing low-carbon technology to avert China from being a pollution haven. - Highlights: • We first employ a panel dataset of 19 industry sectors in China. • The relationship between per capita output and CO 2 emission is inverse N-typed. • China’s industries are in the rising stage of the inverse N-typed curve. • FDI and trade comparative advantage increase industrial carbon emissions in China

77 FR 56737 - Federal Acquisition Regulation; Federal Acquisition Circular 2005-61; Introduction

Science.gov (United States)

2012-09-13

... Trade Organization Government Procurement Agreement (WTO GPA). The Korea Free Trade Agreement now covers acquisition of supplies and services between $100,000 and the current WTO GPA threshold of $202,000. This...'', which is no longer in existence. There is no impact to the Government or small business because this...

77 FR 56744 - Federal Acquisition Regulation; Federal Acquisition Circular 2005-61; Small Entity Compliance Guide

Science.gov (United States)

2012-09-13

... Trade Organization Government Procurement Agreement (WTO GPA). The Korea Free Trade Agreement now covers acquisition of supplies and services between $100,000 and the current WTO GPA threshold of $202,000. This...'', which is no longer in existence. There is no impact to the Government or small business because this...

Organising stakeholder workshops in research and innovation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Morten Velsing; Bryndum, Nina; Bedsted, Bjørn

2017-01-01

This article addresses the theory and practice of creating responsiveness among actors through deliberative dialogue processes with stakeholders from diverse institutional settings. The EU’s decision to mainstream stakeholder deliberation in research and innovation, as part of its focus......, the article illustrates the challenges of applying theory to five European stakeholder workshops co-organised by the authors. The illustration highlights the difficult interaction between theory and practice. The article concludes that while theoretical perspectives can provide general guidance, practical...... experience is essential when dealing with the trade-offs that are an intrinsic part of organising stakeholder workshops....

Organisational socialisation in a crisis context.

Science.gov (United States)

Lalonde, Carole

2010-04-01

The objective of this paper is to highlight the dimensions characterising the socialisation process in a crisis context. Based on the definition of organisational socialisation advanced by Van Maanen and Schein (1979) and employed later by Jones (1986), a crisis is presented as a passage from a 'normal' situation to an 'exceptional' situation. A crisis represents a socialisation context in the sense that it is a novel state in which actors must develop a different way of mobilising their knowledge, utilising their skills, and practicing their trade or profession. The paper discusses certain findings that have emerged from the literature on organisational socialisation, as well as from the testimony of actors who participated in efforts to manage the Quebec ice-storm crisis of early 1998. It is hoped that this exploratory study's data will give rise to fruitful interaction between the field of organisational socialisation and that of crisis management.

Organising trade : a practice-oriented analysis of cooperatives and networks trading cereals in South Mali

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mangnus, E.P.M.

2015-01-01

Abstract

Farmer organisations have become the centrepiece of pro-poor market development strategies in Africa. Assumed to facilitate scale, quality of produce and professionalism they are regarded as a solution for farmers that are hampered from economic opportunities. In

WTO Dispute Settlement: Status of U.S. Compliance in Pending Cases

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-29

have rejected Charming Betsy arguments and (...continued) Jane A. Restani & Ira Bloom ...complaints were filed: DS217, filed jointly by Australia, Brazil, Chile , the European Union (EU), India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea and Thailand, and DS234...Members—Brazil, Chile , EU, India, Japan, Korea, Canada, and Mexico—asked the WTO in January 2004 for authorization to impose retaliatory measures.93

MCDA-C model for trade marketing performance evaluation: an illustrated case in the pharmaceutical sector

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

André Andrade Longaray

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Since its introduction in the early 1990s, trade marketing has played a significant role in companies and their distribution channels, focusing on the consolidation of marketing strategy at the point of purchase. In practice, one of the main obstacles for a more widespread use of trade marketing has been the lack of management tools allowing visualisation of the consequences of trade marketing in the organisation's objectives. This study shows the use of the Multi-Criteria Decision Aiding–Constructivist methodology model as an instrument of intervention in a case study conducted in a pharmaceutical company. A customised evaluation model was built interactively by interviewing decision makers to identify, organise, measure, and integrate those factors considered necessary and sufficient for the management of trade marketing. The constructed model enables executives to incorporate unique aspects of the company and the environment, expanding the possibilities for performance evaluation of trade marketing in the organisation.

A Round for Free: How rich countries are getting a free ride on agricultural subsidies at the WTO

OpenAIRE

OXFAM International,

2005-01-01

Agricultural dumping has a devastating effect on poor countries. The Uruguay Round at the WTO was supposed to cut the subsidies that lead to dumping, but it failed to do so — as did reforms of Europe's Common Agricultural Policy and US agricultural policy. Now history is set to repeat itself: the Doha Round of negotiations is again giving rich countries a free ride to continue dumping subsidised produce on poor countries. Oxfam believes that the WTO meeting in Hong Kong must put an end to thi...

The Impacts of U.S. Cotton Programs on the World Market: An Analysis of Brazilian and African WTO Petitions

OpenAIRE

Pan, Suwen; Mohanty, Samarendu; Ethridge, Don E.; Fadiga, Mohamadou L.

2004-01-01

Brazil, supported by Australia challenged U.S. cotton programs at the September 2003 meeting of the WTO settlement Body. Brazil complained that U.S. cotton subsidies such as marketing loans, export credits, commodity certificates, direct payments and counter cyclical payments are depressing world prices and are injurious to Brazilian farmers. In addition, the West and Central African Countries (WCA) countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali and Chad have filed a petition with the WTO claiming th...

Interactions: trade policy and healthcare reform after Chaoulli v. Quebec: is it time for Canada to acknowledge the fragile boundary between health and trade policies and strengthen the separation between private and public health insurance?

Science.gov (United States)

Crawford, Mark

2006-01-01

The insulation of Canada's healthcare system from trade treaty obligations is crucial to the legitimacy of Canada's trade policy. Legal analysis has suggested, however, that competitive and for-profit delivery of the kind contemplated by the Kirby Report and some provinces may make healthcare more vulnerable to challenges under NAFTA and GATS. The Government of Canada has tried to counter this interpretation by stressing the importance of public financing as the principal criterion for exemption of healthcare from trade treaties, but now the potential for private financing of essential medical services indicated by the Supreme Court's decision in Chaoulli v. Quebec has made that line of argument look risky as well. It is apparent that Canada failed to anticipate the possible interactions of domestic, international and constitutional law when it made commitments in the area of private health insurance at the WTO in 1997. Accordingly, the time has come to acknowledge the fragility of the boundary between health and trade policies, to take the risks and costs associated with trade treaty obligations fully into account when undertaking healthcare reform and to strengthen the separation between private and public health insurance.

Inde | Page 112 | CRDI - Centre de recherches pour le ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

The ferocity of negotiations in the World Trade Organization (WTO) was on display again at the Fifth WTO Ministerial Conference, held in Cancún, Mexico from September 10 to 14. The intensity of the negotiations reflects more than a clash of opinions about free trade. It gives expression to a deep and dangerous power ...

Inde | Page 80 | CRDI - Centre de recherches pour le ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

The ferocity of negotiations in the World Trade Organization (WTO) was on display again at the Fifth WTO Ministerial Conference, held in Cancún, Mexico from September 10 to 14. The intensity of the negotiations reflects more than a clash of opinions about free trade. It gives expression to a deep and dangerous power ...

India | Page 112 | IDRC - International Development Research Centre

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

The ferocity of negotiations in the World Trade Organization (WTO) was on display again at the Fifth WTO Ministerial Conference, held in Cancún, Mexico from September 10 to 14. The intensity of the negotiations reflects more than a clash of opinions about free trade. It gives expression to a deep and dangerous power ...

Inde | Page 79 | CRDI - Centre de recherches pour le ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

The ferocity of negotiations in the World Trade Organization (WTO) was on display again at the Fifth WTO Ministerial Conference, held in Cancún, Mexico from September 10 to 14. The intensity of the negotiations reflects more than a clash of opinions about free trade. It gives expression to a deep and dangerous power ...

How decoupled is the SFP in GTAP

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Urban, Kirsten; Jensen, Hans Grinsted; Brockmeier, Martina

WTO negotiations are a common topic in the general equilibrium modeler's community. In contrast to the well-established analysis tools for market access, the detailed implementation of domestic support has yet received too little attention. For a sophisticated WTO analysis it is therefore...... worthwhile not only to correctly single out the WTO boxes but as well to calculate domestic support indicators to simulate the WTO reduction requirements and to evaluate the domestic support development over time. In this paper the domestic support in the version 8 GTAP data base, adapted from the OECD PSE...... the results of the GTAP model. Additionaly the Mercantilist Trade Restrictiveness Index (MTRI) is implemented in the GTAP model to calculate a trade equivalent uniform tariff for domestic support over time. This extended GTAP framework enables the comparison of OECD and WTO measurement schemes of domestic...

International trade gets a physical boost

CERN Multimedia

2002-01-01

Manufacturers and service providers are being urged to grab exports worth nearly 200 million pounds, at a seminar 'Why Sell to CERN', organised by the international trade team at Birmingham Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Ukraina on nõus WTO nimel ekspordimakse vähendama / Signe Ratso ; interv. Sirje Rank

Index Scriptorium Estoniae

Ratso, Signe, 1960-

2008-01-01

Euroopa Komisjoni kaubanduse peadirektoraadi direktor Signe Ratso vastab küsimustele Ukraina liitumise kohta WTO-ga ning Ukraina ja EL-i vabakaubanduslepingu sõlmimise kohta. Lisa: Euroopa Liit ja Ukraina

Globalization and new policy concerns

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Daugbjerg, Carsten; Swinbank, Alan

2015-01-01

The transfer of some decision-making authority from the domestic to the supranational arena as a result of the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995 potentially changed domestic policy dynamics. The WTO agreements reflect the trade policy concerns addressed in the Uruguay...... Round in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This article applies and adapts historical institutionalism to explain how international organizations may constrain and facilitate certain domestic policy options. It demonstrates that, while the WTO legal framework has become more receptive of environmental...

African Countries and WTO´s Dispute Settlement Mechanism

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Alavi, Amin

2007-01-01

The WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism was designed, inter alia, to secure the 'rule of law' within international trade and provide all members with opportunities to exercise their rights under multilateral trade agreements. But, after ten years, no sub-Saharan African country has yet used the option...... to initiate a dispute. This article examines what prevents the WTO Africa Group from using the system and critically reviews the solutions they have proposed to remedy this. It concludes by discussing how this reflects broader problems concerning African participation in WTO, and puts forward some alternative...

The Global Financial Crisis: Analysis and Policy Implications

Science.gov (United States)

2009-10-02

tariffs and new non-tariff measures (non-automatic licenses, reference prices, etc.) affecting merchandise trade. The WTO also compiled a list of new...stores, restaurants , and bars and could cost more than 40,000 jobs. Closing the assembly line in Fremont marks the end of large-scale auto manufacturing...and the 20- City Composite is down 29.1%. March 31. The World Trade Organization (WTO) predicted that the volume of global merchandise trade would

International cooperation in the solution to trade-related invasive species risks.

Science.gov (United States)

Perrings, Charles; Burgiel, Stas; Lonsdale, Mark; Mooney, Harold; Williamson, Mark

2010-05-01

In this paper, we consider the factors behind the growth of invasive species as a global problem, and the scope for international cooperation and coordination in addressing that problem. This is limited by the terms of the various international agreements governing trade, health, and biodiversity. The default strategy in most cases has two parts: border protection and the control of or adaptation to introduced species that have escaped detection at the border. Most invasive species policy involves unilateral national defensive action as opposed to coordinated international action. We argue that an important part of the solution to the problem lies in global coordination and cooperation in the management of both pathways and sanitary and phytosanitary risks at all scales. More particularly, because invasive species are an externality of trade, transport, and travel that involve public goods, they require collective regulation of international markets that goes beyond that admitted under the World Trade Organization's (WTO) Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures. We argue that it is important to bring that agreement into conformity with the International Health Regulations (IHR), and to develop an international mechanism to generate and disseminate information on invasive species risks and their impacts.

The causal texture of trade union environments | Iyayi | Global ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This paper is an attempt to fill an important gap in the existing literature on trade unions by providing a more adequate theoretical formulation of trade union environments. The discussion suggests that unlike the environment of business and related organisations whose causal texture is understood in terms of uncertainty, ...

Trade, investment and the environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ward, H.; Brack, D.

2000-01-01

As liberalisation of global trade and investment accelerates, what happens to the environment? As the world heads for confrontation in Seattle, the questions intensify. Does foreign direct investment mean forsaking environmental protection? Or do multinational corporations export higher standards when they invest abroad? Can a powerful trading nation ban imports of tropical timber produced unsustainably? Should the World Trade Organisation take the views of industry or environmental groups into account when deciding? Must world trade rules be changed to accommodate environmental concerns? This book analyzes key issues in this increasingly controversial arena and includes contributions from Renato Ruggiero, former Director General of the World Trade Organization; The Rt Hon Brian Wilson MP, former UK Minister of Trade; Dr Magda Shahin, Deputy Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs at the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Pradeep Mehta, Secretary General, Consumer Unity and Trust Society, India; and Dr Michel Potier, Head of the Economics Division at the OECD's Environment Directorate. (Author)

Protocol to monitor trade agreement food-related aspects: the Fiji case study.

Science.gov (United States)

Ravuvu, Amerita; Friel, Sharon; Thow, Anne Marie; Snowdon, Wendy; Wate, Jillian

2017-04-26

Despite the growing rates of obesity and diet-related non-communicable diseases, globally, public health attention has only relatively recently turned to the links between trade agreements and the nutritional risks associated with it. Specific trade agreements appear to have played an influential role in the volume and types of foods entering different countries, yet there is currently no systematic and objective monitoring of trade agreements for their impacts on food environments. Recently, INFORMAS was set up to monitor and benchmark food environments, government policies and private sector actions within countries and globally. One of its projects/modules focuses on trade policy and in particular the food-related aspects of trade agreements. This paper describes the INFORMAS trade protocol, an approach to collecting food-related information about four domains of trade: trade in goods; trade in services and foreign direct investment; domestic supports, and policy space. Specifically, the protocol is tested in Fiji. The development and testing of this protocol in Fiji represents the first effort to set out a framework and process for objectively monitoring trade agreements and their impacts on national food supply and the wider food environment. It has shown that entry into WTO trade agreements contributed to the nutrition transition in Fiji through the increased availability of imported foods with varying nutritional quality. We observed an increase in imports of both healthy and less healthy foods. The application of the monitoring protocol also highlights challenges for data collection associated with each trade domain that should be considered for future data collection and analysis in other low and middle income countries. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Organisational support, organisational identification and organisational citizenship behaviour among male nurses.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Sheng-Hwang; Yu, Hsing-Yi; Hsu, Hsiu-Yueh; Lin, Fang-Chen; Lou, Jiunn-Horng

2013-11-01

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between organisational support, organisational identification, and organisational citizenship behaviour and the predictors of organisational citizenship behaviour in Taiwanese male nurses. The turnover rate among male nurses is twice that of female nurses. Organisational citizenship behaviour is the predictor of turnover intention. Little information is available on the relationship between organisational support, organisational identification and organisational citizenship behaviour, particularly for male nurses. Data were collected in 2010 from a questionnaire mailed to 167 male nurses in Taiwan. A cross-sectional survey with simple sampling was used in this study. The results showed that organisational identification and organisational support were correlated with organisational citizenship behaviour. Organisational distinctiveness, organisational support of work conditions and the type of organisation were the main predictors of organisational citizenship behaviour. Together they accounted for 40.7% of the total variation in organisational citizenship behaviour. Organisational distinctiveness was the most critical predictor, accounting for 29.6% of the variation. Organisational support and organisational identification have positive relationships with organisational behaviour. Organisational distinctiveness is an important factor in explaining organisational citizenship behaviour in male nurses. This finding provides concrete directions for managers to follow when providing organisational identification, in particular, the organisational distinctiveness will help male nurses to display increasingly more organisational citizenship behaviour. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

48 CFR 852.236-89 - Buy American Act.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... contained in this clause 852.236-89 are waived for World Trade Organization (WTO) Government Procurement... not anticipate accepting an offer that includes foreign construction material, other than WTO GPA...

The world trade organisation and Human Rights: The role of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This contribution attempts to make clear what these activities are and how they may affect the protection of human rights. The implementation of good governance principles in international organisations can be considered a sine qua non for the realisation of human rights. Therefore, it will be examined what role the ...

Representativeness of the European social partner organisations: Hospitals - Netherlands

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Grünell, M.

2009-01-01

The aim of this representativeness study is to identify the respective national and supranational actors (i.e. trade unions and employer organisations) in the field of industrial relations. This study will, in particular, focus on their representational quality as well as on their role in collective

Ensuring safe international trade: how are the roles and responsibilities evolving and what will the situation be in ten years' time?

Science.gov (United States)

Brückner, G K

2011-04-01

The roles of the international standard-setting bodies that are mandated to facilitate safe trade, such as the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the International Plant Protection Convention and the World Trade Organization, are well documented, as are the roles of the international organisations responsible for global health issues: the OIE, the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. However, developments in international trade, such as accelerating globalisation and the frequent emergence and re-emergence of diseases affecting both humans and animals, have brought new challenges and the need to reconsider the future roles of such organisations. New participants and new demands have also emerged to challenge these mandates, leading to potential areas of conflict. The need for countries to establish themselves as new trade partners, or to strengthen their positions while still maintaining safe trade, poses a challenge to standard-setting organisations, which must meet these demands while still remaining sensitive to the needs of developing countries. In this paper, the author describes and discusses some of these challenges and suggests how international organisations could evolve to confront such issues.

Subsidy Agreements

OpenAIRE

Kyle Bagwell; Robert W. Staiger

2004-01-01

International disputes over subsidies are increasingly disrupting the world trading system. The creation of the WTO was nearly prevented by disputes in the Uruguay Round of GATT negotiations over the issue of negotiating disciplines on agricultural subsidies, an issue which continues to plague the ongoing Doha Round of WTO negotiations. Ongoing disputes over subsidies that violate existing WTO rules have led to the largest amount of authorized retaliation in GATT/WTO history. Yet the internat...

Tarım Dışı Ürünlerde Pazara Giriş (NAMA Müzakereleri ve Türkiye (Non-Agricultural Market Access Negotiations and Turkey

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Şahin YAMAN

2010-04-01

Full Text Available This essay tries to analyse Turkey’s position and constraints in the WTO Nonagricultural Market Access Negotiations (NAMA especially vis-à-vis developing countries.It basically, underlines Turkey’s unique negotiating position; de jure developing, de facto an advanced economy status in the WTO Doha NAMA negotiations.At Doha Ministerial Meeting in 2001, WTO members agreed to initiate negotiations to further liberalize trade, among other areas, on non-agricultural goods. For this purpose, the Negotiating Group on Market Access (NGMA was created at the first meeting of the Trade Negotiations Committee of the WTO, in early 2002. Turkey has been quite active since then in NAMA negotiations in calibrating its position between offensive and defensive negotiation interests although its offensive market access interests largely outweigh defensive one.Turkey has also been propagating an offensive non-linear tariff cutting Swiss Formula approach at the WTO to curb the international high tariffs, tariff peaks and escalations. Having a strong offensive market access interests, Turkey mainly aims at large developing country markets diversifying its trade portfolio away from traditional markets towards large developing economies.From the perspective of governance, Turkey has serious constraints on its trade and industry policy space stemming from the Turkey-EU Customs Union (CU. Although Turkey is a de jure developing country in the WTO and will have all legal rights and mobligations stemming from the outcome of the DOHA, in practice, Turkey will have to implement the same applied common external tariffs of the EU. Despite the constraints and dilemmas stemming from the EU-Turkey customs union, it can be strongly argued that, it is in Turkey’s industrial interests to be actively involved in the WTO to tackle the high tariffs, tariff peaks and escalations which hinders Turkey’s exports to the world markets.

Global climate regulation and border adjustment mechanisms: the case of carbon importers inclusion in the european trading scheme

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2008-06-01

The creation of an inclusion mechanism applied to imports whose production process increases significantly the global climate risk is looked upon as a solution to a collective-action problem. Such a mechanism would provide those States that will sign the next United Nations Convention on Climate Change with a potential remedy if and when gaps between quantified objects, to which all are committed, entail significant competition distortions. Whether this mechanism assumes the form of an external carbon tax or consists in including importers in the European system of CO 2 quota exchanges, it would surely respond to the re-distributive need generated by global warming, provided that the proceeds are used to help bring industrial production in developing countries up to standard. These restrictive measures aimed at preserving the planet are probably compatible with the extraordinary regimes applied by the WTO, which already uses exogenous non-trade norms to arbitrate conflicts. This would validate further the legitimacy of authority transfers onto the WTO, whose scope of legal authority increases constantly, along with that of conflicts that stem from collective preferences. (author)