From the pen of highly esteemed trade scholar Alan Sykes, this book presents a rigorous introduction to the law and economics of modern international trade agreements. With a bottom-up approach that requires neither a background in international trade law nor significant economics training, Sykes sets out to map and explain the complex dynamics of international trade agreements and institutions, synthesising legal analysis and cutting-edge economic research in order to present the reader with a sophisticated, holistic view of the field. Against the backdrop of the current impasse in both negotiation and dispute settlement at the World Trade Organisation, the book charts a clear path from the historical origins of trade law and the international system, to the current state of play, including unpacking the major areas of controversy. It exposits the economic theory of trade agreements, discusses the role of international trade law in domestic legal systems and analyzes the role of self-enforcement and formal dispute resolution mechanisms. It provides lucid and detailed analysis of the restrictions, exceptions, obligations and special measures that constitute the core building blocks of international trade rules, including the distinct features of international trade in services. With an international outlook, the book also addresses the role of China in the world trading system, looking at such issues as the credibility of market access commitments, China's industrial policies, “forced technology transfer” and currency manipulation. Providing an eloquent, thorough and technically astute overview of international trade agreements, this title will be invaluable to scholars and teachers of international trade across the disciplines of law, economics and political science.

This authoritative book explores copyright and trade in the Pacific Rim under the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a mega-regional trade deal. Offering a perceptive critique of the TPP, Matthew Rimmer highlights the dissonance between Barack Obama's ideals that the agreement would be progressive and comprehensive and the substance of the trade deal. Rimmer considers the intellectual property chapter of the TPP, focusing on the debate over copyright terms, copyright exceptions, intermediary liability, and technological protection measures. He analyses the negotiations over trademark law, cybersquatting, geographical indications, and the plain packaging of tobacco products. The book also considers the debate over patent law and access to essential medicines, data protection and biologics, access to genetic resources, and the treatment of Indigenous intellectual property. Examining globalization and its discontents, the book concludes with policy solutions and recommendations for a truly progressive approach to intellectual property and trade. This book will be a valuable resource for scholars and students of intellectual property law, international economic law, and trade law. Its practical recommendations will also be beneficial for practitioners and policy makers working in the fields of intellectual property, investment, and trade.

The Research Handbook on Trade Wars presents an informative and in-depth account of the origins, dynamics, and implications of trade wars, which are growing both in scale and scope in today's increasingly interdependent global economy. Timely and comprehensive, it provides a holistic understanding of trade wars, including not only the domestic and international factors that influence the pattern of trade war onset and escalation, but also the stakeholders and processes that shape the outcomes of such highly intense trade conflicts. Leading scholars in the field present original and thought-provoking research material, critically engage with academic and policy debates, and make theoretical contributions as well as valuable policy recommendations. In addition to its in-depth analysis of the global, domestic, political, and economic origins of trade wars, this Research Handbook also examines the variation in the scope of trade wars, the forum for dispute settlement, the factors that influence the pattern of dispute escalation, and the linkages between national security considerations and commercial conflicts. Providing the frameworks necessary for understanding the political and economic logics of trade wars, this Handbook will be a valuable source of reference for researchers, government officials, businesses, and post-graduate students interested in international political economy, international economics, economic statecraft, public policy, and international relations.

The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), a modified and modernized version of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), will continue to govern most economic relationships in North America, including the more than $1.3 trillion in annual regional trade in goods and services, for the foreseeable future. USMCA preserves the bulk of the NAFTA structures that permit North American manufacturers to compete effectively with their European and Asian counterparts in North American and foreign markets. Once in effect, USMCA should largely resolve the chilling effect on investment and new hiring generated by three years of uncertainty over NAFTA's future. This book provides a detailed analysis and critique of the provisions of the USMCA and the USMCA's relation to NAFTA. It is designed to assist lawyers and non-lawyers alike, including law, economics and public policy scholars, business professionals and governmental officials who require an understanding of one of the worlds' most economically and politically significant regional trade agreements.

This insightful Handbook provides a comprehensive overview of the most recent developments in the academic debate on the numerous and complex linkages between international trade and climate change. Adopting a broad interdisciplinary approach, it brings together perspectives from scholars in economics, political science and legal studies to confront the critical environmental challenges posed by globalization. Initial chapters provide an overview of the key debates related to international trade and climate policy, engaging with empirical data from the US and China to assess the impact of new trade initiatives and policy on greenhouse gas emissions, carbon leakage and the increase of trade in carbon-intensive products. Contributors propose policy options that align international trade with climate change mitigation and address crucial legal and practical implications, including the implementation of Border Carbon Adjustments and international trade disputes. Offering critical and empirically-based perspectives on the future of international trade policy, this timely Handbook is crucial reading for scholars, researchers and graduate students in political science, public policy and climate research. Policymakers will also benefit from its unique and insightful policy recommendations.

The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), a modified and modernized version of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), will continue to govern most economic relationships in North America, including the more than $1.3 trillion in annual regional trade in goods and services, for the foreseeable future. USMCA preserves the bulk of the NAFTA structures that permit North American manufacturers to compete effectively with their European and Asian counterparts in North American and foreign markets. Once in effect, USMCA should largely resolve the chilling effect on investment and new hiring generated by three years of uncertainty over NAFTA's future. This book provides a detailed analysis and critique of the provisions of the USMCA and the USMCA's relation to NAFTA. It is designed to assist lawyers and non-lawyers alike, including law, economics and public policy scholars, business professionals and governmental officials who require an understanding of one of the worlds' most economically and politically significant regional trade agreements.

In Power and Regionalism in Latin America: The Politics of MERCOSUR, Laura Gomez-Mera examines the erratic patterns of regional economic cooperation in the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR), a political-economic agreement among Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and, recently, Venezuela that comprises the world's fourth-largest regional trade bloc. Despite a promising start in the early 1990s, MERCOSUR has had a tumultuous and conflict-ridden history. Yet it has survived, expanding in membership and institutional scope. What explains its survival, given a seemingly contradictory mix of conflict and cooperation? Through detailed empirical analyses of several key trade disputes between the bloc's two main partners, Argentina and Brazil, Gomez-Mera proposes an explanation that emphasizes the tension between and interplay of two sets of factors: power asymmetries within and beyond the region, and domestic-level politics. Member states share a common interest in preserving MERCOSUR as a vehicle for increasing the region's leverage in external negotiations. Gomez-Mera argues that while external vulnerability and overlapping power asymmetries have provided strong and consistent incentives for regional cooperation in the Southern Cone, the impact of these systemic forces on regional outcomes also has been crucially mediated by domestic political dynamics in the bloc's two main partners, Argentina and Brazil. Contrary to conventional wisdom, however, the unequal distribution of power within the bloc has had a positive effect on the sustainability of cooperation. Despite Brazil's reluctance to adopt a more active leadership role in the process of integration, its offensive strategic interests in the region have contributed to the durability of institutionalized collaboration. However, as Gomez-Mera demonstrates, the tension between Brazil's global and regional power aspirations has also added significantly to the bloc's ineffectiveness.

In the age of globalisation, goods, services, labour and capital are crossing international borders on a scale never before known. They are creating a nationless market. Governed by both the invisible hand of business and interest and the visible hand of authority and direction, a world market can be a free-for-all, but it can also be constrained by the national interest of countries that differ greatly in their social institutions and material circumstances. This book provides a lucid and comprehensive account of contemporary international political economy. Beginning with the ideological underpinnings, it examines the globalisation of trade in goods and services and labour and capital. It relates the free economic market to social consensus and political regulation, both within sovereign countries and at the supra-national level. The book is comprehensive and interdisciplinary, incorporating philosophical, political, social and economic insights on an international scale and applying them directly to the ongoing phenomenon of globalisation. Topical and non-nation specific, it covers the WTO, EU, the transfer of technology, the multinational corporation, the exchange rate, free versus regulated trade, the status of agreements and blocs, as well as contemporary issues such as populism, xenophobia and rapid economic growth in both rich and poor nations. Accessible to specialists, students and the informed reader alike, State and Trade offers wide-ranging analysis of the politics of trade in goods and services, international investment and the migration of labour across the globe.

As the ice around the Arctic landmass recedes, the territory is becoming a flashpoint in world affairs. New trade routes, cutting thousands of miles off journeys, are available, and the Arctic is thought to be home to enormous gas and oil reserves. The territorial lines are new and hazy. This book looks at how Russia deals with the outside world vis a vis the Arctic. Given Russia's recent bold foreign policy interventions, these are crucial issues and the realpolitik practiced by the Russian state is essential for understanding the Arctic's future.Here, Geir Honneland brings together decades of cutting-edge research - investigating the political contexts and international tensions surrounding Russia's actions. Honneland looks specifically at 'region-building' and environmental politics of fishing and climate change, on nuclear safety and nature preservation, and also analyses the diplomatic relations surrounding clashes with Norway and Canada, as well as at the governance of the Barents Sea. The Politics of the Arctic is a crucial addition to our understanding of contemporary International Relations concerning the Polar North.

Transnational corporations (TNCs) have moved to the forefront of regulatory governance both within states and in the international arena. The Research Handbook on Transnational Corporations provides expert background commentary and up-to-date insights into regulatory frameworks impacting on TNCs at global, industry and national levels. Written by global experts in their field, this unique collection of essays provides in-depth understanding of how the forces of globalisation affect the world's largest corporations, and how those corporations, in turn, shape globalisation. Comprehensive yet highly accessible, this is the first major work on the reciprocal impact of TNCs on regulatory processes. The Research Handbook provides guidance on how best to understand the rapidly evolving relationship between TNCs and the processes of treaty making, the formation of global industry standards and the processes of national law making and policy formation (with a focus on resource taxation). Global, industry and national-level case studies are used to explain the basic principles used to support state, private, and international regulatory programs. Delivering both theoretical and practical insights into the regulation of TNCs, this timely and authoritative Research Handbook will be of particular interest to policy makers, industry practitioners and lawyers. Students and academics will also find it to be an invaluable resource. Contributors include: R. Anderson, M. Bowman, L. Cata Backer, A. Chou, A. De Jonge, G. Gilligan, D. Gleeson, M.A. Gonzalez-Perez, V. Harper Ho, J.A. Kirshner, D. Kraal, L. Leonard, R. Lopert, M.E. Monasterio, P. Neuwelt, J. O'Brien, A. Ruhmkorf, R. Tomasic, M. Woersdoerfer

The 1970s were a decade of historic American energy crises - major interruptions in oil supplies from the Middle East, the country's most dangerous nuclear accident, and chronic shortages of natural gas. In Energy Crises, Jay Hakes brings his expertise in energy and presidential history to bear on the questions of why these crises occurred, how different choices might have prevented or ameliorated them, and what they have meant for the half-century since - and likely the half-century ahead. Hakes deftly intertwines the domestic and international aspects of the long-misunderstood fuel shortages that still affect our lives today. This approach, drawing on previously unavailable and inaccessible records, affords an insider's view of decision-making by three U.S. presidents, the influence of their sometimes-combative aides, and their often tortuous relations with the rulers of Iran and Saudi Arabia. Hakes skillfully dissects inept federal attempts to regulate oil prices and allocation, but also identifies the decade's more positive legacies - from the nation's first massive commitment to the development of alternative energy sources other than nuclear power, to the initial movement toward a less polluting, more efficient energy economy. The 1970s brought about a tectonic shift in the world of energy. Tracing these consequences to their origins in policy and practice, Hakes makes their lessons available at a critical moment - as the nation faces the challenge of climate change resulting from the burning of fossil fuels.

The first East Asia Summit in 2005 prompted discussions of enlargement of ASEAN free trade agreements to include all major trading blocs and their regional and global implications. In this timely and original study, Tran Van Hoa and Charles Harvie explore the likely effects of new regional development. With more than half of the world's consumption and production market, well-defined trade agreements in Asia remain crucial to the economic growth and stability of the area. This book contains scholarly and well-researched contributions from internationally renowned experts from ASEAN, East and South Asia and Oceania who discuss this major new development and its impact on trade, investment, services, development, industry, poverty and economic relations. An important collection of new research, this volume will be used by economists, trade experts, academics, students, government advisers, policymakers and all those interested in these significant contemporary developments and their far-ranging implications in an enlarged Asia.

This book examines the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), an ambitious venture in regional market integration which builds on the principles of the North American Free Trade Agreement. It assesses the long-term corporate and public policy measures to cope with the increased monetary, fiscal and structural interdependence that will be required if the benefits of the FTAA are to be realized.The contributors suggest that with enlightened US leadership and the cooperation of Brazil, Mexico and Argentina, the FTAA could eventually match the EU in the world economy and as a multilateral leader. Initiatives to promote a culture of relational cooperation in a system of liberalized global commerce are stressed. In Latin America, there is an urgent need for such cooperation in order to enhance the region's lackluster growth rate and reduce the occurrences and severity of financial crises. The United States, Canada and Mexico will also benefit from the development of dynamic structural links with their regional neighbours. The authors highlight the importance for US policy initiatives to be complemented by constructive and harmonious corporate collaborations. This spirit of alliance capitalism will help ensure the FTAA promotes social justice as well as economic efficiency. This fully integrated volume, written by leading specialists in the field, will become an indispensable source for analysis of the prospects and role of the FTAA in the global economy. It will be warmly welcomed by informed readers such as international business experts, bankers, corporate executives, economists dealing with fiscal and monetary integration, and those interested in Latin American business.

Trade and environment issues are achieving ever greater prominence in the WTO. This timely volume contains key papers on this important and highly contentious issue. There is a natural linkage between trade and environment through the use of policy instruments. But when does more trade help or hurt the environment? There is clash between the market-opening principles of free trade, as reflected in the WTO, and the environmental quality and market regulating instincts of environmentalists. This volume examines the conceptual issues involved, as well as the manner in which the subject has been handled by the WTO. It will be an invaluable source of reference for students and researchers alike.

This authoritative collection brings together major articles written by leading economists, political scientists and legal scholars to analyse the complexities of the modern global system of intellectual property rights (IPRs) and its relationship with the WTO. The papers selected consider the role of IPRs in the knowledge economy, itself a force for rapid globalisation. They first place IPRs into context as a trade issue and their controversial role within the WTO. Several articles analyse the ability of IPRs to encourage innovation and support markets, emphasising controversial problems in developing countries: special attention is given to the role of patents in biodiversity and essential medicines. Additional contributions provide important theoretical and empirical perspectives on the economics of IPRs in the global economy, including effects on trade, investment, innovation, growth, and technology policies. This authoritative volume will be an important source of reference for scholars and policymakers seeking to understand the development and trade impacts of intellectual property protection. 21 articles, dating from 1991 to 2003

The Polar North is known to be home to large gas and oil reserves and its position holds significant trading and military advantages, yet the maritime boundaries of the region remain ill-defined. In the twenty-first century the Arctic is undergoing profound change. As the sea ice melts, a result of accelerating climate change, global governance has become vital. In this first of three volumes, the latest research and analysis from the Fridtjof Nansen Institute, the world's leading Arctic research body, is brought together. Arctic Governance: Law and Politics investigates the legal and political order of the Polar North, focusing on governance structures and the Law of the Sea. Are the current mechanisms at work effective? Are the Arctic states' interests really clashing, or is the atmosphere of a more cooperative nature? Skilfully delineating policy in the region and analysing the consequences of treaty agreements, Arctic Governance's uncovering of a rather orderly 'Arctic race' will become an indispensable contribution to contemporary International Relations concerning the Polar North.

In the age of globalisation, goods, services, labour and capital are crossing international borders on a scale never before known. They are creating a nationless market. Governed by both the invisible hand of business and interest and the visible hand of authority and direction, a world market can be a free-for-all, but it can also be constrained by the national interest of countries that differ greatly in their social institutions and material circumstances. This book provides a lucid and comprehensive account of contemporary international political economy. Beginning with the ideological underpinnings, it examines the globalisation of trade in goods and services and labour and capital. It relates the free economic market to social consensus and political regulation, both within sovereign countries and at the supra-national level. The book is comprehensive and interdisciplinary, incorporating philosophical, political, social and economic insights on an international scale and applying them directly to the ongoing phenomenon of globalisation. Topical and non-nation specific, it covers the WTO, EU, the transfer of technology, the multinational corporation, the exchange rate, free versus regulated trade, the status of agreements and blocs, as well as contemporary issues such as populism, xenophobia and rapid economic growth in both rich and poor nations. Accessible to specialists, students and the informed reader alike, State and Trade offers wide-ranging analysis of the politics of trade in goods and services, international investment and the migration of labour across the globe.

The events in Seattle and other cities around the world demonstrate that globalisation and trade liberalisation are currently under severe pressure. There are also reasons to believe that these pressures are being translated into measures to increase the protection of domestic markets. This book addresses what are arguably the four most important origins of these pressures: macroeconomic conditions, labour policy, trade and the environment, and market imperfections.The authors first address the role of macroeconomic conditions and policies, and demonstrate how these can have a crucial role in explaining 'slippages' of trade policy. The second origin of instability is labour policy, in particular the pressures to introduce universal labour standards. The third economic origin the book considers is the relationship between trade and the environment and the attempts to link trade policies to environmental standards. The fourth origin of protectionist pressure comes from the presence of various market imperfections and the extent to which they affect competition. The authors conclude that multilateral agreements can be extremely helpful in creating the right environment for equitable trade policies, but warn that complete success can only be achieved once major hurdles are overcome in the highly controversial and politically sensitive areas of labour, environment and competition. Offering a unique perspective on the threat to globalisation, this book should be widely read by students, practitioners and policymakers in the spheres of international trade, transition and development studies, and competition, labour and environmental economics.