Since its foundation in 1995, the World Trade Organization, with its extensive legal provisions, has been defining the world trade relations and also had an enormous impact on both European and national economic law. At the same time, the WTO is perceived within the political discussion as a symbol for the world trade relations as a whole, the challenges of globalization and justice of the world trade order. Due to the expansion, consolidation and the increased enforcement of its rules, the relevance of the World Trade Organization will continue to increase. This book describes the institutional system, the basic principles and the vast variety of rules of the World Trade Organization. It aims at clarifying the structures and the general concepts, in order to enable the reader to get a better understanding of the issues at stake in many of the discussions and controversies on world trade.

The collapse of the Doha Round hangs heavily over an already troubled world economy. Some have concluded that this failure is simply the result of a lack of political will and a pre-occupation with issues such as terrorism. But as Kent Jones reveals in The Doha Blues, the World Trade Organization needs serious structural changes, not just political backbone. He shows for instance that the WTO--now with 153 members--has become increasingly unwieldy in terms of concluding trade agreements and he suggests that countries organize around specific platform positions, a strategy that would make the "holy grail" of consensus once again possible. Jones also argues for financial support for poorer countries so that they can participate effectively in negotiations and he contends that the principle of the "single undertaking" (that "there is no agreement until everything is agreed") has become a serious and perhaps crippling constraint, and must be modified. Jones is a leading authority on trade policy and his book illuminates the real stumbling blocks to trade liberalization and highlights the way around them.

The perceived impact of WTO law on the domestic regulatory autonomy of WTO Members is increasingly becoming the subject of controversy and debate. This book brings together in an integrated analytical framework the main WTO parameters defining the interface between the WTO and domestic legal orders, and examines how WTO adjudicators, i.e. panels and the Appellate Body, have construed those rules. A critical analysis identifies the flaws or weaknesses of these quasi-judicial solutions and their potential consequences for Members' regulatory autonomy. In an attempt to identify a more proper balance between WTO law and regulatory autonomy, it develops an innovative interpretation of the National Treatment obligations in GATT and GATS, drawing upon compelling arguments from legal, logic and economic theory.

Discussion of trade barriers has come round - inevitably it seems - to national regimes of regulatory protection. Indeed, state regulation has the potential to undermine the very legitimacy of the global trading system. A compelling reconciliation between these two paramount values is essential. This text has a twofold purpose: to consider what has so far been accomplished in this mission in the field of international economic law, and to prescribe some solutions to continuing problems. This latter endeavour amounts to a coherent and integrated plan that will enhance the acceptability of free markets to governments, traders, and other stakeholders alike. The challenges analysed in depth here include: the development in the global trade regime of non-trade policy objectives, which still tend to be treated as mere exceptions to general obligations; the built-in emphasis on products rather than measures; the novel risks associated with the development of modern technology; the case-by-case approach of WTO jurisprudence, which generally fails to investigate whether the substance of any given domestic regulation is necessary to the policy goals of the state in question; and the "technical and economic feasibility" of complying with international trade obligations. The author conducts his analysis in a broad context encompassing the WTO system, the European Union, and the North American Free Trade Agreement. He finds that the clash, despite the particular institutional characteristics of these various organizations, is a major concern of them all. The jus gentium of international trade, he offers, is an imperative combining the good faith principle with the communitarian duty to cooperate. Exactly how to go about ordering this imperative is what this book is about.

This year, the "Yearbook Commercial Arbitration" has reached the milestone of thirty years of documenting the law and practice of international commercial arbitration. The Yearbook provides up-to-date and informative material to arbitration scholars and practitioners in the form of arbitral awards and court decisions, as well as newly adopted or amended arbitration rules. An indispensable feature of the Yearbook is the reporting on the 1958 New York Convention, which in this volume includes the greatest number of cases yet - 79 court decisions from 12 countries throughout the world. These cases are indexed and linked to the General Editor's earlier-published Commentaries on the New York Convention, facilitating research on any aspect of the Convention. The Yearbook also contains recent court decisions applying the 1961 European Convention, the 1975 Inter-American Arbitration Convention and the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration, as well as leading cases on topical issues from a variety of jurisdictions. Austrian, French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish and Swedish decisions are translated into English, giving the reader access to material which might otherwise be inaccessible. Arbitral awards made under the auspices of the Iran-US Claims Tribunal, the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce, the German Maritime Arbitration Association and the Hamburg Friendly Arbitration deal with procedural and substantive issues of general interest to the business and legal communities. New and amended rules adopted by the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC), the China Maritime Arbitration Commission (CMAC) and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) are reproduced and information is provided on arbitration legislation recently enacted in Chile, Denmark, Norway, Philippines and Poland. A Bibliography and List of Journals keep the reader up-to-date on relevant literature. The worldwide scope and variety of the materials of the Yearbook assure the reader of a comprehensive annual overview of international commercial arbitration.

This book offers a comprehensive account of the transatlantic regulatory cooperation phenomenon: its causes and political context in a globalizing economy, its theoretical understanding, its relationship to trade and competition, its implications for democracy, and its likely directions in the future. This book recognizes that, while national authorities are still the principal actors in regulatory fields, regulation is increasingly an international affair.

Several years have passed since the 'store wars' over barriers to foreign products at Japanese distribution firms. Yet among English-speaking readers, how these firms operate remains a puzzle. In this book, the best Japanese scholars in their fields attempt to unravel that puzzle. Avoiding culture-based explanations, they employ a systematic and rigorous economic logic---yet, since they also avoid mathematical notation, the argument remains accessible to generalist readers.

Winner of the 2021 Lionel Gelber Prize: A provocative look at how today's trade conflicts are caused by governments promoting the interests of elites at the expense of workers "The authors weave a complex tapestry of monetary, fiscal and social policies through history and offer opinions about what went right and what went wrong . . . Worth reading for their insights into the history of trade and finance."-George Melloan, Wall Street Journal "This is a very important book."-Martin Wolf, Financial Times Trade disputes are usually understood as conflicts between countries with competing national interests, but as Matthew C. Klein and Michael Pettis show, they are often the unexpected result of domestic political choices to serve the interests of the rich at the expense of workers and ordinary retirees. Klein and Pettis trace the origins of today's trade wars to decisions made by politicians and business leaders in China, Europe, and the United States over the past thirty years. Across the world, the rich have prospered while workers can no longer afford to buy what they produce, have lost their jobs, or have been forced into higher levels of debt. In this thought-provoking challenge to mainstream views, the authors provide a cohesive narrative that shows how the class wars of rising inequality are a threat to the global economy and international peace-and what we can do about it. Longlisted for the 2020 Financial Times & McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award and named a Best Business Book of 2020 by Strategy + Business

Developing countries comprise a two-thirds majority of the membership of the World Trade Organization, with nearly 30 of these classed by the UN as being among the 48 least-developed countries in the world. In order to ensure the equitable participation of these countries in the benefits of the global trading system, the GATT Uruguay Round Agreements that created the WTO accorded special and differential treatment to developing countries. This guide covers these provisions of the WTO Agreements, with detailed information on how developing countries can benefit from special rules governing such areas as; access to developed country markets in all major commodities and services, the dispute settlement process, trade policy review, foreign direct investment, environmental and labour standards, and technical assistance. The Guide also offers the reader case studies on how some developing country members of the WTO (Uganda, India, and Cote d'Ivoire) are making progress in working with the obligations and the benefits provided to them by the WTO Agreements.

This book provides readers with a unique opportunity to learn about one of the new regional trade agreements (RTAs), the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA), that has been operational since December 2015 and is now at the forefront of the field. This new agreement reflects many of the modern and up-to-date approaches within the international economic legal order that must now exist within a very different environment than that of the late eighties and early nineties, when the World Trade Organization (WTO) was created. The book, therefore, explores many new features that were not present when the WTO or early RTAs were negotiated. It provides insights and lessons about new and important trade issues for the twenty-first century, such as the latest approaches to the regulation of investment, twenty-first century services and the emerging digital/knowledge economy. In addition, this book provides new understandings of the latest RTA approaches of China and Australia. The book's contributors, all foremost experts on their subject matter within this field, explore the inclusion of many traditional trade and investment agreement features in the ChAFTA, showing their continuing relevance in modern contexts.

This book argues that the trade-distorting effects of advantages associated with SOEs are more severe from an economic perspective, and the behavior of SOEs after receiving advantages is of more concern, compared to private-owned enterprises (POEs). The premise is that the existence of SOEs per se is not the essential problem; rather, the underlying problems are (i) the disproportionate granting of advantages to SOEs (compared to POEs) and (ii) the behavior of SOEs once they receive advantages. The book offers a systematic analysis focusing on the various advantages granted to SOEs and their subsequent behavior. Its detailed analysis reveals the inadequacy of current WTO rules and is complemented by a number of concrete proposals.

As decisively as the collapse of the Soviet Union signaled a most definite conclusion to that utopian undertaking gone mad, so has NAFTA ended an economic counterpart in Mexico. The United States and Canada are embarking on a grand experiment, incorporating Mexico into their very own economies, creating the largest trading bloc in the world consisting of more than 360 million consumers in an economy that will surpass seven trillion American dollars. For corporate America, an enormous opportunity lies in the integration of the Mexican nation into the economic and social fabric of North America. International business consultant and economist Louis Nevaer explains what these opportunities are and offers sage advice on how U.S. corporations can capitalize on them.

The implementation of NAFTA heralds the final conclusion of the Mexican Revolution, and Mexico is now embarked on a race against time to make up for lost decades. Ernesto Zedillo, who will deliver Mexico to the 21st century, confronts enormous challenges as the authoritarian hegemony that characterizes the political economy of the Mexican nation-state is dismantled. NAFTA constitutes a blueprint for the systematic surrender of the Mexican economy. There is, however, no blueprint for the transformation of Mexico into a democracy. Herein lies the greatest risks to corporate America, for there is always the danger of self-destruction, as witnessed in some of the republics of the former Soviet Union. The discussion presented in this book examines the present realities of the Mexican nation in the age of free trade. In Part I opportunities and risks for corporate America are analyzed, not only within an economic context, but also within a cultural and historical one, as well. Presented in Part II are the processes that have shaped Mexico over the centuries--Spanish rule, Native American civilizations, the trauma of conquest--which have given rise to the Mexican persona and character. With this understanding as background, the American reader gains a strategic advantage in understanding how the Mexican psyche works and which buttons to push. Finally, Part III presents a practical approach to conducting business in Mexico, which ranges from the legal requirements of opening a subsidiary, to a warning about the prevalence of corruption in Mexican society, as well as the existence of racism in Mexican culture.

Cross-border investments and cooperative business ventures are driving the global economy on an unprecedented scale. Business professionals and policy makers must be aware of the potential of trading blocs as a competitive weapon given the rising importance of multinational trade. The coming years promise to be the era of the Trade Pact Wars as Canada's recently announced trade talks with Chile, Germany's push for closer trans-Atlantic ties with the United States, and ASEAN efforts to promote intraregional trade all test the fledgling World Trade Organization in its role as the watchdog of global trade.

Delener examines the rationale for international trading blocs and free trade with a focus on the implications for strategic planning of firms and national industry sectors. He looks at the development and conditions of the major existing regional trading blocs and discusses issues that will impact those who do business within them. NAFTA, the European Union, South American trading blocs, and efforts in Asia and Africa are all examined in detail. Strategic planning, anti-dumping issues, and global standards are also considered. The book provides professionals, researchers, and students with a firm grasp of the issues of central importance to strategic planning in global corporations and multinational trading blocs. Those who fail to grasp the significance of multinational trading blocs will face tough times while those who plan for it will see their nations and businesses thrive and prosper.

Despite its growing significance, the legal scrutiny of RTAs remains an underdeveloped academic field. This book considers how the interplay between multilateral and preferential liberalisation of trade in services increasingly raises concerns, both from the perspective of the beneficiaries of such liberalisation and that of regulators. With the application of a thorough article-by-article analysis, the author shows how these concerns lead to vast underutilisation of, and often prejudice against, the benefits of services liberalisation. The book meticulously analyses and compares the EU's obligations under the GATS and the services chapters of several RTAs to finally assess the merits of the various concerns. This book will be an invaluable resource for students and scholars of law and related subjects. It will also be of interest to government officials looking for a detailed analysis of the topic, and practitioners looking for a framework for analysing RTA provisions.

A comprehensive, critical analysis of the interactions between investment, trade and the environment. It examines the consequences of existing multilateral investment and trade regimes, including the WTO and the MAI for the environment, and asks how they should be reformed to protect it. In doing so, the text shows how these regimes can be greened without erecting protectionist barriers to trade that frustrate the development aspirations of poorer countries. The solution seeks to offer a way out of one of the most difficult dilemmas in international policy: how investment and trade can protect the environment without encouraging protectionism by the industrialized world.

This book presents a comprehensive view of recent developments in the theory of international trade agreements and political economy, by focusing on research by Raymond Riezman. This pioneering work introduced terms of trade effects and strategic behavior to the theory of international trade agreements. This is complemented by a careful analysis of how politics affects international trade agreements.The book brings together work which focuses on the question of why international trade agreements occur and what forms they take.

The process of food production and distribution has grown into a global corporate system in recent years. This has caused significant impacts on sustainability on an international scale, particularly for developing nations. Establishing Food Security and Alternatives to International Trade in Emerging Economies is a pivotal reference source for the latest scholarly research on agricultural trade relations and trade liberalization in the context of developing countries. Highlighting a range of pertinent topics such as crop productivity, rural development, and value-added agriculture, this book is ideally designed for academics, researchers, graduate students, and practitioners interested in the current state of global food markets. Topics Covered: The many academic areas covered in this publication include, but are not limited to: Climate Change Crop Productivity Food Safety Maritime Piracy Rural Development Trade Policies Value-Added Agriculture

This book tries to integrate the different arrangements devised in the MTS for small and large NMEs into one analytical framework and explores two sets of rules (GATT/WTO-minus and GATT/WTO-plus) along three historical stages (shaping, weakening and strengthening). The focal point of this book is to uncover the composition and structure of the NME treatment in the MTS, its evolving logic and process, and the nature and trend of the political-economic relations between NMEs and the MTS.

As the prime force behind trade throughout the Western Hemisphere, the United States is emerging with two trade projects--the newly-signed North American Free Trade Agreement and the projected New American Community. This volume provides a clear, concise guide to all aspects of the 5-volume NAFTA accord, its side agreements, and the unfolding New American Community. It covers specific issues, rationalizations, ideologies, controversies, and recommended actions. With special emphasis on the North American Free Trade Agreement, the volume will provide a major resource for both academics and decision makers in industry and government. Written by a leading authority on U.S. Latin American trade, the volume includes entries, arranged alphabetically, on NAFTA and other trade-related topics. The NAFTA entries are based on the five-volume treaty or official government and nongovernmental publications. Since the New American Community is still emerging, the non-NAFTA entries are interpolations from past trade accords and existing nationwide agreements or ideas based on global concepts and directives, especially the European Union.

Reevaluating NAFTA seeks to answer the question: has NAFTA integrated North America? A fifteen-year NAFTA appraisal finds trade expansion boosting optimism, but also unveils stark asymmetry between developed and developing countries as well as top-heavy NAFTA regulations seriously constraining ground-level integration. Using empirical data analysis and a wide-reaching theoretical context, this book seeks to evaluate the results of NAFTA's 'fifteen-year itch' to identify what worked and what didn't, and ultimately, to point to the future of North American integration.

"Post-NAFTA North America" uniquely combines an institutional examination of NAFTA with a geo-economic and geo-political approach. The author argues that in the post-9/11 era, North America is evolving from a primarily economic space to a strategic 'securitized' one and that NAFTA has been utilized by the US as a regulatory framework for dealing with the pressures of globalization that have emerged in the post-Cold War era.

Exploring bilateral narratives of identity at a socio-discursive level from 1990 onwards, this book provides a new approach to understanding how Chile and Australia imagine and discursively construct each other in light of the bilateral Free Trade Agreement signed in 2008.

With the stagnation of the Doha Round of multilateral talks, trade liberalisation is increasingly undertaken through free trade agreements. Gabriel Siles-Brugge examines the EU's decision following the 2006 'Global Europe' strategy to negotiate such agreements with emerging economies. Eschewing the purely materialist explanations prominent in the field, he develops a novel constructivist argument to highlight the role of language and ideas in shaping EU trade policy. Drawing on extensive interviews and documentary analysis, Siles-Brugge shows how EU trade policymakers have privileged the interests of exporters to the detriment of import-competing groups, creating an ideational imperative for market-opening. Even during the on-going economic crisis the overriding mantra has been that the EU's future well-being depends on its ability to compete in global markets. The increasingly neoliberal orientation of EU trade policy has also had important consequences for its economic diplomacy with the developing economies of the African, Caribbean and Pacific group of states.