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Regulation Of Standards In Technology Markets Between Competition Policy And International Trade - The Chinese And European Experience (Foreword), Paolo Davide Farah

Book Chapters

The regulation of standard setting varies significantly across regions and covering and comparing in detail the EU and Chinese regimes is an interesting decision and illustrates how two highly bureaucratic systems address the regulation of technological advancements.

The analysis demonstrates how not only legal and economic considerations play a role in the regulation of standards, but also and most importantly political ones. The “openness” of China’s standardization is a telling example in this regard. China created a specific system for standard setting and invested heavily in high-tech industries. Initially, the State backed the industry to support the creation of a …

A Private And Efficient Approach To Us-China Trade: Bringing A Non-Violation Case In The Wto, Daniel C.K. Chow, Ian M. Sheldon

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

When Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump to become president of the United States in 2020, many observers hoped that Biden would reset the troubled US-China trade relationship. The Trump administration had abandoned the rules-based approach to international trade of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and adopted a power-based approach instead. Using a power-based approach, the United States imposed or threatened sanctions if China did not dismantle its state-led economy and terminate the use of industrial subsidies to support its domestic industries. The United States also crippled the dispute settlement system of the WTO so that nations could not challenge US …

Deploying The Wto Agreement On Government Procurement (Gpa) To Enhance Sustainability And Accelerate Climate Change Mitigation, Robert D. Anderson, Antonella Salgueiro, Steven L. Schooner, Marc Steiner

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Mitigating climate change and promoting sustainability are defining challenges of our time. Public procurement has a vital role to play in responding to the current crises. This article makes the case that the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA), and specifically the Work Programme on Sustainable Procurement that has been initiated pursuant to the Agreement, can serve as important instruments to promote sustainable approaches to public procurement internationally, consistent with the goals of climate change mitigation.

The Work Programme, which was established at the time of the GPA’s modernization in 2012 and on which important work has …

Public Ownership And The Wto In A Post Covid-19 Era: From Trade Disputes To A 'Social' Function, Paolo Davide Farah, Davide Zoppolato

Articles

Public ownership is closely bound to the need of the government to protect and guarantee the well-being of its citizens. Where the market cannot, or does not want to, provide goods and services, the State uses different tools to intervene, influence, and control some aspects of the private sphere of expression of its citizens in the name and interest of the collectivity. Although, in the past century, this behavior was accepted as one of the expressions of the public authority and part of the social contract, this perception has shifted partially in accordance with the wave of privatization programs initiated …

The Role Of Expertise In Evidence Before International Courts: A Comparative Study Between The International Court Of Justice And The Judicial System In The World Trade Organization, Firas Alhasan Mr.

مجلة جامعة الإمارات للبحوث القانونية UAEU LAW JOURNAL

The principle mandate of the international adjudicators (such as judges in the International Court of justice and member of the Panels in the WTO judicial system) is to settle the legal disputes presented to them in a given case. In disputes which involves scientific and technical issues, the adjudicators may have a discretionary power to answer scientific and technical questions in scope of the dispute before them, but it’s unreasonable to think that international adjudicators must have knowledge on the various fields that may be subject to international disputes. Consequently, they will have to seek assistance from experts which importance …

The Long And Winding Road To Effective Copyright Protection In China, Peter K. Yu

Pepperdine Law Review

In November 2020, China adopted the Third Amendment to the Copyright Law, providing a major overhaul of its copyright regime. This Amendment entered into effect on June 1, 2021. The last time the regime was completely revamped was in October 2001, when the Copyright Law was amended two months before China joined the World Trade Organization. While U.S. policymakers and industry groups have had mixed reactions to the recent Amendment, the new law presents an opportunity to take stock of the progress China has made in the copyright reform process. This Article begins by mapping the long and winding road …

Tariffs And Threats In Us Trade Policy: Debunking The Myth Of "Global Reset", Julien Chaisse, Debashis Chakraborty

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

In June 2020, the United States pushed for a "reset"of tariffs at the World Trade Organization (WTO). This move was heralded as necessary for the United States to level the uneven playing field caused by "high bound tariff rates." Ordinarily, the United States perceives trade remedies as a defensive measure. However, in this context, the United States seems to be preemptively acting against any misapplied, anti-dumping duties that it may face. For this reason, a global reset of tariffs will likely find support. It can be counterproductive for the new US administration to pursue such a strategy. If realized, it …

The Second Transformation Of The International Intellectual Property Regime, Peter K. Yu

Faculty Scholarship

This chapter focuses on the structural changes that international investment norms have posed to the international intellectual property regime. It begins by documenting the regime’s first transformation by the adoption of the TRIPS Agreement and the marriage of intellectual property and trade through the World Trade Organization. The chapter then explores the regime’s potential second transformation when bilateral, regional, and plurilateral agreements and new investor-state disputes have caused international investment norms to intrude into the intellectual property domain. It continues to identify three sets of problems that have emerged from such intrusion. The chapter concludes by proposing three solutions to …

Protection Of Test Data Under Article 39.3 Of The Trips Agreement: Advancements And Challenges After 25+ Years Of Interpretation And Application, Eric M. Solovy

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Among the types of intellectual property rights covered by the TRIPS Agreement, WTO Members must, pursuant to Article 39.3, protect certain test and other data submitted “as a condition of approving the marketing of pharmaceutical or of agricultural chemical products.” Such protection provides the incentives necessary for the biopharmaceutical industry to conduct the lengthy, expensive multi-phased clinical testing that is required to demonstrate the safety and effectiveness of a new drug or vaccine.

Test data protection has become increasingly more important to the development of new medicines in the past several years. That is in significant part because biologics (i.e., …

The Political Economy Of Wto Exceptions, Timothy Meyer

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

In a bid to save the planet from rising temperatures, the European Union is introducing a carbon border adjustment mechanism-essentially a levy on imports from countries with weak climate rules. The United States, Canada, and Japan are all openly mulling similar proposals. The Biden Administration is adopting new Buy American rules, while countries around the world debate new supply chain regulations to address public health issues arising from COVID-19 and shortages in critical components like computer chips. These public policy initiatives-addressing the central environmental, public health, and economic issues of the day-all likely violate World Trade Organization (WTO) rules governing …

The Role Of The Registry And Legal Division Of The African Court Of Human And People's Rights In Dispute Settlement, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe, Morris K. Odeh

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This Essay explores whether the African Court of Human and People's Rights’ (African Court) Registry and Legal Division have a similar expansive role in the dispute settlement mechanism as the World Trade Organization's (WTO) Secretariat. The African Court is the African Union's regional body for enforcing human rights. This Essay contributes to the scholarship on African international courts by testing the central arguments in Pauwelyn and Pelc's “Who Guards the ‘Guardians of the System’? The Role of the Secretariat in WTO Dispute Settlement” through a comparative analysis of the role of the Secretariat within the African Court. Despite the growing …

Overhaul Of The Sdt Provisions In The Wto: Separating The Eligible From The Ineligible, Md. Rizwanul Islam

Pace International Law Review

The special and differential treatment (“SDT”) provisions have been a recurring feature in the agreements of the World Trade Organization (“WTO”) treaties. However, most analysts would probably agree that the many SDT provisions have been more aspirational than operational. Hence, there is little surprise that even a selective review of the WTO jurisprudence would demonstrate that the SDT provisions have, in most cases, not done enough for their intended beneficiaries. This paper will analyze the limitations of the SDT provisions with reference to the relevant WTO jurisprudence. It will seek to explore two potential avenues of endeavoring to make the …

A 'Critical Mass' Approach To Negotiations In The Wto: A Case Study Analysis, Temitope O. Adeyemi

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The thesis examines the viability of the ‘critical mass’ approach to negotiations as a proper substitute for conventional negotiating formats in present and future World Trade Organization (WTO) trade negotiations. The thesis provides an overview of the traditional negotiating formats in the WTO and its predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade of 1947 (GATT 1947). A case study approach is adopted in the thesis to explain the concept of the critical mass-based negotiating modality in the WTO context. The primary case studies are the existing WTO Information Technology Agreement, the WTO Basic Telecommunication Agreement, the WTO Financial Services …

Treaty Validity After Diplomatic Cutoff: The Case Of The Taiwan-Panama Free Trade Agreement, Chien-Huei Wu, Po-Hsiang Liao

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

In view of the opposing positions of Taiwan and Panama, this paper intends to examine the legal status of the Taiwan-Panama FTA after the termination of diplomatic relations between these two countries. This paper argues that the severance of diplomatic relations does not affect the legal relations of Taiwan-related FTAs. This paper puts forward two arguments in support of the continuous legal validity of the Taiwan-Panama FTA from the perspectives of public international law and the law of the World Trade Organization (WTO). First, as the law of treaties provides, the severance of diplomatic relations shall not affect the treaty …

Us-China Transnational Law In A Time Of Trade Crisis, Carrie Shang

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Growing transnational business activities have resulted in more rapid transnationalization of American laws. In an era of deglobalization, the way the Trump administration moved away from multilateralism has both gravely impacted international law ordering and triggered responsive (or adaptive) law-making in some of the United States' major trade partners, in particular, China. The recently concluded US-China Trade War has driven up the speed of transnational norm-making and hastened incorporation of American legal principles into Chinese domestic laws. As diplomatic tension between the United States and China intensify, Chinese companies are increasingly becoming targets of sanctions and regulatory enforcement actions led …

Mitigating The Effects Of Intellectual Property Colonialism On Budding Cannabis Markets, Hughie Kellner

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Globalization has reduced barriers to trade, communication, and understanding, opening opportunities that extend far beyond national borders. However, in this bounty of opportunity lie obligations, and often those obligations tie a nation's hands when trying to deal with a problem that arises. One obligation nations face is upholding the United Nations' (UN) decision to prevent the illicit use of cannabis. Another is supporting and following the World Trade Organization's (WTO) near elimination of barriers for companies to bring patent and trademark protection with them into any country they do business with. In a modern globalized economy, if a nation fails …

Extending Trade Law Precedent, Jeffrey Kucik, Sergio Puig

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Precedent is celebrated as a fundamental feature of dense legal systems as it creates predictability, builds coherence, and enhances the authority of courts and tribunals. But, in international adjudication, precedent can also affect interstate cooperation and ultimately the legitimacy of international organizations. Wary of clashing with state interests, most international dispute settlement systems are designed so that rulings do not set obligatory precedent.

This Article describes the role of precedent in the Appellate Body (AB) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to explain how precedent can affect compliance with the decisions of international courts and tribunals (ICs). This Article makes …

Wto Reform: A China Round, Henry S. Gao

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Since its accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), China's exports have been growing exponentially. In 2009, China became the world's top goods exporter. Four years later, China unseated the United States as the top trading nation in the world. In contrast to the burgeoning Chinese economy, the United States and Europe have been suffering from economic decline since the global financial crisis in 2008. China regards its rise as a long overdue restoration of its rightful position, as it has been the largest economy in the world for most of its history, except the brief aberration over the past …

How To Treat The Wto's Problem With Precedent, Timothy Meyer

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article argues that the World Trade Organization’s Appellate Body (AB), or a successor body, must become more transparent in justifying its decision to rely (or not) on prior decisions. The AB’s practice of precedent—which the United States cited as a cause of its decision to paralyze the AB by blocking new appointments-—is similar to how it has approached “likeness” in nondiscrimination cases. It placed a lot of weight on whether two cases (or products) are sufficiently similar to be compared, and it spent relatively less time substantively justifying its treatment of prior cases. Because the WTO does not have …

Trading Pharma Goods The Wto Legal Framework, Neeraj Rajan Sabitha, Petros C. Mavroidis

Faculty Scholarship

Trading of pharma goods has attracted widespread global attention in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Agreement on Trade in Pharmaceutical Products (“Pharma Agreement”) – a sectoral agreement between a handful of WTO members – was concluded in 1994 and aimed to eliminate duties on various pharmaceutical products. Nevertheless, this is all that the Pharma Agreement does: it eliminates duties and does not touch upon the regulatory aspects relating to marketing of pharmaceutical goods. WTO members remain sovereign to decide on this score, but must observe the WTO Licensing Agreement as well as nondiscrimination. Thus, while the intensity of …

How To Treat The Wto's Problem With Precedent, Timothy Meyer

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This Article argues that the World Trade Organization's Appellate Body (AB), or a successor body, must become more transparent in justifying its decision to rely (or not) on prior decisions. The AB's practice of precedent-which the United States cited as a cause of its decision to paralyze the AB by blocking new appointments-is similar to how it has approached "likeness" in nondiscrimination cases. It placed a lot of weight on whether two cases (or products) are sufficiently similar to be compared, and it spent relatively less time substantively justifying its treatment of prior cases. Because the WTO does not have …

The Role Of Transnational Legal Process In Enforcing Wto Law And Competition Policy, Weimin Shen

Florida State University Journal of Transnational Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Right To Health In Gats: Can The Public Health Exception Pave The Way For Complementarity?, Swati Gola

Pace International Law Review

This paper demonstrates how a right to health approach in the interpretation of the public health exception outlined in GATS Article XIV(b) can bring about a harmonious application of international human rights and international trade law regimes. Focusing on the interpretive value of the right to health for the public health exception in GATS, it examines whether a WTO Member, who has committed itself under GATS to fully liberalize all service sectors that have implications for health (e.g., hospital and other healthcare services), still retains the regulatory space to undertake measures to fulfill their right to health obligations and can …

The Integrative Effects Of Global Legal Pluralism, Monica Hakimi

Book Chapters

International lawyers widely understand that legal pluralism is a fact of global life and that it can, in certain settings, be desirable. But many still approach it with some trepidation. A prominent skeptical claim is that pluralist structures lack the integrative resources that unify people around a shared governance project. This claim has been prominent with respect to two kinds of conflicts that are routine in international law: (1) conflicts that play out within a single international legal arrangement, and (2) conflicts that cut across multiple legal arrangements. For both, the skeptical claim is directed at the pluralist structure itself. …

Selective Reshaping: China's Paradigm Shift In International Economic Governance, Heng Wang

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In contrast with the selective adaptation approach toward external norms seen in its accession to the World Trade Organization, China increasingly plays a proactive role on the international stage, with the Belt and Road Initiative at the center of these activities. How can we understand this new approach by China toward international economic governance? What is responsible for China's shifting approach, and what are the implications of this shift? The paper presents selective reshaping as a new theoretical framework, and argues that China is shifting toward the selective reshaping of institutions and rules within the global economic order. Within this …

Afghanistan Legislative Commitments To The Wto: A Deeper Look At Afghanistan's Compliance With Trips, Hafizullah Seddiqi

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

In 2016, Afghanistan formally acceded to the World Trade Organization (WTO) to improve its worldwide trading prospects. However, this journey began much earlier. To join the WTO, one of Afghanistan's commitments was to reform its then-existing trademark laws. Intellectual property (IP)-related laws are, in general, one of the fields that countries must reform prior to joining the WTO, so as to be in accordance with the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). While Afghanistan has enacted some IPrelated statutes, including the 2009 Law on Trade Marks Registration, it continues to fall short of conforming to TRIPS because …

Authority And The Globalisation Of Inclusion And Exclusion: Author Meets Readers, Hand Lindahl, Christine Bell Prof, Friedrich Kratochwil, Hans-W. Micklitz, Carlos Thiebaut, Bert Van Roermund

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Authority is written against the background of intense resistance to globalization processes by a range of political movements and grassroots organizations. These processes are complex and have a variety of dimensions. One of these is the emergence of global legal orders, which I define, in a rough and ready manner, as relatively autonomous legal orders that claim or aspire to claim global validity for themselves. They too-most obviously the World Trade Organization (WTO)-are the butt of resistance. Whatever its forms and aspirations, resistance to globalization is fueled by their peculiar dynamic. Indeed, emergent global legal orders spawn massive exclusion when …

The Federal Coal Leasing Program As An Actionable Subsidy Under International Trade Law, Jackson Erpenbach

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is often criticized for standing in the way of responses to climate change. Restrictions on domestic renewable energy subsidies under the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (SCM Agreement) have drawn particular disfavor. But critics overlook the role that the SCM Agreement can play in similarly disciplining domestic fossil fuel subsidies. This Note demonstrates that potential role by focusing on one prominent fossil fuel subsidy in the United States: The Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) coal leasing program on federal lands. The program is an actionable subsidy under the SCM Agreement because it provides coal …

Dismantling The Wto: The United States’ Battle Against World Trade, Aaron Seals

University of Miami Business Law Review

No abstract provided.

Trade Multilateralism And U.S. National Security: The Making Of The Gatt Security Exceptions, Mona Pinchis-Paulsen

Michigan Journal of International Law

Today, there are an unprecedented number of disputes at the World Trade Organization (“WTO”) involving national security. The dramatic rise in trade disputes involving national security has resuscitated debate over the degree of discretion afforded to WTO Members as to when and how to invoke Article XXI, the Security Exception, of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (“GATT”), with binding effect. The goal of this article is to shed light on contemporary questions and concerns involving national security and international trade, particularly questions involving the appropriate invocation of Article XXI GATT, through careful attention to the article’s historical context. …