International Trade Law Commons^™

The Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement: High Standard Or Missed Opportunity?, Shuchao Henry Gao

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

When the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement (P4 Agreement) was signed in 2005, it was hailed as a “high-standard” agreement that could serve as a model within the Asia-Pacific region and attract other countries in the region to join as members. This claim seems to have received support from recent events, such as the launch of the accession negotiation by the US and the expression of interests from Australia, Peru and Vietnam.

This article provides a critical analysis on whether the P4 Agreement is a “high-standard” agreement as its members have claimed. In the view of the author, the P4 …

China-United States Trade Negotiations And Disputes: The Wto And Beyond, Pasha L. Hsieh

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This article examines trade negotiations and disputes between China and the United States. It begins by ascertaining the unique political aspects of China-U.S. bilateral economic ties and explains the historical background underlying the relations. The article then argues that trade frictions between China and the United States are unlikely to repeat the Depression-era trade wars. The article observes that both the Chinese and U.S. governments are aware that the adoption of WTO-inconsistent measures may result in retaliatory actions from the other side. Hence, the two governments have attempted to resolve potential disputes through high-level official talks. Even when certain issues …

Saving The Wto From The Risk Of Irrelevance: The Wto Dispute Settlement Mechanism As A Common Good For Rta Disputes, Henry Gao, Chin Leng Lim

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Over the past few decades, Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) have proliferated globally. Such proliferation of RTAs created a renewed sense of urgency for the WTO to take action in order to avoid the fate of being eclipsed into irrelevance. There are several options for coping with the challenge. Theoretically speaking, the best approach would be to heighten the level of ambition in global trade talks to reduce all trade barriers to zero so that the discriminatory effect created by RTAs could be reduced or even eliminated. In reality, such an approach would be impossible for well-known reasons. The next best …

The Asean Charter As "Legs To Go Places": Ideational Norms And Pragmatic Legalism In Community Building In Southeast Asia, Eugene K. B. Tan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The Charter of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has been hailed as a legal instrument that would integrate the ten constituent members as a community and a regional organization. Ostensibly, the Charter has three strategic thrusts in support of the vision of the ASEAN Community. The first is to formalize ASEAN as an institution while streamlining its decision-making processes. Secondly, the Charter seeks to strengthen ASEAN institutions. Thirdly, it seeks to establish mechanisms to monitor compliance and settle disputes. The article considers the extent to which the Charter will help ASEAN achieve its aims. This is especially pertinent …

Taming The Dragon: China's Experience In The Wto Dispute Settlement System, Henry Gao

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

To many observers, a major challenge raised by China's accession to the WTO is whether the WTO dispute settlement system could cope with China, one of the major traders in the world with an economy that is halfway between a planned economy and a market economy. In this article, the author tries to answer this question by reviewing China's experience in the WTO dispute settlement system. Historically, the senior leadership in China attached disproportionate importance to the WTO dispute settlement system and preferred to avoid using the system. Thus, in the first four cases in which China was sued or …

China's Participation In The Wto: A Lawyer's Perspective, Henry Gao

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

On 10 November 2001, China finally acceded to the World Trade Organization (WTO) after a marathon negotiation spanning 15 years. China's membership in the WTO raises interesting questions for both the WTO and China. For the WTO, the question is how to deal with China?a huge country of growing importance as a major global exporter and importer but is still in economic transition. For China, the question is how to implement the numerous obligations in the WTO accession package. This paper sets out by reviewing China's experience in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the WTO. It …

The Bid Challenge Procedures Under The Wto Government Procurement Agreement: A Critical Study Of The Hong Kong Experience, Henry Gao

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

While there has been an extensive literature on the challenge procedure of the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) in general, as well as excellent country studies on the operation of the national challenge procedures of several key GPA Members, no such study has been conducted for Hong Kong yet. In the view of the author, even though Hong Kong has a relatively small procurement market, it combines the features of a clean and effective government and a highly internationalised procurement market, and thus makes an interesting subject of study. In this article, the author examines the efforts made by the …

Procedural Issues In The Anti-Dumping Regulations Of China: A Critical Review Under The Wto Rules, Won-Mog Choi, Henry S. Gao

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Since the World Trade Organization (WTO) was established, China his made large-scale efforts to shape its trade remedy system through legal and organizational changes. Through these changes, China could clarify the meanings of WTO anti-dumping provisions including the provision relating to the definition of domestic industry. Moreover, procedural disciplines on reviews were fortified in Chinese anti-dumping system. While the overall improvements to the trade remedy system of China are evident, definitions of several key legal terms, including the concept of related producers, the negligible import standard, and adjustment factors for a fair comparison between normal values and export prices are …

Chinese Views On Modern Marco Polos: New Foreign Trade Amendments After Wto Accession, Heng Wang

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Since China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) at the end of 2001, it has made substantial, even heroic, efforts to change its laws and regulations. WTO accession has brought not only amendments to formal written laws, but greater transparency in government administration, enhanced opportunities for Chinese entrepreneurs, and more equal treatment between foreign and domestic business organizations. One crucial step forward is the Duiwai Maoyi Fa 2004 [Foreign Trade Act 2004] (“FTA 2004”), which amended the Duiwai Maoyi Fa 1994 [Foreign Trade Act 1994] (“FTA 1994”). With just over one year’s experience operating under this new foreign trade …

Trademark Assignment "With Goodwill": A Concept Whose Time Has Gone, Irene Calboli

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Historically, starting from the premise that trademark protection is about consumer welfare, trademark law has required trademarks to be assigned with the goodwill of the business to which they refer, to deter assignees from changing the quality of the marked products. Yet, ever since its adoption, this rule has been hard to enforce because it hinges on a concept that is ambiguous and difficult to frame in a legislative context: trademark goodwill. Additionally, regardless of this rule, trading in trademarks has been a recurrent practice in the business world, and trademark practices have traditionally provided instruments to assist this trade. …

Facing China: Taiwan’S Status As A Separate Customs Territory In The World Trade Organization, Pasha L. Hsieh

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

On Nov 11, 2001, in Doha, Qatar, the Fourth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) unanimously approved Taiwan's application for WTO membership, just 24 hours after approving China's admission. Taiwan's choice as the Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu, abbreviated as Chinese Taipei, in the WTO, instead of its official name, Republic of China (PRC), shows its reluctant compromise with political reality. The PRC's claim that accession procedures applying to Taiwan and Hong Kong should be identical erroneous because, under international trade law, the ROC is the automatic government acting on behalf of Taiwan and …

Non-Violation Complaints: Wto Issues And Recent Free Trade Agreements, Locknie Hsu

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The proliferation of free trade agreements (FTAs) in the last decade has resulted in an accompanying increase in dispute settlement regimes pertaining to those agreements. One obvious consequence is that increasingly, states are exposing themselves to such complaints, and not necessarily with the limitations that have been imposed on the at General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)/World Trade Organization (WTO). The inherent ambiguity surrounding non-violation complaints at the WTO, and other risks relating to such complaints, are being multiplied manifold by these FTAs. The non-violation concept appears to have originated even before the GATT came into being. Developing-country FTA …

The Politics Of Wto Enforcement Mechanism, Pao Li Chang

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper attempts to develop a formal economic framework to analyze the influences of domestic political considerations by democratic governments in shaping the WTO enforcement outcomes following a violation ruling against the defendant. Since a different mix of import and export sectors in the defendant and complainant country will benefit from the various potential enforcement outcomes, they become competing forces which steer the strategic interactions between the disputing governments. The results of the paper illustrate the complainant's strategy in selecting the retaliation list, and the likelihood of the defendant's compliance or compensation in response to the proposed or foreseeable retaliation, …

The Politics Of Wto Enforcement Mechanism, Pao Li Chang

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper attempts to develop a formal economic framework to analyze the influences of domestic political considerations by democratic governments in shaping the WTO enforcement outcomes following a violation ruling against the defendant. Since a different mix of import and export sectors in the defendant and complainant country will benefit from the various potential enforcement outcomes, they become competing forces which steer the strategic interactions between the disputing governments. The results of the paper illustrate the complainant's strategy in selecting the retaliation list, and the likelihood of the defendant's compliance or compensation in response to the proposed or foreseeable retaliation, …

Legal Issues Under Wto Rules On The Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (Cepa) Between Mainland China And Hong Kong, Henry S. Gao

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

On 29 June 2003, the Central Government of the People's Republic of China (the Mainland) and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) signed the Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA). As the first Regional Trade Agreement (RTA) for both sides, the CEPA provides a model for China to use the arrangements allowed under the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to further trade liberalisation and promote economic development. This is a commendable endeavour. However, due to the complexity of the relevant rules of the WTO, caution must be exercised in the formulation and implementation of …

Trademark Exhaustion In The European Union: Community-Wide Or International?The Saga Continues, Irene Calboli

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This Article analyzes the principle of "trademark exhaustion" or "first-sale rule" in the European Union (EU), with particular attention to the language and different interpretations of Article 7(1) of the First Council Directive 89 104 EEC of December 21, 1988. Traditionally, most jurisdictions define the extent of trademark exhaustion as either "national" or "international" exhaustion, depending on whether the rights granted by a mark are considered exhausted only in the domestic territory or also in foreign jurisdictions. Because of its nature as a regional integration of sovereign countries, the EU has historically favored a compromising approach toward the issue, and …

The Protection Of Well-Known Marks In Taiwan: From Case Study To General Theory, Kung-Chung Liu

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Although the use of trademarks in China can be traced back over one thousand years (Liu's needle shop with the "white rabbit" mark ca. A.D. 960-1126), a statutory regulation of trademarks was not undertaken until very late in the Qing dynasty, and this only happened due to foreign pressure.' In 1904, the British Herd helped draft the "Shang Piao Chu Ts'e Shih Pan Chang Ch'eng," which never took effect.2 In 1923, the government promulgated the Trade Mark Act and in 1927 the "Ch'iian Kuo Chu Ts'e Chii Chu Ts'e T'iao Li."3 In 1930, the "New Trade Mark Act," 4 which …

Enhancing Economic Cooperation: A Regional Arbitration Centre For Asean?, Pearlie Koh

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Economic co-operation within ASEAN can be said to have seriously begun only at the beginning of the nineties. Prior to that, it was well known that, ASEAN as a co-operative grouping, had existed mainly with a political and strategic focus. It is with this focus that ASEAN managed to establish and maintain cohesiveness through the years despite the shaky beginnings of what has been described as a 'brittle alliance' borne of a common fear of communism. And it is with this focus that ASEAN, as a regional grouping, has generally been hailed as a success.

The New Singapore Law On Antidumping And Countervailing Duties, Locknie Hsu

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The Countervailing and Anti-dumping Duties Act 1996 ("the Act") came into effect on 1 November 1996.1 This legislation was enacted to bring Singapore's law in relation to countervailing duties, subsidies and antidumping into conformity with requirements of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreements It also updates the law by repealing the outmoded Customs (Subsidies and Anti-dumping) Act. The new rules and procedures in the Act are meant to "give added assurance and certainty to the local and foreign parties concerned whenever an action is instituted."In addition to the Act, detailed regulations have also been passed. The Act follows the basic …

Remedies Available For Breach Of Contract Under The Un Convention On Contracts For The International Sale Of Goods, Locknie Hsu

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This article, which is complementary to the previous one [(1996) 8 SAcLJ 104], examines in detail the remedies available under the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, which recently came into force in Singapore. Where appropriate, brief comparisons are made with the remedies available under the Sale of Goods Act.