International Trade Law Commons^™

The Conundrum Of Industrial Policy: Incompatibility With The Rules Of International Trade Law, Yong-Shik Lee

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Since the end of World War II, successful developing countries such as South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and, more recently China, have leveraged industrial policies—notably trade measures and subsidies—to achieve economic development. However, these industrial policy tools often conflict with the rules of international trade established under the World Trade Organization (WTO law), which aims to minimize government interference and reduce trade distortions. Paradoxically, such regulatory constraints hinder the development aspirations of many countries. Meanwhile, major global economies, including the United States, China, and the European Union, have revived industrial policies to support their key industries, such as semiconductors and electric …

U.S. Trade Law And Policy At A Crossroads, John K. Veroneau

Maine Law Review

The past decade has witnessed significant changes in U.S. international trade policy. In his first presidential term, Donald J. Trump moved the United States away from long-standing policies of lowering trade barriers to facilitate global commerce and replaced them with a more restrictive version not seen since the early twentieth century. President Trump's more trade-restrictive policies were largely extended by his successor, President Joseph R. Biden. The first year of President Trump's second term has indicated a strong desire to restrict imports further in an attempt to create U.S. manufacturing jobs and reduce reliance on Chinese imports. This Article seeks …

Resilient Dispute Resolution Systems For International Energy Conflicts, Guillermo J. Garcia Sanchez

Faculty Scholarship

Energy-related conflicts are on the rise, spanning diverse issues such as the impacts of rare mineral mining on local communities, the impacts of sanctions on energy investments due to the Russia-Ukraine war, and the impacts of expanded subsidies on the electric vehicle and solar panel industries. Increasingly, companies, communities, and governments are clashing over the challenges of pursuing disparate and sometimes competing energy policies. This Article argues that dispute resolution mechanisms in the energy investment sector must be fundamentally rethought. Traditional semi-adjudicatory models, which focus on winners and losers, fail to accommodate the complex and multifaceted nature of contemporary energy …

The Foreign Commerce Power, Kathleen Claussen, Timothy Meyer

Faculty Scholarship

This Article is the first to scrutinize presidential trade authority under the Constitution. The Constitution grants the President no independent power to regulate foreign commerce. That conclusion, while apparent from a straightforward reading of Articles I and II, stands in stark contrast to executive conduct of U.S. trade policy in recent years. This Article traces the roots of this constitutional distortion to a confluence of doctrinal drift and academic oversight. Courts and commentators have increasingly relied on an expansive conception of executive power grounded in a perceived general foreign affairs authority. In doing so, they have blurred the line between …

Setting International Technical Standards To Shape Digital Trade Policy: Approaches, Challenges, And Opportunities For Developing Countries, Craig Atkinson, Hanane Becha

Centre for Digital Law

Digital trade, the “intentional application of digital technologies at any stage of the trade process” (DiCaprio, 2024, p. 1), is reshaping patterns of economic growth1 and development (International Monetary Fund [IMF] et al., 2023a). As its basis, digital trade depends on internationally agreed-upon “digital technical standards”: rules and guidelines that ensure digital technologies can work together (i.e., interoperability) and be used widely (i.e., scalability) (Bergsen et al., 2022). These standards support how information and communication technologies (ICTs) are designed, interact, and are adopted across borders. Without such technical standards, digital trade would not be possible.

Friction Points Between The Eu Data Act And Wto Law, Pedro R. Borges De Carvalho

Indian Journal of International Economic Law

It has been noted that many of the provisions of the EU Data Act are protectionist in character, seemingly designed to guard data as a national resource to be explored by EU actors first and foremost, and not to be exported, to the detriment of third-country companies. To international trade treaty partners, most notably the United States, it may seem as though the EU’s policy of digital sovereignty, in its current contours, risks violating WTO Law, which is premised on ideals of global free trade and comparative advantage. This essay analyses the most problematic provision of the Data Act in …

Brief Of Professors Julian Arato, Rachel Brewster, Harlan Grant Cohen, David Singh Grewal, J. Benton Heath, Timothy Meyer, Gregory Shaffer, And Chantal Thomas As Amici Curiae In Support Of Petitioners In No. 24-1287 And Respondents In No. 25-250, Julian Arato, Rachel Brewster, Harlan Grant Cohen, David Singh Grewal, J. Benton Heath, Timothy Meyer, Gregory Shaffer, Chantal Thomas

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Introduction To Intellectual Property, Innovation And Economic Inequality, Daniel Benoliel, Peter K. Yu

Faculty Scholarship

This chapter provides an introduction to Intellectual Property, Innovation and Economic Inequality. It begins by discussing the problem of economic inequality, including the scale of that problem, types of economic inequality, and extant research on such inequality. The chapter then outlines the structure of this volume, which is divided into three parts: (1) theoretical, empirical, and policy issues; (2) intellectual property and national inequality; and (3) intellectual property and global inequality.

The Adr Movement: Theoretical Aspects And Practical Potential, Craig A. Mcewen

Maine Law Review

My mission in this paper is to draw upon what we know from the active and lively domestic dispute resolution movements in the United States, Canada, and beyond to identify some of the prospects for and potential problems in developing a dispute resolution system for Canadian-United States trade disputes. Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) is flourishing in the 1980's. Increasing numbers of individuals as well as public and private programs identify their work as alternative dispute resolution. These include private mediation practitioners, ADR partners in major law firms, private organizations such as EnDispute, which will arrange mini-trials and other dispute resolution …

Privatizing Dispute Resolution Under The Free Trade Agreement: Truth Or Fancy?, Leon E. Trakman

Maine Law Review

Replete with evidence of extensive forum shopping, unending discovery procedures, and countless delays in the formal adjudicatory process, the case for an alternative, more specialized medium for the resolution of trade disputes between the United States and Canada has grown more pressing. The problem, however, is in being convinced that the alternative, embodied in the proposed Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement, addresses the deficiencies in the existing medium for dispute resolution without introducing greater social and personal costs of its own. A government, in distancing itself from dispute resolution, also separates itself from the process through which social problems are …

Dispute Resolution Provisions Of The Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement, David P. Cluchey

Maine Law Review

Dispute resolution is a major focus of the recently signed Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement. This focus was heavily influenced by two factors. The first is a significant continuing concern about the dispute resolution procedures and mechanisms under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The second factor is the general Canadian perception that trade proceedings under United States law are substantially influenced by political concerns and that under a trade agreement, Canadian businesses would need some protection from United States trade regulation. The general dispute resolution provisions of the Free Trade Agreement, which are found primarily in Chapter …

Dispute Settlement Mechanisms Under The Free Trade Agreement, Ton J.M. Zuijdwijk

Maine Law Review

The purpose of this paper is to review the dispute settlement mechanisms that are contained in the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement. The two countries reached agreement on the main features of the Free Trade Agreement on October 3, 1987. Thereafter, the elements of the Agreement were converted into the legal text of the Free Trade Agreement and signed by Prime Minister Mulroney and President Reagan on January 2, 1988. Legislation implementing the Free Trade Agreement has been introduced in the Parliament of Canada and in the United States Congress. In Canada the ordinary rules for legislative enactments will apply. …

Canadian Acceptance Of International Commercial Arbitration, John E.C. Brierly

Maine Law Review

A few years ago it would have been impossible to speak of Canadian "acceptance" of international commercial arbitration. Canada had not adhered to any international convention on arbitration, and Canadian legislation did not specifically regulate arbitration in commercial dealings or when it involved some non-national element. There was no federal enactment on the subject. Canadian provincial legislation, whether the civil law of Quebec or the common law of the rest of Canada, had not greatly evolved from the 19th century position expressed in legislation based upon the legal traditions of France and the United Kingdom of the same period. No …

A Canadian Perspective On U.S. Administered Protection And The Free Trade Agreement, Alan M. Rugman

Maine Law Review

The negotiation of the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement over the 1986-1988 period builds upon over 130 years of bilateral trade and investment policy. With Canada's economy being roughly one-tenth the size of that of the United States, the negotiation of commercial arrangements to govern the bilateral trade and investment relationship assumes great importance in the smaller partner. The size asymmetry means that Canada, as the smaller nation, needs to secure a rules-based system rather than a power-based system in its trading relationship with the United States, which accounts for nearly 80% of its exports. Canada is also the largest …

The Reception Of Arbitration In United States Law, Thomas E. Carbonneau

Maine Law Review

The willingness of any national legal system to endorse the process of arbitral adjudication can be measured by whether its governing statutory law and accompanying case law sustain the validity of arbitration agreements and limit judicial supervision of arbitral proceedings and awards—in effect, whether the laws of a nation establish a cooperative relationship between the courts and the arbitral process. On both scores, United States law on arbitration evinces a clear determination to support the process. The development of the law has given the framework of arbitral adjudication its necessary systemic autonomy. Since 1970, when the United States ratified the …

Alternative Dispute Resolution In International Trade And Business, Thomas E. Carbonneau

Maine Law Review

This workshop, which was held at the University of Maine School of Law on May 27, 1987, consisted of an informal discussion among an interdisciplinary group of experts. The purpose of the workshop was to generate ideas and recommendations regarding the utility of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) in international trade and business, with special reference to Canadian-United States trade relations. The discussion also explored the possible commonalties of domestic and international dispute resolution in the hope of developing a basis for a generic alternative dispute resolution methodology.

Foreword, Charles S. Colgan

Maine Law Review

The Free Trade Agreement concluded between the United States and Canada, and signed on January 2, 1988, has a number of features that distinguish it among the trade agreements of the United States. It eliminates all tariffs, reduces restrictions on business travel, and establishes ground rules for trade in services and for foreign investment. In this latter respect, the Agreement is unique among major international trade agreements of the world. But one of the most enduring aspects of the Agreement is likely to be the provisions establishing a series of dispute settlement mechanisms. This last observation would probably surprise almost …

Introduction To Symposium: Alternative Dispute Resolution In Canada-United States Trade Relations, George J. Mitchell

Maine Law Review

The Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) movement in law arose domestically as the pressures on our court system threatened to deprive individual citizens of their "day in court." Maine is a leader in the development and elaboration of the principles and practicalities that must be mastered for ADR mechanisms to function. The University of Maine School of Law symposium examining the application of ADR principles to international disputes focuses specifically on the trade relationship between the United States and Canada. But its examination of both the innovations and limitations of ADR to the resolution of international disputes is broader than this …

The President’S Authority Over Cross-Border Data Flows, Anupam Chander, Paul M. Schwartz

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This Article reveals a surprising expansion of presidential authority to control goods and services available in the United States because of the information flows that they entail. Such authority is grounded in laws focused on protecting national security, here with respect to foreign surveillance and propaganda. But broad executive powers over our information infrastructure raises significant concerns with respect to core American values of free expression and due process. Worries about unfettered foreign access to data should be coupled with worries about unfettered executive control over our information services and technologies.

The Long And Short-Run Spatial Impacts Of Trade, Lin Ma, Yunlong Song, Yang Tang

Research Collection School Of Economics

We explore how the spatial impacts of trade evolve over time using a dynamic spatial model that incorporates capital accumulation and skill acquisition. We show that in the short run, the spatial impacts of trade mainly depend on the initial conditions, especially the endowments of physical and human capital across locations. However, in the long run, trade shocks shape the distribution of production factors across space through factor accumulation and migration, resulting in significantly different spatial impacts. In the context of China’s WTO accession, we find that international trade is seven times more effective in driving the population towards coastal …

Second-Generation Flanking Policies: Addressing Extraterritorial And Non-Economic Costs Of Trade Liberalization, Timothy Meyer

Faculty Scholarship

Flanking policies – policies that aim to address potential negative effects of trade liberalization, and/or the concerns of domestic stakeholders regarding those negative effects, and that are either legally or factually linked to trade liberalization – have been a critical component of international trade policy since at least 1962. Over the years, however, flanking policies have changed. This Article argues that there is a heretofore unnoticed distinction between what I term first-generation flanking policies and second-generation flanking policies. Specifically, first-generation flanking policies target negative economic effects, or costs, of trade liberalization experienced within the enacting country. Trade adjustment assistance is …

Economic Security And The Separation Of Powers, Kathleen Claussen, Timothy Meyer

Faculty Scholarship

The U.S. Constitution grants Congress the power “[t]o regulate Commerce with foreign Nations,” but today the exercise of the foreign commerce power resides primarily with the executive branch. That transfer of control is partly the result of significant delegations of responsibility for managing foreign commerce from Congress to the executive. It is also, however, the result of the securitization of foreign commerce. The executive branch asserts that foreign commerce issues fall under its constitutional powers over foreign affairs, and, thus, that it enjoys authority over foreign commerce that exceeds the scope of congressional delegations.

This Article makes three contributions. First, …

The Eu-China Cai And The Uyghur Challenge In The Context Of China's Domestic Law Barriers To International Labor And Human Rights Standards, Ronald C. Brown

American University Business Law Review

While China engages in world commerce as a global player and is signatory to international labor and human rights standards, at the same time it uses treaty reservations and its own domestic laws to limit and undermine the full application of those standards. Concern from Western governments and global human rights groups regarding China’s longstanding treatment of the Uyghur people has resulted in a freeze in negotiations for the EU-China Comprehensive Investment Agreement (CAI). This was also a result of China’s failure to ratify or implement relevant United Nations (U.N.) covenants and International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions and placing reservations …

The Trade Origins Of Privacy Law, Anupam Chander

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The desire for trade propelled the growth of data privacy law across the world. Countries with strong privacy laws sought to ensure that their citizens’ privacy would not be compromised when their data traveled to other countries. Even before this vaunted Brussels Effect pushed privacy law across the world through the enticement of trade with the European Union, Brussels had to erect privacy law within the Union itself. And as the Union itself expanded, privacy law was a critical condition for accession.

But this coupling of privacy and trade leaves a puzzle: how did the U.S. avoid a comprehensive privacy …

The Enforce And Protect Act: A Primer On The Administrative Cbp Process And Summary Of Judicial Decisions, Michael E. Roll, Ashley Akers

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Enacted in 2015, the Enforce and Protect Act (EAPA)1 gives U.S. Customs & Border Protection (CBP) enhanced tools to enforce U.S. antidumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) laws and to protect US industry, which has complained for years that importers and foreign sellers were evading US AD/CVD orders.2 From the point of view of many in US industry, by the time CBP took enforcement action, violators would disappear and CBP would be unable to collect AD/CVD owed for products imported into the United States.3 As a result, US industry would contend that the intended effects of the AD/CVD order, namely, a …

Substantial Transformation: The Worst Rule For Determining Origin Of Goods - Except For All The Rest, John M. Peterson

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Determining the origin of an imported product for purposes of assessing Customs duties has gained exceptional importance in recent years due to the imposition of "retaliatory" duties on Chinese goods pursuant to Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 and "national security" duties on steel and aluminum imports pursuant to Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. Although United States courts, eight decades ago, pronounced a rule of "substantial transformation" based on manufacturing or processing that results in the creation of a new article of commerce, having a name, character, or use different than its ingredients or …

Two Decades Of Trips In China, Peter K. Yu

Faculty Scholarship

This chapter reviews China’s engagement with the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) in the past twenty years. It begins by highlighting TRIPS-related developments in the first decade of China’s WTO membership. The chapter then discusses the country’s ‘innovative turn’ in the mid-2000s and the ramifications of its changing policy positions. This chapter continues to examine the US-China trade war, in particular the second TRIPS complaint that the United States filed against China in March 2018. It concludes with observations about the impact of the TRIPS Agreement on China, China’s impact on that agreement and how the …

A Canadian Perspective On Fifty Years Of International Economic Law, J. Anthony Van Duzer

Dalhousie Law Journal

In 1970, “international economic law” (IEL) was not a distinct academic subject. Fifty years later, IEL has become an important and well-recognized field of legal enquiry, though its boundaries remain unclear. Globalization of trade and investment activity and the concomitant proliferation of trade and investment treaties over the last 50 years have been key drivers of academic interest in IEL and its transformation. The impacts of trade and investment on the protection of the environment and health, Indigenous, labour, and human rights, development, and other policy priorities have become significant subjects of academic discourse and are increasingly addressed in trade …

Toothless Trade? Implications Of The Federal Circuit’S Clearcorrect Decision For The Enforceability Of Intellectual Property Protections In Digital Trade Under Usmca, Alissa Chase

Catholic University Law Review

Digital trade is growing faster than trade in goods and services and comprises a key area for innovation and intellectual property concerns. The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (“USMCA”) acknowledged this development by including chapters devoted to both digital trade and intellectual property. In 2015, the Federal Circuit held that the International Trade Commission (“ITC”) does not have jurisdiction over unfairly traded digital goods. Without exclusion orders issued by the ITC, the United States lacks a powerful tool to enforce the USMCA provisions protecting intellectual property in unfairly traded digital goods. This comment explores the implications of the Federal Circuit’s 2015 ClearCorrect …

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

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.