International Trade Law Commons^™

How Hard Can This Be? The Dearth Of U.S. Tax Treaties With Latin America, Patricia A. Brown

University of Miami Law Review

The United States has fewer tax treaties with countries in Latin America and the Caribbean than the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain and even China have with such countries. After first describing ways in which tax treaties reduce barriers to cross-border trade and investment, this Article considers in turn various possible explanations for this situation. It examines, and rejects, the hypothesis that Latin American countries are reluctant to enter into tax treaties in general. It then considers, and rejects, the possibility that Latin American countries are opposed to in-creased trade and investment from the United States in particular. It then …

The Paradox Of Contracting In Markets, Robert E. Scott

Faculty Scholarship

Traditional economic analysis distinguishes economic organization along three dimensions: firm, contract, and market. This categorization is misleading in any number of respects, but none more so than the assumption that contract and market are separate modes of exchange. In fact, other than barter, which is almost unknown in contemporary commercial transactions, every market transaction is implemented by contract. Thus, in markets the two modes of exchange are inextricably combined. Moreover, the vast majority of contract activity occurs in some form of market, so it does not require much loss of generalization to say that not only are contracts in all …

Stakeholder Preferences And Priorities For The Next Wto Director General, Matteo Fiorini, Bernard Hoekman, Petros C. Mavroidis, Douglas Nelson, Robert Wolfe

Faculty Scholarship

The WTO is looking for a new Director-General (DG). What does the trade community think is needed? This paper reports on the results of an expert survey undertaken as part of a research project on global trade governance at the European University Institute to solicit views on what WTO members and the international trade community consider the most important attributes of candidates for the position, as well as views on the substantive policy and institutional reform priorities confronting the WTO – and thus the new DG. The results suggest strong support for someone with managerial and political experience, and a …

To Ab Or Not To Ab?: Dispute Settlement In Wto Reform, Bernard M. Hoekman, Petros C. Mavroidis

Faculty Scholarship

Recent debates on the operation of the WTO’s dispute resolution mechanism have focused primarily on the Appellate Body (AB). We argue that this neglects the first-order issue confronting the rules-based trading system: sustaining the principle of de-politicized conflict resolution that is reflected in the negative consensus rule for adoption of dispute settlement findings. Improving the quality of the work of panels by appointing a roster of full-time professional adjudicators, complemented by reforms to WTO working practices that reduce incentives to resort to formal dispute settlement, can resolve the main issues that led to the AB crisis. Effective, coherent, and consistent …

Covid-19 And South-South Trade & Investment Cooperation: Three Emerging Narratives, Clair Gammage, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the frailties of economic relations across different aspects of the globalized network. From the national, through the sub-regional, to the regional to the international levels, questions have arisen regarding the seemingly interconnected, yet fractured socio-economic relationships in our modern societies. In this essay we shall focus on the trade and investment dimension of South-South relations that have been affected by the pandemic. In doing so, we shall reveal the (often overlooked or taken for granted) linkages with race in South-South relations. We identify the way(s) in which the Covid-19 pandemic has made obvious the latent …

Doing Development Differently: Reorienting Sino-African Trade And Investment Relations After The Pandemic, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe, Clair Gammage

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This article explores the evolutive nature of Sino-African relations and questions how Chinese interventions may influence Africa’s development stories in a post-Covid world. We examine whether the crisis could serve as a catalyst for reorienting the strategic partnership between China and Africa away from debt diplomacy towards genuine partnership or a breaking apart of the long-standing relationship. This article presents three narratives to illustrate how the future direction of Sino-African relations may change and how this might enable Africa to ‘do development differently’.

Symposium On Sustainable Development Goals, Trade, Investment, And Inequality, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This Symposium, co-hosted by Afronomicslaw and the Dalhousie Law Journal Blog is an outcome of one of the streams at the 2019 Annual Purdy Crawford Workshop at the Schulich School of Law. The theme of the Workshop which took place from Sept. 26–28 was “The Role of Business Regulation in Advancing the Sustainable Development Goals.” Co-organized by three Schulich School of Law Professors, the Workshop featured three inter-disciplinary and simultaneous streams as well as cross-over plenaries that focused on: “SDGs and Revenue Mobilization” – convened by Kim Brooks, the Purdy Crawford Chair in Business Law; “SDGs, Trade, Investment, …

Regulating Through Trade: The Contestation And Recalibration Of Eu ‘Deep And Comprehensive’ Ftas, Billy Melo Araujo

Pace International Law Review

Contemporary international trade politics is primarily focused on deep integration – that is, the removal of regulatory barriers to trade. The EU, in particular, has long been one of the main proponents of the use of trade agreements to promote regulatory disciplines on issues such as intellectual property regulation, procurement, services, competition and investment protection. This so-called ‘EU regulatory agenda’ has rapidly gathered pace over the past decade and culminated, more recently, in attempts to conclude mega-regional trade agreements such as the EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. Such agreements have, however, proved highly contentious and are being fiercely contested …

Draft Text Providing For Transparency And Prohibiting Certain Forms Of Third-Party Funding In Investor–State Dispute Settlement, Brooke Güven, Lise Johnson, Nathalie Bernasconi-Osterwalder, Lorenzo Cotula, Jane Kelsey

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) is currently working on how to reform international investment treaties, focusing in particular on those treaties’ provisions enabling investors to sue governments in international arbitration. As an observer organization in this process, CCSI has emphasized that in the context of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) reform, it is important to first consider what it is that investment treaties aim to achieve, and only then to consider what form(s) of dispute settlement will best advance those objectives. This means not only looking at reform of the existing ISDS mechanism, but also alternatives to …

Third-Party Rights In Investor-State Dispute Settlement: Options For Reform, Jesse Coleman, Lise Johnson, Brooke Güven, Lorenzo Cotula, Thierry Berger

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) is currently working on how to reform international investment treaties, focusing in particular on those treaties’ provisions enabling investors to sue governments in international arbitration. As an observer organization in this process, CCSI has emphasized that in the context of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) reform, it is important to first consider what it is that investment treaties aim to achieve, and only then to consider what form(s) of dispute settlement will best advance those objectives. This means not only looking at reform of the existing ISDS mechanism, but also alternatives to …

Draft Treaty Language: Withdrawal Of Consent To Arbitrate And Termination Of International Investment Agreements, Brooke Güven, Lise Johnson

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) is currently working on how to reform international investment treaties, focusing in particular on those treaties’ provisions enabling investors to sue governments in international arbitration. As an observer organization in this process, CCSI has emphasized that in the context of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) reform, it is important to first consider what it is that investment treaties aim to achieve, and only then to consider what form(s) of dispute settlement will best advance those objectives. This means not only looking at reform of the existing ISDS mechanism, but also alternatives to …

Trump, Trade, And Trabajo: Renegotiating Nafta's Labor Accord In A Fraught Political Climate, Lance A. Compa

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Quitting the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and demanding renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)- along with its supplemental labor pact, the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC)-were among the first actions of the new U.S. Administration in 2017. NAFTA renegotiations concluded for the time being-in October 2018 with announcement of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) to replace NAFTA.

Controversial proposals on the bargaining table contained important implications for employment, labor rights, and labor standards in North America. This paper reviews the status of negotiations, the risks of losing the first-ever international instrument linking trade and labor standards …

...And Trade, Harlan G. Cohen

Scholarly Works

This short essay, part of a symposium on Gregory Shaffer’s Retooling Trade Agreements for Social Inclusion, argues that the normal science of trade law lacks the tools to confront trade law’s greatest current challenges. Instead, breaking out of trade law’s two-step politics, with its division of “growing the pie” and distributing its slices, and responding to new challenges of climate change, the digital economy, and artificial intelligence will require a new politics built on and designed to build new shared narratives embodying new policy paradigms.

Reflecting On Straight Talk On Trade, Alvaro Santos

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

A question that motivates this essay is: What insights can we offer from legal scholarship that Dani Rodrik could take on board and put to good use?

Rodrik is an economist, but he might as well have been a lawyer in the way he builds his argument and anticipates counterarguments. I mean that as a compliment. As a bonus, he delivers the punch line with humor and grace. In his book I recognized several of the many contributions Rodrik has made: his argument for policy space and revitalization of industrial policy, the globalization trilemma, the idea and process of growth …

World Trade And Investment Law In A Time Of Crisis: Distribution, Development And Social Protection, David M. Trubek, Alvaro Santos, Chantal Thomas

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

World trade and investment law is in crisis: new and progressive ideas are needed. Rules that facilitated globalization and supported global economic growth are being challenged. A system of global governance that once seemed secure is now at risk as the US ignores the rules while developing countries struggle to escape restrictions. Some want to tear global institutions and agreements down while others try desperately to maintain the status quo. Rejecting both options, we convened a group of trade and investment law experts from 10 countries South and North who have proposed ideas for a new world trade and investment …

Helping David Fight Goliath: Preserving The Wto In The Trump Era, Michael Goodyear

Articles & Chapters

The Trump presidency and other reactionary conservative governments present an immensely powerful danger to the World Trade Organization (WTO). The WTO is largely built on Members’ willingness to comply with its rules, and the current Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU) is too weak to deter an avowed enemy of the WTO, such as President Trump. This poor enforcement system particularly hurts developing countries, which lack the power under the DSU to effectively deter economic giants like the United States.

The recent Doha Round was supposed to create a more effective enforcement mechanism under the DSU, but it fell apart before any …

Trade Openness And Antitrust Law, Anu Bradford, Adam S. Chilton

Faculty Scholarship

Openness to international trade and adoption of antitrust laws can both curb anti-competitive behavior. But scholars have long debated the relationship between the two. Some argue that greater trade openness makes antitrust unnecessary, while others contend that antitrust laws are still needed to realize the benefits of trade liberalization. Data limitations have made this debate largely theoretical to date. We study the relationship between trade and antitrust empirically using new data on antitrust laws and enforcement activities. We find that trade openness and stringency of antitrust laws are positively correlated from 1950 to 2010 overall, but the positive correlation disappears …

Does Trade Trump Law In The Protection Of Human Rights? International Trade, Law, And Human Rights In South Africa And South Korea, Cristina Campo

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

International relations have become categorically dependent on the sophisticated trading systems that interconnect and empower sovereign states. Thus, a state’s focus on protecting the rights of its individuals comprising and affected by that system would appear to come secondary to the economic decisions involved in conducting trade agreements. This article asks whether the international trade regime can be used to further the protection of human rights or whether such protection should be better left in the hands of legal entities in international bodies and sovereign states. I analyze South Korea and South Africa’s legal and trade regimes—two of the world’s …

Keep Calm And Negotiate On: The United Kingdom’S Withdrawal From The European Union And Suggestions For A Smooth Departure, Aryanah Yasmine Eghbal

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

This article will attempt to both examine the ramifications of the UK’s decision to leave the EU, as well as determine a path to begin the process of renegotiating trade deals with the EU and other countries throughout the world. Part I will begin by providing a brief historical overview of the formation of the EU and a focus on how and when the UK joined the EU. Part II will present the stages of leaving the EU, specifically introducing Article 50 and how it is used. Part III will provide an understanding of what trade deals are, how they …

A Blueprint For A New American Trade Policy, Timothy Meyer, Ganesh Sitaraman

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

In recent years, it has become clear that American trade policy needs to change. For decades, U.S. policy has reflected the implicit assumption that trade liberalization is beneficial for everyone, with few distributional downsides over time. But this assumption hasn’t been borne out. Instead, decades of trade liberalization have led to a backlash that resulted in both 2016 presidential nominees opposing the Obama Administration’s proposed Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). And since 2017, President Donald Trump has begun a trade war with China; raised tariffs on the grounds of protecting national security; renegotiated NAFTA, though on terms that do not obviously …

An Assessment Of The Chafta And Its Implications: A Work-In-Progress Type Fta With Selective Innovations, Heng Wang

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This chapter explores two questions of the recent China-Australia FTA (ChAFTA): what is the approach of the ChAFTA? What are the challenges to the ChAFTA? It argues first that the ChAFTA adopts a problem-solving approach to harvest “low-hanging fruit” (e.g. tariff cuts). Containing WTO-based and WTO-friendly rules, it focuses on trade and investment facilitation through market liberalization and carefully written good governance norms. In spite of its short form investment chapter, the agreement is not as shallow as one may first think. It stimulates development concerning, among other things, regulatory issues (e.g. regulatory transparency and cooperation in financial services, regulatory …

The Role And Future Of Sovereign Wealth Funds: A Trade And Investment Perspective, Locknie Hsu

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Sovereign wealth funds ("SWFs") have been greeted with bothenthusiasm and suspicion. In one respect, they have been called "white knights," where they step in to inject financing to troubledentities.' In others, they have been called "Trojan horses" and"chameleons."

Trading Spaces: The Changing Role Of The Executive In U.S. Trade Lawmaking, Kathleen Claussen

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Since the earliest days of the republic, the U.S. executive has wielded a significant but constitutionally bounded influence on the direction of U.S. trade law. In the twenty-first century, the growth of free trade agreements has led to an institutionalization of trade norms that permits the executive many more spaces for engagement with trading partners. In addition, other types of quotidian lawmaking extend the power of the executive in both public and hidden spaces beyond congressional delegation, even as that power remains substantially bounded by congressional control. This Article analyzes the dynamics between the branches that will direct future U.S. …

Comment On Us Trade And Investment Agreements Submitted To Ustr, Columbia Center On Sustainable Investment

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Comments to USTR Re: Review of US Trade and Investment Agreements (July 17, 2017): CCSI, in response to the United States Trade Representative’s request for public comment to inform its performance review of US trade and investment agreements, submitted Comments that focused on the impact that investment protection provisions, enforceable through investor-state dispute settlement, have on rights-compliant, inclusive sustainable development within the United States and abroad.

Patents, Industrial Designs, And The Trans-Pacific Partnership: Articles 18.37–18.46 And 18.55–18.56, David O. Taylor, Aaron Pirouznia

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

This essay summarizes the articles of the Trans-Pacific Partnership dealing with patents and industrial designs, and compares and contrasts those articles with U.S. law and the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).

Submission On The Draft General Comment On “State Obligations Under The Icescr In The Context Of Business Activities”, Columbia Center On Sustainable Investment

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

In January 2017 CCSI made a submission to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, regarding its draft General Comment on “State obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the Context of Business Activities.” CCSI’s submission focused on: (1) host and home states’ obligations as they relate to international investment agreements (IIAs); (2) extraterritorial obligations in the context of outward investment; and (3) state obligations related to corruption issues.

In the submission, CCSI emphasized that states must ensure that existing treaties do not generate conflicts between obligations owed under IIAs and the Covenant (in …

China's And India's Differing Investment Treaty And Dispute Settlement Experiences And Implications For Africa, Won Kidane

Faculty Publications

This Article examines China’s and India’s differing investment treaty and dispute settlement experiences and the resulting implications for Africa. It attempts to answer the question of whether there is evidence of China’s and India’s attempt to take advantage of the default structural imbalance enabled by centuries of international investment laws and institutions that favor the investor. The Article begins by presenting the background of the current economic reality and trends that necessitate the evaluation of the existing rules and institutions. It then presents a detailed assessment of this phenomenon by focusing on the investment cases brought against India for context, …

Contents

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Alternative Forum: A Colorado Farmer And The Itc’S Excellent Adventure, Brady P. Gleason

Catholic University Law Review

As marijuana regulation at the local level becomes at odds with federal policy, an interesting question arises regarding the drug’s potential classification as an article of commerce. Resulting of this potential shift is the existence of an unexpected legal question as to whether the U.S. International Trade Commission, via the agency’s section 337 investigatory and remedial authorities, may regulate marijuana that has been illegally imported into the United States. While avoiding any stance on the contentious issue of marijuana legalization, this essay explores this legal ramification by surmising a fictional narrative of two Colorado marijuana farmers, and investigating the ITC’s …

The Shochu Conundrum: Economics And Gatt Article Iii, Alex Davis

Undergraduate Economic Review

This paper will discuss the National Treatment (NT) obligation contained in Article III of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994 as applied in precedential tax discrimination cases. Case law has not taken a firm stance on the economic versus legal interpretation of the likeness/directly competitive or substitutable (DCS) criterion or the principle of “so as to afford protection” (SATAP) captured in Article III.2. After examining the case law on discriminatory taxation, I conclude that the NT obligation in trade agreements is imperfect. Nonetheless, NT is a critical component of these agreements, and the international trade order would …