International Trade Law Commons^™

A Critical Examination Of "Decoupling": An Introduction, Dongsheng Zang, Miles Lee

Washington International Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Japan's Response To The Trade Conflict Between The United States And China, Rikako Watai

Washington International Law Journal

Abstract: Decoupling refers to the strategy of separating and disconnecting economies and markets between different nations. However, in the contest of the ongoing trade conflict between the United States and China, decoupling primarily refers to determining economic dependence on a specific nation as a national security risk, thereby reinforcing vulnerabilities in one’s supply chain. Japan views the United States as its primary partner in national security policy and China as a significant market because of its geographic proximity. As a result, ensuring economic security became a pressing concern for Japan.

Japan refers to the United States’ idea of economic …

Is India The "New China" In U.S. Foreign Policy?, Sital Kalantry

Washington International Law Journal

Abstract: The University of Washington International Law Journal’s timely symposium explores the strains in the U.S.-China political and economic relationship. As China and the United States become estranged, or “decoupled,” this essay explores the United States’ relationship with India in light of this trend. The U.S.-India foreign relations are stronger today than they have been in India’s 75-year history as an independent nation.[1] To understand why this is the case, we have to examine both the U.S. and Indian foreign policy perspectives. The United States’ interest in India has grown in part due to the United States’ own …

Bidenomics Versus Maganomics: Pick Your Poison, Thomas Schoenbaum

Washington International Law Journal

Abstract: This essay compares the international trade policies of the two candidates for U.S. President in 2024, Joseph Biden[1] and Donald Trump, and argues in favor of a “third way” alternative to promote free trade in 2025 and onward. I first analyze the trade law revolution effected by the Trump presidency from 2017-2021. During these years the Trump administration adopted a protectionist policy rooted in nationalism and populism. As a direct result of Trump administration trade policy there occurred: (1) a significant retreat from globalization; (2) paralysis of the World Trade Organization; (3) a revival of U.S. unilateralism …

Decoupling Defined: Four Theories And Four Illustrations From The Sino-American Trade War, Raj Bhala

Washington International Law Journal

Abstract: This article seeks to bring clarity to a much used, yet ill-defined, term “decoupling.” The article explores the theory and practice of “decoupling” in the context of the Sino-American Trade War, which, launched in March 2018, shows no sign of a ceasefire. As to theory, this article argues that conceptually, “decoupling” takes (at least) four forms. There is efficiency, jurisprudential, security, and values decoupling. As to practice, this article shows these four theoretical typologies of decoupling are obvious today. This theory and practice are illustrated (respectively) with respect to labor-intensive industries, commercial transactions in rule-of-man jurisdictions or …

Imperial Collision: Future Of China's Relations With Russia, Dongsheng Zang

Washington International Law Journal

Abstract: In April 2024, Biden Administration officials revealed that in the year 2023, about 90% of Russia’s microelectronics came from China, which Russia has used to make missiles, tanks, and aircraft. Nearly 70% of Russia’s approximately $900 million in machine tool imports in the last quarter of 2023 also came from China.[1] U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently stated at the G7 meeting that “[w]e see China sharing machine tools, semiconductors, [and] other dual-use items that have helped Russia rebuild the defense industrial base.”[2] This demonstrates how far China is willing to go in defiance of the …

China's Response To The U.S. Call For Decoupling: The Foreign Investment Law Of 2020, Daniel C. Chow

Washington International Law Journal

Abstract: In response to the U.S.’s calls for U.S.-China decoupling by repatriating U.S. business operations and eschewing new investments in China, China introduced the Foreign Investment Law (“FIL”) in 2020. The FIL marks a new era of foreign investment in China. It eliminates the requirement of prior government approval for all foreign-funded enterprises, including joint ventures consisting of U.S. companies and domestic Chinese state-owned enterprises. Many U.S. companies found the approval process under the previous legal regime to be time consuming, arduous, and oppressive. This process has now been replaced by a simple registration process under the FIL and the …

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. …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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.

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 …

Questions And Answers On The Future Of Ip For Research And Innovation, Sean Flynn

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

This paper publishes the annotated contents of an interview with PIJIP Director Sean Flynn by the staff of WIPO’s work on the Future of IP. All questions relate to the future of copyright with respect to AI assisted innovation.

Author Remuneration In The Streaming Age – Exploitation Rights And Fair Remuneration Rules In The Eu, Martin Senftleben, Elena Izyumenko

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

The transition from linear to on-demand consumption of music, films and other copyrighted content on platforms like Spotify, Netflix and YouTube has given rise to the question whether authors and performers receive a fair share of streaming revenues. While these revenues are substantial and right holders may have the opportunity to control access to copyright-protected content on the basis of copyright protection, it is often not the creators themselves who benefit from growing streaming revenue and reinforced access controls. The issue has a global dimension. The Group of Latin American and Caribbean Countries (GRULAC) proposed that the World Intellectual Property …

Crypto & The Climate: Will Local & National Environmental Regulation Save Or Stifle The Cryptocurrency Boom?

Fordham Environmental Law Review

As cryptocurrencies continue to gain traction among mainstream investors and consumers, regulators and lobbyists are increasingly taking note of the potential environmental impacts of the industry. At its core, the process of mining new currency for virtual wallets is energy intensive, which can place strains on electrical grids and accelerate the impacts of climate change. However, these effects are felt very differently depending on what source of electricity the mining operation utilizes and the methodology behind the specific currency. These variable factors are on the minds of legislators and regulators as public pressure to better understand and regulate the industry …