Executive summary -- I: Introduction -- II. General approach -- III. Background -- Iv. Aspects of intellectual property systems -- V. Interaction between genetic resources a, traditional knowledge and patents -- VI. The nautre of disclosure requirements -- VII. Treaty provisions on patent law -- VIII. Review of methods for requiring disclosure -- IX. Conclusion.
Theories of trade and domestic politics have been applied extensively to manufacturing and agriculture; the political economy of trade in services, however, remains poorly understood. This article examines how the "offshoring" of services segments labor markets and places low-skilled and high-skilled labor at odds on trade issues. Drawing from a case where trade has been politically contentious of late—motion picture services in the United States—the article finds that offshoring can aggravate wage inequality, creating incentives for low-skilled workers to demand policy remedies. Consistent with this expectation, an ordered probit analysis of labor-group lobbying reveals that low-skilled occupations in motion picture services were most likely to support countervailing duties and Section 301 action against productions filmed abroad. The findings suggest that when services are tradable, labor-market cleavages are not purely factoral or sectoral, but occupational. This new politics of trade in services has important implications for trade policy in the United States and multilateral rulemaking in the World Trade Organization.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) recently ruled on the case brought by the US, Canada and Argentina against the moratorium imposed by the European Union (EU) on imports of genetically-modified (GM) food and crops. Although the WTO's ruling has been greeted by the complainant countries as a victory, it found in their favor on only one narrow technical procedural issue, and it rejected more substantive challenges to the EU moratorium. In this article, we analyze the WTO report and explain the issues at stake, focusing particularly on the question of why the USA chose the WTO as the forum for its challenge to the EU moratorium, and whether it was wise to do so. Has the USA achieved its aims through the trade-specific WTO, or should it have taken its challenge to the more hostile, but environment-specific forum of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety? Alternatively, should the USA have refrained from mounting an official international challenge at all?
ABSTRACT There have already been several studies focusing on cybersecurity and international trade but the intersection between the two is multifaceted and can be approached from several viewpoints. This article focuses on cybersecurity and international trade from the specific perspective of technological neutrality. Although technological neutrality is recognized with different degrees of intensity both under World Trade Organization Covered Agreements and free trade agreements in a diverse range of fields (such as trade in services, technical barriers to trade, or intellectual property), its status in international trade law is unclear. In this uncertain context, it is argued here, technological neutrality has the potential of expanding the scope of trade obligations unpredictably. As a result, in the face of pressing cybersecurity concerns, technology-related trade measures risk to constantly violate trade obligations, making the trade-cybersecurity relationship even more complicated. The possibility to clarify the status of technological neutrality and the scope of technology-neutral provisions is chief among the solutions proposed in this article. Additionally, this article suggests for States either to be compensated when a trade-restrictive cybersecurity measure affects them, or to consider adopting a waiver in the field of technology, similar to what has been carried out in other areas.
This study focuses on the mechanisms of contract enforcement and dispute resolution in the trade of timber in Shanghai from the 1880s to the 1930s. It shows that merchant guilds, chambers of commerce, and the court system constituted complementary institutions of contract enforcement. Timber trade guilds relied on reputation mechanisms and information sharing to maintain intra-group solidarity and monitor outside trading partners. Horizontal communications among timber guilds in different localities further enhanced their capability to respond promptly to cross-regional cases. When disputes escalated beyond the scope of a single merchant guild, chambers of commerce (after 1904) and the court system became involved. Vertical communications among these organizations strengthened the continuity from informal norms of business practices to guild regulations, and thence to adjudications in court. Whereas the typical story, drawn from European history, was one of transition toward more formal institutions, this case study shows that formal and informal institutions could complement each other and that they existed along a continuum rather than in separated spheres. The convergence of the expected outcomes as a result of resorting to different platforms of dispute resolution reinforced the consistency and credibility of the cost of defaulting.
COVID-19 led to an economic downturn not only in Kenya but also in the rest of the world. It put these countries into a recession as a result of the measures taken by trading partners to prevent the spread of the virus. This meant that the Kenyan needed to come up with monetary and fiscal policies and strategies to maintain macroeconomic and fiscal stability, as well as accelerate the pace of economic growth by achieving resilience and sustainability of economic growth and development. This book uses both descriptive and econometric methodologies that can easily be understood by scholars, using quality data from credible sources such as the Kenyan National Bureau of Statistics, the Ministry of Health, World Bank, World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund. The book can be used as reference material for both post and undergraduate students interested in international trade. The policies and strategies proposed can be used by scholars in researching ways to deal with not only the current pandemic but also future pandemics.
Die Herausbildung relativ abgeschlossener Handelsblöcke weckt bei vielen Beobachtern die Befürchtung des Zusammenbruchs der weltweiten Handelsordnung. In den 70er und 80er Jahren war in wirtschaftlichen Rezessionsphasen ein verstärkter Protektionismus seitens der Handelsblöcke zu beobachten. Die EU jedoch erwieß sich in der Rezession zu Beginn der 90er Jahre nicht als die befürchtete "Festung Europa", vielmehr ist eine Liberalisierung der Außenhandelspolitik gegenüber Drittstaaten eingetreten. Die Erklärung für diese Entwicklung sieht der Autor in unvorhergesehenen Konsequenzen der Einheitlichen Europäischen Akte. Die Vollendung des gemeinsamen Marktes untergrub die Wirksamkeit nationaler Außenhandelsmaßnahmen und erschwerte die Errichtung neuer Handelshemmnisse. (SWP-Clv)
The objective of this essay is to evaluate the governmental and self-regulated power of Puerto Rico, regarding the cabotage laws and its relation with the United States. The history of Puerto Rico with the United States, certain laws and jurisprudence, as well as, the responsibility of the United States and the World Trade Organization is studied. It is concluded that Puerto Rico, although enjoying certain sovereign attributes, remains a territory under the control of the United States Congress. ; El objetivo de este ensayo es evaluar el poder gubernamental y auto regulatorio de Puerto Rico, en relación con las leyes de cabotaje y su relación con Estados Unidos. Se estudia la historia de Puerto Rico con Estados Unidos, ciertas leyes y jurisprudencia, así como la responsabilidad de Estados Unidos y la Organización Mundial del Comercio. Se concluye que, aunque Puerto Rico goza de ciertos atributos de soberanía, sigue siendo un territorio bajo el control del Congreso de Estados Unidos.
This dissertation offers a new perspective from which to view and understand the WTO regime and its participants. The central feature of that new perspective is the concept of legal indigenization. This term generally refers to the process or ideology in which domestic authorities make and implement international or domestic rules in a way appealing to their native features (especially legal traditions), as responses to globalization led by a defective global legal system. The dissertation's core thesis is that the key elements of the legal tradition and culture of a society or political system inevitably and fundamentally influence the ways in which WTO members propose multilateral trading rules and implement their WTO obligations - in ways that have not, until now, been adequately explored and explained in the extensive literature relating to international trade law. In developing and elaborating on that core thesis, this dissertation has six chapters, following an Introduction that summarizes the significance, structure and approach, and terminology of the dissertation. Chapter 1, Review of Literature, comprises two parts. The first part surveys the key academic, professional, and official literature regarding a range of issues that are pertinent to this dissertation. These include such topics as the general character and structure of the WTO regime, specific trade mechanisms, the relationship between WTO law and domestic law, the relationship between WTO law and general international law, principles and interpretation of WTO agreements, the position of developing countries in the multilateral trading system, strategies pursued in international trade negotiations, domestic trade legislation, Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), dispute settlement mechanism, and domestic adjudication of trade issues. The second part of this chapter offers the main findings of the relevant literature. It is those findings, of course, that serve as the foundation as well as starting point for further research as reflected in this ...
