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This open access book examines how international trade agreements apply to domestic regulations on cross-border data flows and then proposes a multilayered framework to align international trade law with evolving norms and practices in global data governance. Digital trade and global data governance are at a unique crossroads, raising significant policy challenges. The book focuses on five policy areas at the interface of digital trade and global data governance: privacy, cybersecurity, governmental access to data, data divide, and competition. In five separate chapters, the book analyses how different types of domestic laws in each of these policy areas interface with existing provisions in international trade law. Thereafter, each of these chapters explores the challenges and possibilities for aligning international trade law with evolving norms, standards and best practices in that specific area of data regulation, both at the domestic and transnational level. Drawing upon these findings, the final chapter proposes a multilayered framework for aligning international trade law with evolving norms and practices in global data governance. The key message of the book is that international trade law can and should meaningfully align with and contribute to the development of transnational data governance norms and practices. It can also foster robust regulatory cooperation among various stakeholders of the digital economy. As the book offers a broad perspective on the significance of digital trade rules in a datafied world, it will benefit scholars, practitioners and policymakers working on digital trade and data regulation, helping its readers explore fresh avenues in the future development of digital trade rules. The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Enhanced regulatory authority exercised by US state governments has resulted in disparate laws across states related to tax rates, drug policies, and laws affecting personal liberties, among other political issues. This has also resulted in stringent environmental legislation in some areas and lax or nonexistent regulation in others, prompting inconsistent pollution regulations. One innovative approach to limiting emissions is the cap-and-trade program in California. In the past, the oil industry in California has been too powerful to be hampered by state-level regulations, and lawmakers have historically failed to thwart the power of "Big Oil". However, a whirlwind of recent events has prompted the expansion of cap-and-trade to the oil industry.

Transparency obligations have undergone substantial transformations since the inception of the GATT in 1947. The paper begins by tracing the evolution of transparency principles during the WTO era. From an obligation to publish general laws affecting trade, the system now includes peer review by governments (monitoring and surveillance), and efforts to inform the public. The system is remarkable for what has been accomplished, but much remains to be done. Originally designed for a handful of developed countries, the system now provides an expanded knowledge base that benefits states, economic actors and citizens with inadequate resources to acquire information on their own. Fulfilling this emerging objective will require a stronger role for the WTO Secretariat as a "common agent" for Members. Transparency in the WTO is based on an assumption that agency matters. The evolution of the system reflects an increasingly expansive view of whose agency counts for trade policy, and therefore of what kinds of information should be available, in what form, and what use ought to be made of it. Our expectation is that the continued evolution in the multilateral understanding of agency in trade policy will be reflected in growing sophistication of WTO transparency practices.

Drawing on examples from the fields of international commercial arbitration and international human rights, in particular, and also on trade, intellectual property and governance, this article explores the processes through which transnational norms are created and legitimated. The article rejects approaches that presume an international consensus around norms or simply the imposition of Northern norms and technologies on the South, showing instead how the fields are developed, the advantages that favour ideas and approaches that are credible in the North, and also how limited openings to individuals from the South subtly modify the norms-which in turn reinforces their legitimacy. The article also shows that legal processes, courts and court-like approaches serve to capture both the hierarchies of the field and the processes that can allow a slow evolution that produces some change-but no challenge to the basic orientation. Adapted from the source document.

This publication examines the trade and welfare impact of Armenia's convergence to the Common External Tariff of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), and how different sectors and products are affected through shifting import and export patterns. It also models trade opportunities created by the recent and potential free trade agreements between the EEU and third countries, using both general and partial equilibrium approaches. Finally, the publication surveys how losing eligibility for the European Union's Generalised Scheme of Preferences will affect Armenia's trade.

Mitte dieses Jahres findet die zweite Überprüfungskonferenz der UN-Mitgliedstaaten zum Stand des UN Kleinwaffenaktionsprogramms, United Nations Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons (UNPOA), statt. Daneben sollen in diesem Jahr die Verhandlungen über einen weltweiten Waffenhandelsvertrag, Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), abgeschlossen werden. Ein Vertragswerk, dessen Aufgabe es ist, Standards für den weltweiten Waffenhandel zu schaffen. (Europäische Sicherheit & Technik / SWP)

Digital trade is upending the way consumers and companies do business. Digital trade and e-commerce have become major drivers of economic development by enhancing productivity and lowering costs of trade in goods. But government policies have been slow to catch up with the increasing importance of cross-border data flows and the way that domestic regulations can help or hinder trade internationally. The first trade agreement to consider the importance of digital trade, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), introduced several new rules that deal with these critical issues. Why did seven Asian countries (Australia, Brunei, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and Viet Nam) in the TPP with very different domestic policies in place to address digital trade and e-commerce agree to follow a similar set of policies for the sector?