International Trade

Written by two leading scholars with 60 years of collective experience in the area, this insightful and updated second edition provides a clear and concise introduction to the fundamental components of international trade law, presenting the basic structure and principles of this complex area of law, alongside elucidation of specific GATT and WTO legal rules and institutions. Key features include: a nuanced yet highly readable summary of the area placement of trade law into historical, political and economic contexts, including new analysis of populist critiques references to the most recent cases, decisions, treaty negotiation developments and economic and legal scholarship analysis of new areas including digital trade, migration and security exceptions to alert students to developments in international trade law links and connections between different areas of trade law to provide students with an integrated overview of the topic. Interdisciplinary in nature, this second edition will be an indispensable guide for students in law, economics, political science and international relations. Comprehensive and accessible, it will be essential reading for non-specialist scholars and policy advisors seeking to further their understanding of international trade law. 'This Advanced Introduction provides an excellent succinct yet accurate summary of the international trade rules applicable, inter alia, to trade in goods, services, intellectual property, and investment. It also explores international standards, social issues such as development, environment, labour, human rights, and it addresses the institutional framework and the future of the world trading system. As an experienced practitioner in this field, I highly recommend this book to government officials, business people, and students who will all get a clear interdisciplinary tour d'horizonin the field of international trade.' - Gabrielle Marceau, University of Geneva, Switzerland and Senior Counsellor at the WTO

The TRIPS Agreement is the most comprehensive and influential international treaty on intellectual property rights. It brings intellectual property rules into the framework of the World Trade Organization, obliging all WTO Member States to meet minimum standards of intellectual property protection and enforcement. This has required massive changes in some national laws, particularly in developing countries. This volume provides a detailed legal analysis of the provisions of the TRIPS Agreement, as well as elements to consider their economic implications in different legal and socio-economic contexts. This book provides an in depth analysis of the principles and of the substantive and enforcement provisions of the TRIPS Agreement, the most influential international treaty on intellectual property currently in force. It discusses the legal context in which the Agreement was negotiated, the objectives of their proponents and the nature of the obligations it created for the members of the World Trade Organization. In particular, it examines the minimum standards that must be implemented with regard to patents, trademarks, industrial designs, geographical indications, copyright and related rights, integrated circuits, trade-secrets and test data for pharmaceutical and agrochemical products. Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights: A Commentary on the TRIPS Agreement elaborates on the interpretation of provisions contained in said Agreement, in the light of the customary principles for the interpretation of international law. The analysis -which is supported by a review of the relevant GATT and WTO jurisprudence- identifies the policy space left to such members to implement their obligations in accordance with their own legal systems and public policy objectives, including in respect of complex issues such as patentability criteria, compulsory licenses, exceptions and limitations to copyright, border measures, injunctive relief and the protection of test data under the discipline of unfair competition.

Celem monografii jest przedstawienie Światowej Organizacji Handlu i Unii Europejskiej w warunkach nowych wyzwań współczesnego biznesu międzynarodowego. W perspektywie funkcjonowania WTO i Unii Europejskiej istotna jest potrzeba osłabienia neoprotekcjonizmu rolnego, a także protekcjonizmu regulacyjnego poprzez harmonizację i wzajemne uznawanie norm. Zmiany w gospodarce światowej spowodowane COVID-19 sprawiały, że wyjście z recesji w kształcie litery V stało się mało prawdopodobne. Zamiast tego COVID-19 przyspieszy proces zapoczątkowany po globalnym kryzysie, zachęcając firmy do ponownego przeniesienia działalności gospodarczej do krajów bogatych.

Une analyse critique des théories du commerce international, suivie d'explications sur la manière de mondialiser les normes sociales et environnementales afin de désarmer les tribunaux d'arbitrage, de promouvoir un juste échange, de partager les technologies et de refonder l'Organisation mondiale du commerce.

Présente les différentes règles applicables à l'activité internationale de l'entreprise. Etudie les aspects internationaux des sociétés ainsi que les opérations du commerce international. Contient les grandes conventions internationales et les derniers textes communautaires.

While large, multinational corporations have supported the removal of tariffs, behind the scenes these firms have fought for protection in the form of product regulations, including testing, labeling, and registration requirements. Unlike tariffs, these regulations can raise fixed costs, excluding smaller firms from the market and shifting profits toward global giants. Narrowing the Channel demonstrates that globalization and globalized firms can paradoxically hinder rather than foster economic cooperation as larger firms seek to protect their markets through often unnecessarily strict product regulations. To illustrate the problem of regulatory protectionism, Robert Gulotty offers an in-depth analysis of contemporary rulemaking in the United States and the European Union in the areas of health, safety, and environmental standards. He shows how large firms seek regulatory schemes that disproportionately disadvantage small firms. When multinationals are embedded in the local economy, governments too have an incentive to use these regulations to shift profits back home. Today, the key challenge to governing global trade is not how much trade occurs but who is allowed to participate, and this book shows that new rules will be needed to allow governments to widen the benefits of global commerce and avoid further inequality and market concentration.  

This book examines the causes and consequences of social standards in US and EU preferential trade agreements (PTAs). PTAs are the new reality of the global trading system. Pursued by both developed and developing countries, they increasingly incorporate labor and environmental issues to prevent a race to the bottom in social regulation and counter-protectionism. Using principal-agent theory to explore why US PTAs have stricter social standards than those signed by the EU, Postnikov argues that the level of institutional insulation of trade policy executives from interest groups and legislators determines the design of social standards. In the EU, where institutional insulation is high, social standards mirror the normative preferences of the European Commission leading to a softer approach. In the US, where such insulation is low, social standards are driven by interest groups and legislators they control, resulting in a stricter approach. This book shows that both approaches can be effective but work through different causal mechanisms. To test his argument, Postnikov draws on original data collected in Brussels, Washington, Santiago, Bogota, and Seoul. This book will be of interest to all scholars and students working in the fields of international political economy and EU and US trade policy.

This book explores the extent to which EU Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) pursue sustainable agriculture in third country parties. It contends that this should be part of a duty for the EU enshrined in the Treaties to promote its fundamental values in its external action. It suggests that the extent to which this occurs in practice, may be reviewed judicially by the Court of Justice of the European Union. Against this background, selected agreements concluded by the EU with developed and developing countries (Canada, South Korea, Ukraine, Chile, SADC countries and Vietnam) are taken as case studies.The author concludes that, in spite of the remarkable progress made hitherto, EU trade policy is still far from being in line with the increasingly strong commitment of the EU to take the lead in the international arena for environmental and climate matters.This work adopts primarily a legal methodology, but it broaches the subject in interdisciplinary terms. It is addressed not only to (EU) policy-makers, but also to scholars of different fields and to the wider public interested in topics that have become of common concern for the future of our planet.With a foreword by Daniel Calleja Crespo, Director General of the European Commission - DG Environment