The Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
Free Trade Agreements ◽  
Competition Law ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Government Procurement ◽  
Rules Of Origin ◽  
Detailed Understanding ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Political Cooperation ◽  
Phytosanitary Measures

The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership among eleven key nations of the Pacific Rim has already expanded trade and economic cooperation among the Parties. It also serves to encourage political cooperation among them and has served as a model for future 'wide and deep' free trade agreements. The chapters of this book will provide readers with a detailed understanding of the CPTPP's coverage, including provisions relating to tariff elimination, customs rules of origin, agriculture, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical barriers to trade, telecommunications, intellectual property, investment and investor–state arbitration, financial and other services, government procurement, state-owned enterprises, electronic commerce and digital trade, small and medium-sized enterprises, competition law, labor and environmental protection, dispute settlement, and many others. No international lawyer, economist, trade negotiator, or enterprise can afford not to take advantage of the opportunities for business that the CPTPP offers. This book has been written by CPTPP negotiators, experts, and practitioners.

Three Salient Issues of the New Comprehensive Free Trade Agreements

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Griller
Keyword(s):  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
Free Trade Agreements ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Settlement System ◽  
Investment Protection ◽  
National Courts ◽  
System P ◽  
Critical Account ◽  
Dispute Settlement System ◽  
The Relationship

The author argues that the mega-regionals are incorporating WTO standards on the removal of technical barriers to trade (TBT), but do not go much further. Consequently, domestic policies on consumer or environmental protection are inevitably affected. However, in this regard, the mega-regionals would not result in a substantive change. By contrast, the relationship between the removal of TBT and investment protection standards is qualified as poorly balanced, unclear, and creating fresh problems. This includes the possibility that damages might be awarded even in cases where the party to the agreement has correctly used its ‘right to regulate’. Moreover, a critical account of the investor-state dispute settlement system foreseen is offered. It is presented as unnecessarily complex, and creating unbalanced advantages for investors. The better alternative would be integrating national courts into the system.

Living without the WTO Appellate Body – Procedural Developments in International Trade Dispute Settlement

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 166-190
Author(s):  
Andrea Hamann
Keyword(s):  
International Trade ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
Free Trade Agreements ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Settlement System ◽  
Trade Dispute ◽  
Appellate Body ◽  
Wto Appellate Body ◽  
Dispute Settlement System

Abstract The current column covers selected procedural and institutional developments in international trade dispute settlement in 2020. During the reporting period, World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement has been facing unprecedented challenges due to the collapse of the Appellate Body. While this calls for a systemic reflection in the WTO forum regarding the future not only of appellate review but of the entire dispute settlement system, the current unavailability of the Appellate Body has triggered WTO Members into improvising temporary solutions. At the same time, some of them have equally seemed to turn to free trade agreements (FTAs) or otherwise to pursue solutions outside of the multilateral forum.

scholarly journals What Do Trade Agreements Really Do?

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 73-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dani Rodrik
Keyword(s):  
Free Trade ◽  
Multinational Firms ◽  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
Market Access ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Free Trade Agreements ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Pharmaceutical Companies ◽  
Nontariff Barriers ◽  
International Banks

Economists have a tendency to associate “free trade agreements” all too closely with “free trade.” They may be unaware of some of the new (and often problematic) beyond-the-boarder features of current trade agreements. As trade agreements have evolved and gone beyond import tariffs and quotas into regulatory rules and harmonization— intellectual property, health and safety rules, labor standards, investment measures, investor–state dispute settlement procedures, and others—they have become harder to fit into received economic theory. It is possible that rather than neutralizing the protectionists, trade agreements may empower a different set of rent-seeking interests and politically well-connected firms—international banks, pharmaceutical companies, and multinational firms. Trade agreements could still result in freer, mutually beneficial trade, through exchange of market access. They could result in the global upgrading of regulations and standards, for labor, say, or the environment. But they could also produce purely redistributive outcomes under the guise of “freer trade.” As trade agreements become less about tariffs and nontariff barriers at the border and more about domestic rules and regulations, economists might do well to worry more about the latter possibility.

Transparency and participatory aspects of investor-state dispute settlement in the EU ‘new wave’ trade agreements

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 781-800 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Lam ◽  
Güneş Ünüvar
Keyword(s):  
Free Trade ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
Free Trade Agreements ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Forum Shopping ◽  
New Wave ◽  
Commercial Arbitration ◽  
Investment Arbitration ◽  
The Eu

AbstractThis article scrutinizes the investment chapters in the new EU Free Trade Agreements from a transparency perspective. The article examines the claims that the dispute settlement mechanisms in the new treaties are sufficiently participatory and more transparent than their predecessors. Procedural standards related to confidentiality of proceedings shall be analysed in the context of existing transparency safeguards in investment arbitration. In addition to procedural guarantees of transparency, the article examines relevant substantive rules affecting participatory aspects of dispute settlement. Furthermore, the article discusses forum-shopping strategies of the parties in the field of investment-related disputes, including internal forum-shopping and parallel proceedings using different procedural mechanisms. In this context, lessons from other fields such as international commercial arbitration related to transparency (in cases in which public interest is present) are highlighted. The proposal for the establishment of an integrated, multilateral court for investment cases is also invoked.

Modernization of Competition Law and Policy in Egypt: Past, Present and Future

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-125
Author(s):  
Dong-Hwan Kim ◽  
Yo Sop Choi
Keyword(s):  
African Country ◽  
Free Trade Agreements ◽  
Competition Law ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Public Enforcement ◽  
Free Competition ◽  
Law And Policy ◽  
Competition Laws ◽  
Laws And Policies

AbstractCompetition laws and policies play an important role in developing countries. More than 130 countries have adopted either a competition law or a similar framework of anti-monopoly laws that aims to improve social welfare. Most African countries have already started developing their competition regimes, and regional trade organizations in Africa have provided competition sections in their free trade agreements to enhance enforcement cooperation. For fledgling competition regimes in Africa, the improvement of effective public enforcement and competition law culture has become an essential driver of competition law development. In particular, Egypt has demonstrated its efforts towards the modernization of competition law and the enhancement of fair and free competition, which is an example of the development of the competition regime in a developing African country. This article discusses the development of the Egyptian competition regime from a comparative perspective and suggests proposals for its further modernization.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document