Sungjoon Cho

An interesting, and timely, conference on trade regionalism is taking place in Geneva. It is co-organized by the Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva, and the WTO Secretariat. Here is the progam with papers. http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/region_e/conference_sept07_e.htm  And, here is

China passed the landmark “Anti-Monopoly Law” on August 30, 2007 after more than a decade’s deliberation. (Landmark anti-monopoly law passed, China Daily/Xinhua; Investors fear over China monopolies law, Financial Times). The law reads “As well as anti-monopoly checks stipulated by this law, foreign mergers with, or acquisitions of,

The House has just killed a reform version of the new Farm Bill and instead passed a highly protectionist bill, as had widely been expected. President Bush vowed to veto this version. Now, the ball has been passed to the Senate. (See NY Times, Still Waiting for Farm Reform, July

To one’s (yet another) disappointment on the Doha round talks, the Fantastic 4 (the U.S., the EU, Brazil, and India) failed to hammer out a framework deal in Potsdam, Germany yesterday. Such a deal was badly needed to complete the negotiation by the end of this year. It

China’s central bank (People’s Bank of China) reacted to the IMF’s recent new surveillance mechanism allegedly targeted for China’s currency intervention (or manipulation, if you like). China emphasized that any solution for this problem should be based on “mutual understanding and respect” rather than being imposed.

The IMF has announced to overhaul its international surveillance system which has been in operation since 1977. The new surveillance system will impose more rigorous obligations on Members to protect the stability of international financial system. It seems no coincidence that this decision has been made amid the high-profile debate

EU agricultural ministers agreed on a mandatory labeling (logo) regime for organic food, which replaces a previous voluntary labeling scheme adopted in 1991. (See Financial Times, Fears EU Logo Sets Organic Standards Too Low, June 13, 2007, http://www.ft.com/cms/s/b0694860-194b-11dc-a961-000b5df10621.html.) This new regime is slated

Suppose that the current deadlock on the Doha trade talks has been broken as developed countries agreed on the dramatic reduction of agricultural tariffs and subsidies. Would such ostensibly generous concessions be automatically translated into poor countries’ enhanced market access to rich countries’ markets? I question this premise by observing

Nearly three decades ago, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) issued a celebrated decision, Cassis de Dijon, in which it established the principle of “mutual recognition.” The ECJ ruled in 1979 that “there is therefore no valid reason why, provided that they have been lawfully produced and marketed in one

The draft of the first Chinese Anti-Monopoly (AM) Law has recently been submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) where the draft will be reviewed and commented several times before the final enactment. The current Chinese anti-competition (anti-trust) regime is not comprehensive and rather fragmented