Trade Polling: Americans Don't Think Trade Matters Much
Based on some recent polling, neither Americans in general, nor various scholars, think the TPP or TTIP matters much, at least to them personally:
and:
GATT Article XX: The Chapeau vs. the Sub-Paragraphs
This is from Lorand Bartels, in the latest AJIL:
The Chapeau of the General Exceptions in the WTO GATT and GATS Agreements: A Reconstruction
...
Conclusions
This article argues that the Appellate Body has misunderstood the chapeau and that, in particular, there is no analytic, structural, or even thematic difference between
Water Pricing and Subsidies
Let's say California is experiencing a serious drought.
And let's say companies are bottling and selling municipal water from California.
And let's say that the price set by the government for the purchase of this water is low enough that it contributes to consumption
Tie Votes at the ITC and WTO
This is from Inside US Trade:
In Tie Vote, ITC Find U.S. Producers Are Injured By Chinese Tire Imports
In a victory for the United Steelworkers (USW) union, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) on Tuesday (July 14) issued a final determination that domestic tire producers are being
The Deal on Greek Debt:Political Gamechanger for Europe,Tactical Retreat (not Surrender) by Tsipras
The conventional wisdom, delivered before anyone could really ponder the fine print of the Greek debt deal, is that Tsipras surrendered to the creditors in a humiliating defeat. His referendum and prior tenacity in negotiations proved futile,according to the predominant account that has emerged in the media and the
Non-Violation and TRIPS (and GATT and GATS)
This is from a submission by a number of WTO Members who are skeptical of allowing non-violation and situation complaints -- through the removal of the current moratorium on those complaints -- under the TRIPS Agreement:
Non-violation and situation complaints are unnecessary to protect any balance of rights and obligations
Some IP Protections Probably Go Too Far
This is from Fredrik Erixon of Brussels think tank ECIPE:
Thirdly, it is difficult to find economic justifications to put copyright concerns in the top league of priorities. Copyrights are already much longer than is economically motivated. There is not an efficient system for global registration and transfers of copyrights;
WHEN THE APPELLATE BODY REFORMULATES WITHOUT JUSTIFICATION A CANON OF INTERPRETATION: CONSEQUENCES FOR CHINA'S EXCHANGE RATE LEGAL STATUS
The canon of interpretation ejusdem generis states that where a listing of particular persons or things is FOLLOWED by a general term, the general term must refer to the same kinds of persons or things previously listed. In other words, the general term is limited by things ejusdem generis - “of
The TPP and Jobs
I wish there were a lot less talk of the TPP leading to massive job losses or job gains, and instead people said more sensible things like this, from Ted Moran:
But economists are taught—as a matter of theory—that trade agreements cannot be expected to create a greater
More from the Productivity Commission on ISDS
We discussed what Australia's Productivity Commission thought of ISDS back here. Now they have something more to say, but I couldn't do anywhere near as good a job explaining it as Esme Shirlow did over at the Kluwer Arbitration Blog. Here's an excerpt, but