International Economic Law and Policy Blog (Page 247)

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Russia’s Account of Negotiation History: Reason for Deletion Further Explained

On the question raised in my last post – what was the reason for deleting from Russia’s accession protocol the sentence on non-derogation of its rights under the WTO Agreement – I have now located further explanation in Annex C-9 to the Panel Report in Rare Earths, INTEGRATED EXECUTIVE

What Should the U.S. Judge in the Argentina Debt Case Have Done?

I'm still trying to sort out what I think should happen in the Argentina debt crisis case. I gather that a lot of people are mad at the U.S. judge who prevented Argentina from making payments to those creditors who had agreed to restructure the debt, allowing

Negotiation History and Interpretation of WTO Accession Protocols

As indicated in my previous post, South Korea, a third party in the Rare Earths appeal, advocated referencing negotiation history in the interpretation of Paragraph 11.3 of China’s Accession Protocol. Para. 2.7.7of the AB Report reads in part: In Korea's view, the interpretation pursuant

CETA, Investment Obligations, and Exceptions

With each attempt to clarify the "minimum standard of treatment" in investment obligations, the scope becomes less clear to me. Here's what the leaked CETA text says (page 158): Article X.9: Treatment of Investors and of Covered Investments 1. Each Party shall accord in its

CETA Dispute Settlement: Reference to WTO Jurisprudence

From Article 14.10 of the leaked CETA text (page 474): 5. The panel shall interpret the provisions referred to in Article 14.2 in accordance with customary rules of interpretation of public international law, including those set out in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. The panel

CETA Text: The Treatment of Water

A fairly recent version of the CETA text has been leaked. The document date is August 1, 2014. No doubt there is some legal "scrubbing" still to do, and perhaps some actual negotiating as well, but this text seems pretty advanced, and thus ready for blogging. I'

Guest Post: Russian Sanctions, Polish Apples and the EU’s Litigation Strategy

This is a guest post from Boris Rigod, who has a Ph.D. from the EUI and is currently a law clerk at the Berlin Regional Court Poland announced its intention to initiate WTO proceedings against Russia over its import prohibition on Polish apples. The ban is Russia’s reaction

A Lost Opportunity: Thoughts on the Result of China’s Appeal in Rare Earths

China lost its appeal in Rare Earths last week. The main issue on appeal: the availability of GATT XX exceptions to paragraph 11.3 of China’s Accession Protocol (AP), which contains China’s WTO-plus commitment to eliminate export duties and does not refer to GATT XX exceptions. This

Price Tags of WTO Disputes: Big and Small

Chad Brown and Kara Reynolds have released an interesting study on the trade stakes (dollar value) under the WTO dispute settlement system. (“WTO trade disputes, big and small”). While their data confirms, intuitively, that WTO members are likely to litigate on big ticket items, such as the Boeing-Airbus dispute,

GATT Article XX an an Exception to the TBT Agreement

I was struck by this sentence from para. 5.56 of yesterday's China - Rare Earths Appellate Body report (made in the context of discussing the relationship between China's Accession Protocol and the Marrakesh Agreement/Multilateral Trade Agreements): Article XX of the GATT 1994 has been found