International Economic Law and Policy Blog (Page 495)

International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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WTO Law in Domestic Law: The Novartis Case

The status of WTO law in domestic law varies a bit from country to country, and is sometimes not very clear. The recent Indian court decision in the Novartis case was interesting, as the court basically said that any consideration of consistency of Indian law with the TRIPS Agreement should

"Social and Developmental Safeguards"

The always interesting Dani Rodrik proposes the following: A broadened safeguard agreement—call it an agreement on social and developmental safeguards—would enable countries to opt out from their international obligations under specified circumstances. The process for obtaining such an exemption would be a domestic one, as in the case

From Dolphins to Turtles to Seals: The Next Trade and the Environment Dispute

Bloomberg reports: Canada filed a complaint against Belgium at the World Trade Organization, in an effort to reverse the European Union country's ban on seal products. ... ``This government believes that the Belgian ban on the importation and marketing of seal products is a violation of Belgium's

The DS316 Aircraft Panel Hearing

Following-up on Roger Alford's post over at Opinio Juris and Tomer's post on this blog, the WTO panel hearing on one part of the Aircraft dispute (DS316, involving alleged subsides to Airbus) took place last week. As Roger and Tomer noted, the hearing was transparent to

The Doha’s Development: Within the United States

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

Japan - DRAMS CVDs: When "allowing" does not Mean "allowing" or How WTO Panels Can Distort the most Ordinary Meaning of Words.

The recent panel report about Japan - DRAMS offers an interesting and somewhat irritating example of how a word could loose completely its ordinary meaning through a WTO panel’s interpretation. No wonder that we will hear once again the accusation of "judicial activism". Article 12.9 of

Parental Guidance

I'm not sure yet what to make of this surefire box office hit. Should I let my students watch it? Are they mature enough? I actually like Woody Harrelson (not to mention Charlize Theron). With all due respect to both, I like the other Woody much, much more.

Dance of the Seven Veils

The second meeting of the Airbus dispute panel (DS316), scheduled to conclude today, I believe, will be aired to the "public" through "an opportunity to view a videotape, at a date to be announced" (see USTR announcement)(hat tip: Roger Alford at Opiniojuris). To an uninformed

Trade and Development

Ha-Joon Chang of the University of Cambridge writes the following in the Independent (based on a book he has coming out): Both the history of rich countries and the recent records of developing countries point to the same conclusion. Economic development requires tariffs, regulation of foreign investment, permissive intellectual property

It's Getting COOL In Here

In addition to the obviously controversial subsidies in the U.S. farm bill currently under debate in Congress, there's another potentially contentious trade issue in the bill: country of origin labeling (COOL) requirements for certain meat products. The Palm Beach Post reports: Last week, the U.S. House