International Economic Law and Policy Blog (Page 72)

International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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Non-Discrimination Provisions in Digital Trade Chapters/Agreements: "A Digital Product" vs. "Digital Products," and the Impact on Policy Space

I did a couple posts recently on proposed exceptions language in the WTO e-commerce negotiations. My point there was to raise the issue of exceptions that are written in a way that could interfere with non-discriminatory measures that are designed to achieve legitimate public policies. "Necessary," in my

Guest Post: What’s Sauce for the Goose is not Sauce for the Gander? On Discriminatory Export Quotas for Vaccines

This post is by professors Henrik Horn and Petros Mavroidis The recent EU regulation restricting exports of vaccines [Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/111, 2021, O.J., (L 31I)] has caused much debate. One feature of the regime that has attracted less attention is the fact that the EU measure

A Historical Perspective on India‘s and South Africa’s Threat to Block the Implementation of the Joint Statement Initiatives in the WTO, and a Potential Way Forward

Late last week, India and South Africa circulated a paper on the “Legal Status of ‘Joint Statement Initiatives’ and their Negotiated Outcomes” that was widely perceived as a threat to block the implementation of the four Joint Statement Initiatives in the WTO (Peter Ungphakorn has described it as “pouring cold

Developing country status and trade remedies

As recently discussed by Inu Manak in this blog, the US and the EU have both proposed using objective criteria to clarify the term "developing Member" in the WTO. Of course, these are simply proposals. Developing Members will certainly resist strongly, and insist on the principle of self-selection,

USTR's View of GATT Exceptions in Relation to Non-GATT Goods Agreements

At today's DSB meeting, the U.S. - Origin Marking Requirement (DS597) dispute was on the agenda. This dispute involves a complaint by Hong Kong against various U.S. measures requiring that goods produced in Hong Kong must be marked to indicate that their origin is "China.

The EU Crafts a Compromise on SDT Reform

On February 18, 2021, the European Union (EU) released an annex to the new trade strategy produced by its internal trade policy review, focused on WTO reform. While there are many issues raised in the document, I would like to focus on a few notable changes to the EU’s

The EU's Outreach to the U.S. on WTO DS

The EU announced a new "open, sustainable and assertive EU trade policy" today. The press release is here; a Q & A is here; the main communication from the Commission is here. The most interesting details seem to be in this Annex. In this post, I'm

Exceptions Proposals in the WTO E-Commerce Negotiating Text: Part 2

In my last post, I offered a quick take arguing that, in the context of the WTO e-commerce negotiations, governments should rethink necessity tests in exceptions clauses. I was hoping to make the point as broadly as possible, so I focused on the general exceptions clause in the consolidated e-commerce

Call for Submissions: Trade, Law, and Development

This is from the Managing Editor of Trade, Law, and Development, a student edited journal based in the National Law University, Jodhpur, India: The Journal is now inviting unpublished manuscripts for publication in its Special Issue on "Trade and Technology: Rebooting Global Trade for the Digital Millennium" (Vol.

ISDS Reform: From the Forest to the Trees of an Appellate Mechanism

Last weeks’ 40th Session marked a first real shift from the forest to the trees. The Working Group turned to far more specific reports by the Secretariat focused on designing an appellate mechanism (per a longstanding compromise dividing time equally between designing permanent institutions and othe