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101. Determining the Necessity of Domestic Regulations in Services: The Best is Yet to Come

Author:
Panagiotis Delimatsis
Publication Date:
04-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
A necessity test is a tool that reflects the balance between each country's prerogative to regulate in its own jurisdiction and the multilateral interest in progressive liberalization of services trade. Experience gained in goods trade indicates that the principle of necessity can be a useful proxy allowing the judiciary of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to draw the dividing line between legitimate regulation and protectionist abuse. This article explores the possibility of creating a necessity test that would be applicable to all services sectors. Such a horizontal test may yet emerge from the current negotiations within the Working Party on Domestic Regulation (WPDR), which aim to fulfil the legal mandate contained in Article VI(4) of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS or the 'Agreement'). At the core of this mandate, as clarified by various negotiating documents, lies the requirement that Members ensure that domestic regulatory measures relating to licensing, qualifications, and technical standards do not constitute unnecessary barriers to trade in services.
Topic:
World Trade Organization

102. Overcoming Jurisdictional Isolationism at the WTO–FTA Nexus: A Potential Approach for the WTO

Author:
Caroline Henckels
Publication Date:
06-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
The proliferation of free trade agreements which share dispute settlement jurisdiction with the WTO has added to claims of disintegration within international trade law. Recent WTO jurisprudence is indicative of the limits of WTO members' ability to invoke provisions of an FTA as a 'jurisdictional defence' where the dispute implicates trade measures under both WTO and FTA rules. Such uncertainty in the law has the potential not only to create issues of incoherent jurisprudence, but also to threaten the stability and predictability of the multilateral trading system. These issues are likely to continue to arise as FTAs continue to grow in abundance while the Doha round is stalled. Based on analysis of a selection of state-state disputes before other fora such as the International Court of Justice, this article argues that in the interest of the effective administration of justice, the WTO's judicial organ should use its inherent power of comity to decline to exercise jurisdiction so that the dispute can be resolved by an FTA tribunal where a dispute is inextricably connected with a dispute under an FTA and that exercising jurisdiction would not be reasonable in the circumstances.
Topic:
World Trade Organization

103. Pricing Farmers out of Cotton: The costs of World Bank reforms in Mali

Publication Date:
03-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Mali is one of the world's poorest countries, with over two-thirds of the population – mostly in rural areas – living on less than a dollar a day. Mali is also the second largest cotton producer in sub-Saharan Africa after Burkina Faso. Cotton production is generally heralded as a success story in much of West and Central Africa, providing a critical development strategy for poor African countries such as Mali and enabling both governments and farm households to access income. The World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the wider donor community have also recognised the importance of cotton in reducing poverty and supporting the country's economy. However, in recent years, much of this success has been undermined by depressed and volatile cotton prices, partly as the result of unchecked US subsidies, and the downward trend of commodity prices.
Topic:
Agriculture, International Organization, International Trade and Finance, Treaties and Agreements, and World Trade Organization
Political Geography:
Africa, United States, and Mali

104. All costs, no benefits: How TRIPS-plus intellectual property rules in the US-Jordan FTA affect access to medicines

Publication Date:
03-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Since enactment of the TRIPS (Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) Agreement in 1995, the USA has imposed progressively higher levels of intellectual property protection (TRIPS-plus rules) on developing countries, which undermines access to affordable medicines. The US-Jordan free trade agreement (FTA) introduced a rigid framework of TRIPS-plus rules that the USA continues to impose on developing countries, although subsequent FTAs have even stricter levels of intellectual property (IP) protection. Jordan was also required to increase the level of IP protection under the terms of its accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Topic:
Health, Treaties and Agreements, World Trade Organization, and Intellectual Property/Copyright
Political Geography:
United States, Middle East, and Jordan

105. Autonomy and Domination within the Global Trade System: Developing Countries in the Quest for a Democratic WTO

Author:
Anna Lanoszka
Publication Date:
10-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition, McMaster University
Abstract:
Power relations shape the world economy. The system of international economic transactions has been persistently asymmetrical as it consists of highly industrialized states as well as of many poorer countries at different levels of economic development. The dominant position of the rich developed countries cannot be simply assumed away, even in the rules-based World Trade Organization (WTO) guided by the principles of international law.
Topic:
International Relations, International Political Economy, International Trade and Finance, Treaties and Agreements, and World Trade Organization

106. Oxfam Publishing: What happened in Hong Kong?: Initial analysis of the WTO Ministerial, December 2005

Author:
Duncan Green
Publication Date:
12-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
The WTO Hong Kong ministerial meeting was a lost opportunity to make trade fairer for poor people around the world. Rich countries put their commercial interests before those of developing countries. Small progress in agriculture was more than cancelled out by anti-development texts in services and industrial tariffs. Most of the difficult decisions were put off to a further meeting in early 2006.
Topic:
International Relations, International Trade and Finance, and World Trade Organization
Political Geography:
Hong Kong

107. Oxfam Publishing: Blood on the floor: how the rich countries have squeezed development out of the WTO Doha negotiations

Author:
Duncan Green
Publication Date:
12-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Four years on, the Doha Round looks increasingly unlikely to deliver on its promises to the world's poor. Rich countries have sidelined developmjent concerns and insisted on, among other conditions, the "blood on the floor" rule, i.e. obtaining economically painful concessions from all countries, including poor ones. In agriculture, trade rules look set to remain stacked against developing countries and poor farmers. Talks on industrial tariffs could jeopardise the industries of poor countries. If the rich countries fail to significantly improve their offer at the WTO ministerial meeting in Hong Kong in December 2005, developing countries should not be expected to sign on to a bad deal.
Topic:
Development, Globalization, International Trade and Finance, and World Trade Organization
Political Geography:
Hong Kong

108. Oxfam Publishing: Mind the Gap: Countdown to Viet Nam's Accession to the WTO

Author:
Mary Kirkbride
Publication Date:
12-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Viet Nam is entering its final stages of accession negotiations. Although it is unlikely that it will achieve the goal of joining the World Trade Organisation (WTO) by the time of the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference in December, negotiators want a swift end to the process. Analysis of progress madebetween the two Working Party meetings of April and September 2005 reveals that Working Party members are continuing to demand further concessions from the Vietnamese negotiators. If agreed to, these concessions could have potentially damaging consequences for Viet Nam's ability to safeguard the livelihoods of its poorest people.
Topic:
Globalization, International Trade and Finance, and World Trade Organization
Political Geography:
Asia and Vietnam

109. Oxfam Publishing: Why developing countries need tariffs: How WTO NAMA negotiations could deny developing countries' right to a future

Author:
Ha-Joon Chang
Publication Date:
11-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
The NAMA negotiations are heading towards a development disaster. If the developed countries have their way and force the developing countries to massively cut (or even altogether eliminate) industrial tariffs on a line-by-line basis in an irreversible manner, the future prospect of industrial development, and therefore economic development, in today's developing countries is truly bleak.
Topic:
Development, Globalization, International Trade and Finance, and World Trade Organization

110. Oxfam Publishing: Non-agricultural market access (NAMA) talks threaten development: Six reasons why a fundamentally different approach is needed

Author:
Duncan Green and Marita Hutjes
Publication Date:
11-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
The WTO's current NAMA (non-agricultural market access) negotiations will not lead to a pro-development outcome. Developed countries are demanding excessive opening to imports which, if agreed, could destroy local businesses and jobs in developing countries without bringing compensating economic gains. Poor-country governments will face balance of payments problems, loss of tax revenue, and downward pressure on workers conditions and rights, and their future industrial development prospects will be undermined.
Topic:
Development, Globalization, International Trade and Finance, and World Trade Organization