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61. (Re)Invigorating the World Health Organization's Governance of Health Rights: Repositing an Evolving Legal Mandate, Challenges and Prospects

Author:
William Onzivu
Publication Date:
01-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
African Journal of Legal Studies
Institution:
The Africa Law Institute
Abstract:
State centred discourse on international law and human rights often diminishes the obligations of global health institutions in international law to advance health related human rights and as sites for the progressive development and implementation of health rights. The constitution of the World Health Organization (WHO) provides an expansive role for human rights protection and promotion in realizing public health, but WHO has faced hurdles in effectively carrying out this role. Current scholarship continues to underscore the normative challenges facing WHO concerning its limited use of international law including human rights to promote health. This article goes a step further and explores the evolving international legal and institutional basis for WHO's future direction in strengthening the governance of human rights. It revisits WHO's evolving and expanding human rights mandate, challenges and prospects within WHO law, the broader United Nations law, policy and practice as well as general international law. Despite the limitations, WHO has evolving institutional mechanisms rooted in international law that comprise a pivotal site for human rights normative and operational work at the global, regional and domestic levels. The article examines these mechanisms and suggests concrete ways and options in which WHO can advance health rights.
Topic:
Human Rights, International Law, United Nations, and World Trade Organization

62. Perspectives: Boeing Sees WTO Rulings Setting Key Precedents for Global Trade

Author:
Ted Austell
Publication Date:
03-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
European Affairs
Institution:
The European Institute
Abstract:
In his recent article in European Affairs, Airbus consultant Charles Hamilton asserts that, five years after the U.S. filed a case with the World Trade Organization against European government subsidies to Airbus, “nothing has changed.”
Topic:
World Trade Organization
Political Geography:
United States and Europe

63. Constructing a Post-Communist Economic Order

Author:
David Szakonyi
Publication Date:
06-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of International Affairs
Institution:
School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University
Abstract:
In addition to being the largest country outside of the trading bloc, Russia has also recently achieved another undesirable distinction in the annals of the World Trade Organization (WTO): the longest candidacy bid at over sixteen years, surpassing China's previous record. Russian leaders have notably fluctuated in their desire for entry and their demands along the WTO accession journey, leading to serious uncertainty about where the entire process is headed. Rising interest in regional organizations such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Eurasian Economic Community may even herald the decline of the supremacy of Western institutions, at least among many states in Eurasia. Deciphering how post-Soviet states determine their policies in the international arena is a treacherous affair, but an important one for the economic order.
Topic:
Economics and World Trade Organization
Political Geography:
Russia, China, and Eurasia

64. At the Crossroads: The World Trading System and the Doha Round

Author:
Fiona E. Marshall
Publication Date:
04-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
This volume documents the proceedings of a conference held in 2003 on 'The WTO after the Failure of Cancún', organized by the European Community Studies Association (ECSA), Austria. Participants included both scholars, expert in WTO law and practice, and practitioners from private practices and departments within the WTO. While its contents reflect the state of play immediately following Cancún, due to the continued lack of consensus in the Doha Round negotiations the contributions can be considered pertinent today to the extent that they reflect the state of negotiations in 2004. Irrespective of this, however, and while not expecting the volume to take account of the July 2008 meeting, it is unfortunate that the contributions were not published sooner in a volume, or that an additional chapter was not provided highlighting relevant developments since 2004. Equally, given that the majority of, if not all, the contributors are experts on the particular topic on which they wrote, it is perhaps surprising that they themselves were not interested in providing an up-to-date account.
Topic:
World Trade Organization
Political Geography:
Europe and Austria

65. The WTO, Animals and PPMs

Author:
Erich Vranes
Publication Date:
04-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
A series of books and an even greater number of articles have examined, over the last 10 – 15 years, the interplay between WTO law and non-economic concerns, in particular those pertaining to environmental protection. Many of these works have focused inter alia on one particularly difficult issue: the question whether a WTO Member may restrict imports of goods which stem from production and processing methods which do not leave physically detectable traces on the products (so-called non-product-related process and production methods or NPR PPMs). A well-known example is the famous case of shrimp caught with devices which endanger sea turtles: such a method will not normally be physically detectable in the final product (shrimp) when it is imported into another country. Another example is products stemming from conditions of production which are perceived, by importing countries, as inhumane or otherwise problematic. Such measures are highly controversial from a legal perspective, given that some exporting countries tend to take the view that production conditions which do not affect the quality of the exported product are 'of no concern' to importing countries, so that WTO Members may not prohibit their importation. In academic writings, a series of divergent views have been taken on this issue; thus, it has repeatedly been held for example that such measures need to be justified under the GATT; moreover, it has been contended that justification may even be impossible in respect of such measures.
Topic:
World Trade Organization and Law

66. Taking Uncertainty Seriously: Adaptive Governance and International Trade: A Rejoinder to Mónica García-Salmones

Author:
Mónica García-Salmones
Publication Date:
02-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
The use of experts' power in global networks is often concealed by describing it in the register of scientific truths. This text seeks to illustrate the phenomenon by reference to the recent article by Cooney and Lang, 'Taking Uncertainty Seriously: Adaptive Governance and International Trade', which appeared in this journal. The account those authors give of WTO law goes beyond a purely legitimacy-based structure focused on effectiveness. Instead, the question is framed in terms of cognitive achievements by regulators in the member states. The present article uses Cooney and Lang's project and the same example of the WTO in order to evaluate global governance. In so doing it analyses the functionalist style of public law, together with neofunctionalism and the historical phenomena by which increasing areas in the public sphere are attributed to regulators, both national and international. With this article, the author hopes to contribute to the debate about the tensions caused by the legal activity of international organizations in a world of equal sovereigns with unequal access to power. In conclusion it is suggested that, so far as contemporary global governance is concerned, the distribution of jurisdiction through regulation is the sphere in which the usual political struggles between international actors take place.
Topic:
World Trade Organization and Governance

67. Participation of Small Developing Economies in the Governance of the Multilateral Trading System

Author:
Richard L. Bernal
Publication Date:
12-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
Given their vulnerability to external economic events, small developing countries (SDEs) are particularly cognizant of their place in the world economy. Moreover, given their reliance on international trade for prosperity, SDEs are also concerned about the rules and institutions governing the multilateral trading system. In this paper, the author reviews and evaluates the participation of SDEs in the governance of the multilateral trading system, with a particular focus on the WTO. He suggests how SDEs can improve the efficacy of their participation in the WTO's decision-making process, and proposes ways in which the WTO could be adapted to better integrate SDEs in its governance.
Topic:
Economics, Emerging Markets, International Trade and Finance, Third World, and World Trade Organization

68. Getting the fundamentals right: The early stages of Afghanistan's WTO accession process

Publication Date:
06-2008
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Afghanistan has recently embarked on the process of joining the World Trade Organisation (WTO). While increased trade can help lift countries out of poverty, the experience of countries at similar levels of development to Afghanistan's which have joined the WTO suggests that, unless great care is exercised, the terms of that member ship may adversely affect poverty reduction. This paper seeks to identify how Afghanistan can give itself the best possible chance of achieving a WTO accession package that supports its efforts to develop sustainably and to reduce poverty.
Topic:
Development and World Trade Organization
Political Geography:
Afghanistan and Asia

69. Square pegs in round holes: How the Farm Bill squanders chances for a pro-development trade deal

Publication Date:
07-2008
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
When trade ministers from 35 countries gather in Geneva at the World Trade Organization [WTO] for what is being billed yet again as a last-ditch attempt to forge a Doha trade deal, they will be forced to meet an unwelcome guest: the 2008 US Farm Bill. With a host of newly bolstered subsidies that will hurt farmers in developing countries, as well as higher farm payment rates, squeezing the new Farm Bill into the 'boxes' defined under existing WTO obligations will be a remarkable trick. That speaks poorly about the willingness of the US to accept new disciplines on agricultural subsidies, and demonstrates that the US Congress is unwilling - thus far - to take the necessary steps for a new trade agreement that would prioritize development.
Topic:
Agriculture, International Organization, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and World Trade Organization
Political Geography:
Geneva and United States

70. Multilateralism beyond Doha

Author:
Arvind Subramanian and Aaditya Mattoo
Publication Date:
10-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:
A fundamental shift is taking place in the world economy to which the multilateral trading system has failed to adapt. The Doha process focused on issues of limited significance while the burning issues of the day were not even on the negotiating agenda. The paper advances five propositions: (1) the traditional negotiating dynamic, driven by private-sector interests largely in the rich countries, is running out of steam; (2) the world economy is moving broadly from conditions of relative abundance to relative scarcity, and so economic security has become a paramount concern for consumers, workers, and ordinary citizens; (3) international economic integration can contribute to enhanced security; (4) addressing these new concerns-relating to food, energy, and economic security-requires a wider agenda of multilateral cooperation, involving not just the World Trade Organization but other multilateral institutions as well; and (5) despite shifts in economic power across countries, the commonality of interests and scope for give-and-take on these new issues make multilateral cooperation worth attempting.
Topic:
Security, Economics, International Trade and Finance, Treaties and Agreements, and World Trade Organization
Political Geography:
United States, China, and Europe