135 resultsFilter
- (-) Remove RTA Exchange filter RTA Exchange
- (-) Remove Environmental Goods and Services (EGS) filter Environmental Goods and Services (EGS)
- (-) Remove News filter News
12 November 2018
Substantive standards in new international investment agreements converge, including between Europe and North America. Typical features of convergence include market access commitments, broad most-favoured-nation and national treatment clauses, a narrowing of some substantive standards, and broad...
12 October 2018
Investment facilitation measures that are correctly designed and effectively implemented have the potential to advance sustainable investment. Certain elements of investment facilitation can be found in existing international investment agreements, including both bilateral investment treaties and...
9 October 2018
Services facilitation refers to the simplification, modernisation, and harmonisation of services regulations with a view to reducing transaction costs. It is a key component of the Facilitation 2.0 framework. So far the most significant advances in rule-making on services facilitation have taken...
21 September 2018
States now face two competing – and strengthening – influences with respect to industrial policy: heightened scrutiny of industrial policy measures and heightened expectations for achieving sustainable development. With increasing frequency, states are addressing and balancing those competing...
14 September 2018
Our current resource use is unsustainable – the circular economy provides a solution through its focus on behavioural change, resource and energy efficiency, and the closing of material loops. The focus of the circular economy is on the full life cycle of products. In today’s globalised world, raw...
11 September 2018
Effective dispute settlement raises the value of trade agreements and the return on governments’ investment in trade agreement negotiations. Three practical ideas could help governments negotiate and administer dispute settlement more effectively: better information on options, information on how...
24 August 2018
Regional trade agreement (RTA) rules cover policy areas vital for 21st century trade , but can be surprisingly hard to find and complex to navigate. By making RTA texts available in a machine-readable format, a new RTA Exchange tool helps stakeholders of trade agreements make more informed...
11 June 2018
Continued expansion of the multilateral agenda through the World Trade Organization’s Trade Facilitation Agreement and beyond, or Facilitation 2.0, represents a coherent basis for extending trade policy’s design and delivery via digital technologies. A more comprehensive trade facilitation agenda...
7 June 2018
Regional trade agreement dispute settlement is prejudiced by the lack of a support structure for panels. Using an external body – as proposed in the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement – is a cost-effective way of addressing this issue. Using a court of arbitration – such as the Permanent Court...
15 May 2018
Many proposals have been put forward to address the problematic nature of dispute settlement mechanisms found in regional trade agreements. This piece discusses two of them: using dispute settlement mechanisms under mega-regional agreements and resorting to existing arbitration and investment...
4 May 2018
The stalemate in WTO Appellate Body appointments may help bring to life dispute settlement in “mega-regional” trade agreements, such as the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). These agreements...
26 April 2018
After decades of experience in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and the World Trade Organization, trading nations have become accustomed to orderly and predicable mechanisms for resolving their trade disputes. This post argues that growing challenges in the multilateral environment...
20 April 2018
The expansion of the trade facilitation agenda, expressed as Facilitation 2.0, is critical in a time of global industrial and societal reorganisation, of which the digitisation of economic activity, a shifting volume and geography of foreign direct investment, and a rising share of high-...
14 March 2018
O caráter cada vez mais complexo da trama digital e o crescente número de conflitos nessa seara desafiam nossa capacidade de compreensão. Os autores propõem uma taxonomia dos modos de comércio digital, analisam as áreas em que existem conflitos e comparam as táticas utilizadas pelas principais potências digitais.
7 March 2018
The renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) provides a path for institutional innovation. This post argues that the institutions that were created by NAFTA have either not functioned well, or been insufficiently used, and that the opportunity to improve the institutions...
15 February 2018
Internet-enabled commerce has the potential to reduce inequalities between and within countries, offering a tool for achieving the United Nations’ 10 th Sustainable Development Goal. Today, the question is no longer if online commerce could make trade more inclusive and if small businesses could...
9 January 2018
The digital transformation has facilitated old modes of trade and business models and enabled the creation of entirely new ones. This piece suggests a classification of the modes in which trade is conducted as it progressively shifts into the digital or digitally-facilitated realm . The authors...
1 December 2017
E-commerce is rapidly becoming a more ubiquitous medium for commerce, bringing with it significant benefits. Like any other form of exchange in modern economies, regulation designed through negotiation is necessary to manage complexity. As the WTO’s Eleventh Ministerial Conference fast approaches,...
6 September 2017
The incorporation of sustainable development provisions in deeper regional trade agreements has expanded over time . In this article, the authors explore prospects for using such agreements as building blocks towards broader incorporation of sustainability provisions at a multilateral level...
25 August 2017
In this article, the author reviews China’s experience with environmental and labour provisions by looking at its regional trade agreements, especially in terms of the evolution of the Chinese position. It concludes with a projection of how China’s approaches to such provisions might further...