Mineral Export Restraints and Sustainable Development–Are Rare Earths Testing the WTO’s Loopholes?

China’s actions in limiting the export of rare earths have drawn the world’s attention. The USA, Japan, and the European Union (EU) have been frustrated with China’s measures, even threatening to bring the case to the WTO. These rare earth trade [...]

Certificates of Free Sale: Who is Being Protected from Whom?

Certificates of Free Sale (CFS) are little known but widely used instruments in international trade. A CFS states that a product meets the regulatory requirements of the exporting country and can be sold freely in that country. Many developing [...]



China’s Anti-Monopoly Law and its Merger Enforcement: Convergence and Flexibility

As the world’s second largest economy and the world’s fastest growing economy, China is a late but significant entrant into the competition law club with the implementation of the Anti-Monopoly Law (AML) on 1 August 2008. This article provides a [...]

EC – Fasteners: Opening the Pandora’s Box of Non-Market Economy Treatment

On 15 July 2010, the Appellate Body of the WTO circulated its report in EC – Fasteners. In its report, the Appellate Body, for the first time, adjudicated the issue of non-market economy (NME) treatment towards imports from China and provided [...]

The Conundrum of Shifting Orthodoxies: FTAs And Korea’s Currency Controls

The financial services regime, comprising the General Agreement on Trade in Services and bilateral free trade and investment agreements, reflects the ‘orthodoxy’ of highly liberalized and lightly regulated financial markets that has [...]



Dispute Settlement at the WTO: The Developing Country Experience. Edited by Gregory C. Shaffer and Ricardo Melendez-Ortiz

The Rise of National Regulatory Autonomy in the GATT/WTO Regime

This article sets forth two arguments. First, to respect a WTO Member’s national regulatory autonomy in the world trading system is essential to ensure the WTO’s long term success in light of the WTO’s institutional constraints, the WTO’s underlying [...]

Fair in Form, But Discriminatory in Operation–WTO Law’s Discriminatory Effects on Human Rights in Developing Countries

There are many points of intersection between the law of the World Trade Organization and international human rights law. This article looks at one such, where WTO law requires developing countries to introduce measures that may have [...]

Time to Quit? Assessing International Investment Claims against Plain Tobacco Packaging in Australia

The Australian federal government recently introduced into Parliament legislation mandating the plain packaging of all tobacco products. Tobacco companies and others have raised various legal concerns with this tobacco control scheme, both at a [...]

Fashioning a New Regime for Agricultural Trade: New Issues and the Global Food Crisis

This article examines the impact of issues such as the global food crisis, export controls on agricultural products, and food security on the agricultural trade negotiations currently underway in connection with the Doha Development Agenda convened [...]