Grand challenges such as climate change, ageing societies and food security feature prominently on the agenda of policymakers at all scales, from the EU down to local and regional authorities. These are challenges that require the input and collaboration of a diverse set of societal stakeholders...

The paper looks at some issue-based plurilateral agreements—such as the Information Technology Agreement (ITA), the Financial Services and Basic Telecommunication Services Agreements, and the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)—with the aim of pointing to their crucial role in...

European economic integration fascinates and inspires for the way it brought peace to a continent torn by violent and long-standing rivalries. The lessons from Europe, however, cannot be applied directly as the degree of the European Union’s supranationality is unthinkable elsewhere. This...

Looking back at the history of the World Trade Organization (WTO), major accords that have been reached under the multilateral framework to date are in substance issue-based “plurilateral†agreements. This paper looks at some specific examples of issue-based plurilateral...

In the Asia-Pacific region, there is a growing move to explore a new growth paradigm. Innovation is the central theme of this activity. In Europe, there is a tendency to regard the rise of Asian emerging countries as a threat with their increasing innovative capacity. For Japan, does their rise...

this chapter examines the linkages between trade facilitation and preferential trade agreements.

The debate over theFree Trade Agreement with the United States has produced a book, How to Kill a Country, primarily concerned with intellectual property and related issues (Weiss, Thurbon and Matthews 2004). In arguing that Australia will be worse off, Weiss, Thurbon and Matthews examine four...