In this chapter, the authors examine the nature of the exception for regional trade agreements (RTAs) under Article XXIV:5 of GATT 1994. This exception, which aims to maximize the internal trade-liberalizing effects of an RTA while minimizing its external trade-restricting effects, applies...

This chapter focuses on the substantive aspects of the exception for Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) in relation to goods under Article XXIV of GATT 1994, examining in detail the conditions with which FTAs must comply in order to fall within the exception. These conditions relate to the elimination...

Since the adoption of the World Health Organization’s WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, governments have been pursuing progressively stronger and more wide-reaching tobacco control measures. In response, tobacco companies are frequently using international trade and investment...

The relationship between the bilateral investment treaty (‘BIT') between Australia and China (1988) and the preferential trade agreement between those countries (‘ChAFTA') (2015) provides an interesting case study of the co-existence of successive treaties under public international law....

This article provides an overview of the recently concluded Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), a treaty the parties have described as comprehensive and ambitious, yet also representing a balance of competing interests. The article focuses on the TPP's chapters relating to investment,...

Chapters relating to regulatory coherence or cooperation are likely to be significant features of new preferential trade agreements, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). While the potential for harmonisation of standards or institutional cooperation to impact on the regulatory autonomy...