The China - Raw Materials dispute recently arbitrated by the WTO opposed China as defendant to the US, the EU and Mexico as claimants on the somewhat unusual issue of export restrictions on natural resources. For the claimants, Chinese export restrictions on various raw materials, of which the...

As tariff barriers have fallen worldwide, regulation of domestic policy has become increasingly important in international trade agreements. This has led to the emergence of a theoretical literature addressing the integration of perfectly observable domestic policy into trade agreements....

Coase's assumption of zero transaction cost is not realistic in the WTO; it bears substantive amount of transaction costs. Unlike Coase, Calabresi and Melamed, in their article of “Property Rules, Liability Rules, and Inalienability: One View of the Cathedral,” endogenously admit that...

This chapter submits that science has become, in the context of the WTO, an important element (or even a point of reference) in the assessment of domestic health and environmental measures with respect to their compatibility with WTO obligations. Under current practice, WTO panels and the...

In this article, I analyze the interaction between income tax competition and the multilateral trade regime. I argue that several forms of tax competition such as special tax zones (STZs), export tax incentives, participation exception, profit shifting toleration, and tax havens distort...

In Philippines - Distilled Spirits, the Appellate Body of the WTO reaffirmed that the determination of 'likeness' in the GATT should be about the competitive relationship between products. A coherent methodology for the determination of 'likeness' has finally begun to emerge, with the same...

This paper provides an overview of institutional, economic and legal aspects of the relationship between national environmental policies and the multilateral trading system. In particular, it analyses some of the difficulties the WTO Dispute Settlement System faces when having to evaluate...

Die vorliegende Untersuchung stellt die technischen Grundlagen und die Marktordnung für den internationalen Handel mit Dienstleistungen der Informationstechnologie dar; sie analysiert und bewertet die resultierenden Handelsbarrieren. Die Funktionsweise des Internets (Netzaufbau, Adress- und...

This paper outlines the technical foundations and the market structure for international trade in telecommunication services; it analyzes the resulting trade barriers. The basic structure of international telecommunications depends on the national market structure and the transmission technique...

We provide a simple but novel model of trade agreements that highlights the role of transaction costs, renegotiation and dispute settlement. The model allows us to characterize the appropriate remedy for breach and whether the agreement should be structured as a system of "property rights" or...