Whilst important in its own right, the Indian Ocean acts as the connective tissue in the broader Indo-Asia-Pacific in which all countries share vested interests in the optimized flow of maritime use and prosperity. Admiral Swift addresses the issue of actions taking place, particularly in the...

Economic growth across the globe increasingly depends on knowledge-based industries. As a consequence Intellectual Property Rights, or IPRs, are becoming increasingly integral to trade agreements. With the stagnation of the Doha Round the prospect of new global standards, to augment those...

In a plethora of new plurilateral treaties, two different economic governance models emerge. One is market driven and aims for closer governmental coordination (the coordination model); the other retains a considerably higher degree of regulatory autonomy (the autonomy model). This article...

The growth of digital trade is dependant upon greater interconnectivity across borders. Several countries strive to achieve such interconnectivity and integration in digital trade through international trade agreements. Digital trade integration is a complex, multidimensional process that...

This chapter examines the thesis that regulatory policies treated in regional trade agreements have an inherently WTO multilateral character, as they are designed and applied on a most-favoured nation (MFN) basis. It surveys general transparency and dispute settlement provisions and selected WTO...

This chapter reviews the several ways that bilateral and regional trade agreements regulate environmental and labour standards and human rights. It divides these into provisions granting the parties rights to adopt protective measures in the form of exceptions and conflicts provisions and...

During the past several years, the United States has concluded a substantial number of bilateral and regional free trade agreements (hereinafter “FTAs”), largely with developing countries. Each of those FTAs includes substantial commitments in the field of intellectual property rights (IPRs)...

The proliferation of Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs) and Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) has given rise to significant debate on the need to measure, understand and possibly regulate the impact these agreements have on the multilateral trading system under the umbrella of the World Trade...

This paper examines how preferential rules of origin that operate under Regional Trade Agreements (RTA) can be utilized to help developing countries. Under the standard territoriality principle, products imported from countries outside of a RTA territory will be treated as non-originating. A...