Qatar became a contracting party to GATT 1994 at the end of the Uruguay Round pursuant to the procedures of Article XXVI:5(c), prior to which it applied the GATT on a de facto basis. Qatar confirmed its commitments on goods and services as part of the Uruguay Round, in which it bound all tariffs...

The BOP safeguard provisions in the WTO are still haunted by the structure designed for trade and BOP relationship in the postwar Bretton Woods system. The provisions are not only incompatible with the contemporary monetary system but their legal obscurity also retain unproductive loopholes that...

International investment law is undergoing a time of reflection, review and revision. Increasing dissatisfaction with the functioning of the current system that governs the protection of international investment and the wish to ensure that investment is channelled towards sustainable development...

The Trans-Pacific Partnership includes a chapter on regulatory coherence and measures to reduce trade costs arising from divergent standards. We review the substantive content of the TPP's measures in light of existing processes in international organizations addressing good regulatory...

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...

Given different legal regimes which govern the global and regional trading systems, the WTO as such cannot stop the proliferation of RTAs. Nevertheless, the WTO can oversee them through its political and judicial review procedures. Notably, Article XXIV of the GATT, Article V of the GATS and the...