Economic security in the Indo-Pacific region, the WTO’s plurilaterals and border carbon adjustment mechanisms (again!) have been in the spotlight this week among international think tanks.
Other JSI
THINK TANK: Gender, investment, and digital fragmentation risks
Think tankers have been busy, with gender, investment and digital overarching themes. A selection of the latest work by international trade policy think tanks by Maia Wilson, with some input from Iana Dreyer.
WTO investment facilitation negotiations: an update
What are the 105 countries negotiating a possible new international treaty on investment at the World Trade Organization actually negotiating about? A draft consolidated text of the negotiations obtained by Borderlex might offer a few clues as negotiators meet today to try to bring matters forward.
“Historic” services deal, Laos, investment: plurilaterals fill MC12 space
You don’t need a ministerial conference to take important decisions at the World Trade Organization. Despite the 12th ministerial conference not happening this week as planned there has been movement in quite a few areas this week.
WTO ‘plurilateral’ agreements brace for moment of truth
India and South Africa never liked ‘plurilateral’ agreement negotiations initiated in the World Trade Organization after the Doha ministerial conference twenty years ago. But a series of agreements among a broad subset of members of the global trade institution are coming to fruition. Now the long-simmering disagreement between these two …
WTO : Services domestic regulation negotiations concluded
The 65 members of the World Trade Organization involved in negotiations on a text that establishes basic ground-rules for states on dealing with foreign services suppliers concluded their negotiations on Tuesday (27 September).
WTO Corner: competitive neutrality, gender, e-commerce, ITA2, EU disputes
There is clearly more activity at the World Trade Organization than last year – probably even than the year before last. With a new director-general now in office, a date for the next ministerial meeting all set and hope for a more cooperative US administration, this is the time when …
WTO Corner: Plurilaterals legality, investment facilitation
Plurilateral or ‘Joint Statement’ initiatives launched in 2017 to modernise rules in the trading system start maturing. Now members face a battle over having them established in the World Trade Organization treaty framework. India and South Africa claim Joint Statement initiative deals are illegal In December 2017, a large group …
WTO Corner: US Ambo good-bye, no miraculous catch of fish, services domestic regulation
Ahead of the last General Council meeting of the year – the agenda of which is now finally out -, US Ambassador to the WTO Dennis Shea, who represented the Trump administration in Geneva and oversaw the blockage of the Appellate Body, made a farewell speech as he prepares to …
WTO Corner: E-commerce text, investment facilitation, no TRIPS waiver
Some developments at the WTO this week…. Negotiators adopt second version of e-commerce agreement draft text Many observers note that negotiations on a text that would set rules for digital trade in the 21st Century have had difficulties making meaningful headway this autumn. Eighty-six WTO members have been looking in …
