The scheduling approach constitutes a key element of services trade agreements as it is the means to pursue liberalization. This paper provides an overview of the scheduling approaches adopted in 187 trade agreements notified under GATS Article V as of 30 April 2022, analyses the differences...

The reform option on the Standing Multilateral Mechanism (SMM) currently under discussion at UNCITRAL's Working Group III (WGIII) has raised a number of important, systemic concerns for the procedural reforms of investor-State dispute settlement. This paper first seeks to situate the discussions...

Disruptions to global value chains (GVCs) - caused by conflicts, natural disasters, and accidents that close transport routes - and that affect specific regions or sectors, are not unusual. However, in recent years and amid the Covid-19 pandemic, they have become more frequent and severe. High...

The COVID pandemic has energised opponents of the WTO TRIPS Agreement, who have long wished to weaken permanently intellectual property (IP) rules.But opposition to TRIPS ignores the huge benefits brought to WTO members by enabling increased participation in the global economy and facilitating...

Since 1947 when the general agreement on tariff and Trade (GATT), a process initiated simple rules to govern the liberalisation of trade. The GATT from 1947 to 1994 has had eight rounds of negotiation, bringing mainly the commercial trade among the developed countries. More the five decades of...

China’s rapid rise as a leading global exporter of manufacturing goods since its accession to the WTO in 2001 has been the focus of both admiration and, increasingly, concern, but China is also a large importer of goods, particularly agricultural products. Since China's accession to the WTO,...

We consider the design and implementation of international trade agreements when: (i) negotiations are undertaken and commitments made in the presence of uncertainty about future political pressures; (ii) governments possess private information about political pressures at the time that the...