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 paper assesses the significance of the Digital Trade Chapter of the Australia – EU FTA and focuses on the disciplines necessary to boost digital trade. In the ongoing negotiations, the EU and Australia are likely to agree upon conventional digital trade disciplines (e.g., e-signatures,...

As the vision of the TPP as a living agreement recedes, it nevertheless offers a window into the negotiation of trade and investment agreements and the negotiated positions of the 12 TPP countries on a range of matters of crucial importance to the global economy today. Given the rise of...

This chapter evaluates a number of special legal issues facing the negotiating parties of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (‘TPP') as they develop a formal State-State dispute settlement mechanism. In particular, it looks at issues relating to conflicts of norms, conflicts of...

This paper explores the massive strides that were made in response to the COVID-19 pandemic by national drug regulatory agencies (NRAs) in order to achieve what ultimately became the fastest incidence in human history of the development, testing, approval, manufacture, and distribution of a new...

Twelve-country negotiations towards the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (‘TPP’) are drawing to a close. The treaty has an ambitious agenda and could radically reshape trade in the Asia-Pacific region. At the same time, the TPP obligations have the potential to significantly restrict the...

In this chapter, the authors examine the nature of the exception for regional trade agreements (RTAs) under Article XXIV:5 of GATT 1994. This exception, which aims to maximize the internal trade-liberalizing effects of an RTA while minimizing its external trade-restricting effects, applies...

The global health crisis that came to be known as the COVID-19 pandemic and started to sweep across the world in early 2020 revealed many vulnerabilities in the economic, social, and political fabric underpinning what much of the world had come to accept as normal. In ways that we are still...

Timely and equitable access to vaccines and other health technologies is vital in effectively responding to pandemics and treating other communicable diseases. This paper shows how countries might overcome real or purported intellectual property (IP) barriers to regional COVID-19 vaccine...

This chapter addresses the substantive aspects of the exception for Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs) in relation to goods under Article XXIV of GATT 1994, beginning with an explanation of its structure and scope. The chapter goes on to examine in detail the conditions with which PTAs must...