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With a new Director General, can the WTO become a force for progress again?

WTO

Andreas Freytag, Professor and Chair of Economic Policy, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena and Visiting Professor with IIT
Six months after the resignation of Roberto Azevédo the World Trade Organization (WTO) finally has a new leader. With Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the WTO is breaking new ground twice: for the first time in WTO history a woman is the Director-General, and for the first time the WTO is headed by an African woman.

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Is plurilateralism making the WTO an institutional zombie?

WTO BUILDING

Dr Naoise McDonagh is Lecturer in Political Economy at the Institute for International Trade. 
The World Trade Organization’s (WTO) 2014 Trade Facilitation Agreement is the only significant multilateral agreement it has concluded since its inception in 1995. Against that success, significant failures stand out. 

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Morphing Risks to Australia’s Goods Trade with China

Boat in water

WORKING PAPER 02
At the start of 2020, the US-China Economic and Trade Agreement (the Phase One Agreement or Agreement) captured the attention of Australian policy makers and business. China had agreed to substantially increase goods imports from the United States in 2020 and 2021 and to accept certain US standards and conformity assessment procedures to assist US companies to access Chinese agricultural markets.
 

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Rethinking WTO Rules on Chinese Industrial Subsidies, and Approaches for Future Reform

Op-ed Weihuan Zhou & Mandy Meng Fang

Weihuan Zhou is Associate Professor, Director of Research, and Member of the Herbert Smith Freehills China International Business and Economic Law (CIBEL) Centre, Faculty of Law and Justice, UNSW Sydney. Mandy Meng Fang is Assistant Professor, School of Law, City University of Hong Kong
The reform of WTO rules on industrial subsidies should be based on a better understanding of the efficacy of the rules on China and fresh principles and approaches. It is time for governments to rebuild the political will needed for international cooperation.

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Pursuing an Open Strategic Autonomy trade policy against China: Expect policy fluidity

Op-ed by Weinian Hu

Weinian Hu is Research Fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies, Belgium. The EU’s Open Strategic Autonomy policy approach was first revealed under the Commission’s recovery plan post-Covid, which was released in May 2020.

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Virtual Briefing: The Treatment of Innovation in the Australia-UK FTA

UK AUS flags podium

Friday 12 February, 2021. The British High Commission in Canberra, in partnership with the Australian British Chamber of Commerce and the Institute for International Trade
co-hosted an interactive webinar with London-based experts from the UK Department for International Trade  to discuss perspectives on how to ensure delivery of pro-innovation outcomes in the Australia-United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement (Australia-UK FTA). 

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IIT Monthly Newsletter - February 2021

EU CHINA US

IIT Monthly Newsletter - February 2021
In this months edition of our newsletter we publish articles by Dr Pascal Kerneis - Managing Director of the European Services Forum, Brussels. Pascal discusses the EU-China negotiations for a Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI), What could this agreement bring to European service businesses? Patrick Low, formerly WTO Chief Economist, canvasses the emerging battle lines concerning taxation of digital services.

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Bilateral EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI)

EU-China Comprehensive Investment Agreement

Wednesday 27 January, 2021. 
The Institute for International Trade in collaboration with the Chinese University of Hong Kong & the European Services Forum, co-hosted the first 2021 Policy Outreach webinar for the Jean Monnet Network: Trade & Investment in Services Associates (TIISA)
The topic was the Bilateral EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment and the Key Note Speaker was the EU Chief Negotiator for the Agreement, Ms Maria Martin-Prat.

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Cold War 2.0: Implications for Middle Powers

US

Carlos A. Primo Braga is an Adjunct Professor, Fundação Dom Cabral, Brazil. 
The commercial and geopolitical conflict between China and the United States is unlikely to abate in the coming years. This brief discusses the contours of recent geopolitical history in order to contextualize the nature of this new “Cold War” between the two superpowers. 

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Putting the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) into perspective: Five key points

city scape view

Bryan Mercurio is Simon F.S. Li Professor of Law at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.  On 30 December 2020, the European Union (EU) and China ‘in principle’ concluded  negotiations on a Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI). The European Commission published the text of the CAI on 22 January 2021. The agreement has been welcomed by the business community but criticised by civil society and the United States (US).

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