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Economic Coercion by China: The impact on Australia's merchandise exports

Shipping

WORKING PAPER 04
Australia is estimated to have foregone export revenue of around US$4.9 billion (A$6.6 billion) over July 2020 to February 2021 as a result of China’s restrictions or discriminatory purchasing affecting eight key commodities – coal, copper ores and concentrates, frozen beef, wine, cotton, barley, rough wood and rock lobster.

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Stakeholder Perspectives on an Australia-United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement

UK AUS flags podium

Tuesday 6 July, 2021 - Follow up event from 21 June 2021
The United Kingdom and Australia launched negotiations for a free trade agreement (FTA) on 17 June 2020. Both sides committed to an ambitious and comprehensive agreement that covers services, investment and digital trade. With an agreement-in-principle now in place, the focus turns to how to maximise the benefits of the agreement and the future of Australia-UK services trade. 

[Read more about Stakeholder Perspectives on an Australia-United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement]

Digital Trade Integration (DTI) project

digital services

1 July 2021. The Digital Trade Integration project aims to launch a network on digital trade which will work on the creation of (1) digital trade restrictions and (2) an index of digital trade integration. Digital trade has risen to the top of the international policy agenda given its sharp increase over the past decade and the sensitivity arising from related issues such as privacy, cybersecurity, freedom of expression, censorship, hate speech and disinformation.

[Read more about Digital Trade Integration (DTI) project]

APEC Study Centre Consortium Conference

6 - 7 July 2021. Professor Jane Drake-Brockman presented at the recent APEC Study Centre Consortium Conference. 

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Loss of LDC-Specific S&D Treatment: How Concerned Should Graduating LDCs Be?

International Negotiations

Professor Mustafizur Rahman, Distinguished Fellow, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Dhaka, Bangladesh
Before the COVID-19 pandemic had struck in 2020, 12 LDCs had become eligible for graduation by either meeting at least two of the three graduation criteria, or thanks to having crossed the threshold of double the per capita GNI. Graduation during a pandemic raises significant risks in and of itself, but there are other issues too, including that graduation criteria fail to capture many of the underlying causes of vulnerability and institutional weaknesses that persist in the LDCs. Consequently, eligibility of a large number of LDCs for graduation has raised an important development debate as outlined in this article.

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Stakeholder Perspectives on an Australia-United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement

UK AUS flags podium

Monday 21st June, 2021
Australia and the United Kingdom launched negotiations for a free trade agreement (FTA) on 17 June 2020. Both sides have committed to an ambitious and comprehensive agreement that covers services, investment and digital trade. With an agreement-in-principle now in place, the focus turns to how to maximise the benefits of the agreement and the future of Australia-UK services trade. 

[Read more about Stakeholder Perspectives on an Australia-United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement]

Research Grant Round 4: Successful Applicants

Jean Monnet Network: Trade & Investment in Services Associates (TIISA) announces Research Grants - Round 4

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Can progress be made multilaterally on agricultural trade?

Agricultural Trade

The WTO has been experiencing deadlock in its negotiating function since the collapse of the Doha Round. This threatens to undermine the legitimacy of the WTO, and drive Members to seek progress outside the organization. The difficulties of agricultural negotiations offer a microcosm for understanding the wider multilateral universe. Against this background, a group of academics, former high-level officials of international institutions and former negotiators have come together to try to inject some new energy and new ideas into the multilateral process in a project called “New Pathways”.

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Industrial Subsidies and their impacts on exports of trading partners: The China Case

Exporting

WORKING PAPER 03
This paper explores the impact of Chinese subsidy interventions in the upstream sector on the competitiveness of the downstream sector. In particular, the paper investigates the effect of Chinese subsidies on basic metal products on the export competitiveness of downstream sectors in other major trading countries. To explore the impact of base metal subsidies interventions on the downstream sector of a trading partner, we exploit both temporal variation in subsidy interventions and in base-metal consumption by the downstream sector.

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“Joint Statement Initiatives” and Progress in the WTO System

WTO members

Andrew Stoler, former WTO Deputy Director-General; former Office of the United States Trade Representative senior trade negotiator.
“Joint Statement Initiatives” (JSIs) are today seen by many governments as crucial to making trade progress, given some WTO Members opposition to further liberalization and rulemaking on a multilateral basis. Two governments that have actively worked to stymie progress, India and South Africa, are currently challenging the legality of JSIs within the multilateral system of the WTO in a new bid to prevent other WTO Members from moving forward on the trade front.
 

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