In this article, Dan discusses how many in developed countries believe that workers in their jurisdictions have been negatively impacted by trade, primarily as a result of labour cost differences between developed and developing jurisdictions. Whether justified or not, the ‘unfair trade’ complaint has been adopted by politicians in developed countries, many of whom have tried to address disparities in labour cost through bilateral and plurilateral trade agreements with developing countries.
Following a press release the Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Roberto Azevêdo made remarks on the theme of slowing global trade growth earlier this year. In 2017, there was optimism of renewed momentum in global trade which was backed by a 4.6% growth. This period of broad-based growth lasted throughout 2017 and into Read More…
In this article, Dan Poliwoda reviews the recent proliferation of preferential trade agreements, and considers how the WTO should respond, as international trade trends away from multilateralism towards bilateralism.
When the North American Free Trade Agreement was first negotiated in 1994, Chapter 19, a dispute settlement mechanism specializing in anti-dumping and countervailing (ADCVD) cases, was heavily contested by Canada. However, the tables have turned almost two decades later, as Canada has fought to preserve the mechanism in recent trade talks. With the renegotiations complete, Read More…