Settlement of Disputes Within the World Trade Organisation: A Guide to the Jurisprudence

The Urugauy Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations led to the development of a revised set of procedures on dispute settlement. These procedures dealt with a number of significant problems that had arisen under GATT dispute settlement experience. In spite of these important reforms, there are numerous, complex and contentious questions of legal adjudication that any formal dispute settlement system must face. The article outlines the aims and organs of dispute settlement under the WTO. It addresses some of the key questions as to standing, interpetation, evidence and adjudicatory practices and processes. While ongoing moitoring and reform is necessary, an important thesis is that the inherent nature of legal adjudication forces uncertain determinations that can too easily give rise to unwarranted criticism of the system as a whole.

Globalization, international trade and welfare

The term globalization is generally used to describe an increase in international transactions in markets for goods and services and factors of production, plus the growth and expanded scope of mar.y institutions that straddle international borders. Globalization has also led to a more liberal economic environment where issues such as labour standards, human rights, the environment, intellectual property rights, investment codes and competition policy are now considered legitimate topics in the trade debate. Free global markets cannot guarantee that air, water or energy resources are accurately priced for sustainable development since there is no mechanism to internalize environmental costs. Economic growth, although a powerful tool for increasing a country's wealth, cannot guarantee that such wealth will be equally distributed. What is needed is environmental and social policy to redistribute the benefits.
Recent empirical studies show that there are clear signs of income convergence among countries that integrate more fully with the world economy but a divergence between these active participants and those who elect to remain insulated from global markets. The inequality within nations (distribution of income) has increased during the period of globalization over the last fifty years.

Tourism, taxes and immiserization: A trade theoretic analysis

Many countries promote tourism as a device for earning foreign exchange and promoting domestic welfare and growth. In all these countries the non-traded goods (internationally not traded) are consumed by both domestic residents and tourists. It is well known that the relative price of non-traded goods and services is determined in the local market – hence the tourist demand results in monopoly power in trade for the host country. We use a very simple two-country model to demonstrate the specific nature of the offer curve and the trade equilibrium and the difficulties of taxation.

Issues in international trade

This paper discuss the issues in international trade looking at the number of issues of international trade such as trade, growth and sustainable development, Financing requirements for emerging economies etc.

The desirability of criminal penalties for breaches of part IV of the trade practices act

Following the introduction of criminal sanction, including jail terms, for hard core cartelisation in the United Kingdom, the Dawson Review has recently recommended that criminal penalties be introduced in Australia for individuals and corporations found to have engaged in hard core cartels. A number of reasons have been advanced to justify the introduction of criminal sanctions for this type of conduct, the most common of which are that it would bring Australia in line with other competition regimes and that criminal sanctions are more likely to provide an effective deterrent. This article evaluates those reasons, and others, to determine whether there is any adequate justification for the proposed criminal regime.

Players, clubs, events and the Trade Practices Act : a primer for sporting clubs

The Trade Practices Act (TPA) has had an enormous impact on how corporations in Australia may conduct their business. In relation to sporting clubs, it limits the freedom of clubs to deal with players, each other and the public. While previously many clubs may have escaped the ambit of the TPA because they were not “corporations”, state equivalent Fair Trading legislation and the introduction of the national competition policy in 1995 have effectively expanded the scope of consumer and competition regulation to include individuals and associations. Consequently, an understanding of the nature and scope of trade practices regulation is now important for any sporting organisation—regardless of size or structure. This paper identifies the legislative provisions most likely to impact upon sporting clubs and examines some possible circumstances in which clubs might find themselves exposed to liability.

Structural change in Australian trade unionism, 1969-1996: a structural events approach

Traditional studies of long-term change in trade union structure have, in constructing explanations of change, predominantly focused on aggregate trends in union merger activity. This paper argues that our understanding of structural change in the Australian trade union movement would be better served by a structural events approach that examines the incidence of union formations, dissolutions and breakaways, in addition to that of union mergers. In doing so, it outlines how these structural events can be identified and measured, and presents the preliminary findings from the method's application.

University marketing and the law: applying the trade practices Act to universities` marketing and promotional activities

Application of the Trade Practices Act and its State equivalents to the  marketing by universities of the courses they teach - ramifications of the Act  are not understood within the wider university community, importantly by   those responsible for marketing courses - the Act prescribes many forms of  conduct not instantly recognised as morally reprehensible and are not  automatically avoided on the ground that they are inconsistent with  acceptable behaviour - the Act creates significant proscriptions, applicable to universities and their staff, which can have serious consequences.

Section 46 of the Trade Practices Act-has the High Court made a "u-turn" on "taking advantage"?

Examination of High Court decisions on misuse of market power in regard to the element of "taking advantage" reveals inconsistency of application. Whilst being consistent regarding the need for a connection between the market power and the impugned conduct, the High Court has not been consistent regarding the degree of connection required. Two streams have developed, one supporting a high degree of connection, the other a lower degree before a firm is found to have "taken advantage" of its market power. Added to this has been the development of the "rational business explanation" which, it is argued, is either used as a defence to a s 46 action or is premised on the higher threshold of connection. Initially the high Court supported the lower threshold. In later decisions, whilst expressing support for the earlier decisions, in application the High Court favoured the higher threshold and at one point the rational business explanation. This trend appears to have been reversed with the most recent High Court decision which indicates substantive support for the earlier s 46 decisions.

Criminal penalties for contraventions of Part IV of the Trade Practices Act

In 2003 the Dawson Committee, commissioned by the Government, recommended that criminal penalties should be introduced for cartel conduct. The Government accepted this recommendation in principle and set up a working party to consider the implementation difficulties that had been identified in the Dawson Report. Nothing further was heard from the Government until February 2005 when the Government announced that it would introduce criminal penalties for serious cartel conduct. This paper evaluates the Government proposals and makes suggestions for their implementation.

Global factor trade with differentiated factor prices and factor intensities

Relaxing the assumption of internationally identical factor intensity techniques in the HOV model creates two challenges. First, computing actual factor intensity techniques of different countries requires detailed input-output tables and factor usage data, which are not always available. Second, determinants of the factor intensity technique differences across countries need to be identified. This paper explores the role of relative factor price differences in the determination of factor intensity technique differences across countries and proposes an inferring method that infers factor intensity techniques of different countries based on relative factor price differences. The HOV model is then modified accordingly.

Commerce mondial des facteurs de production quand les prix des facteurs sont différenciés et les intensités dans l'intensité d'utilisation des facteurs différentes. Relaxer le postulat de techniques à intensité identique de facteurs de production d'un pays à l'autre dans un modèle Heckscher-Ohlin-Vanek (HOV) pose deux défis. D'abord, mesurer les intensités en facteurs des techniques en place dans les divers pays réclame des tableaux interindustriels détaillés et des données sur l'utilisation des facteurs qui ne sont pas toujours disponibles. Ensuite, il faut identifier les déterminants des différences d'intensités en facteurs des techniques d'un pays à l'autre. Ce mémoire explore le rôle des différences dans les prix relatifs des facteurs dans la détermination des différences d'intensité en facteurs d'un pays à l'autre, et propose une méthode qui permet d'inférer les différences d'intensité en facteurs des techniques des divers pays à partir des différences dans les prix relatifs des facteurs. Le modèle HOV est alors modifié en conséquence.