Harmonization, Equivalence and Mutual Recognition of Standards in WTO Law

Harmonization, Equivalence and Mutual Recognition of Standards in WTO Law
Author: Humberto Zúñiga Schroder
Publisher: Kluwer Law International B.V.
Total Pages: 234
Release: 2011-07-01
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9041142754

Standards are a feature of virtually all areas of trade in products and services. Yet, although standards may achieve an efficient economic exchange, they have discriminatory consequences for trading partners when governments formulate or apply them in such a way as to cause obstacles to trade, thus enrolling standards among the increasingly significant ‘non-tariff barriers’ regulated by the WTO. This unique and original study analyses the functions that standards fulfil in the market, their effect on trade, and the legal regime based on harmonization, equivalence and mutual recognition developed by the WTO to deal with standards. The author investigates the way in which both the WTO Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) and the Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Measures Agreements regulate these three tools, and discusses key topics including: The definition of the concept ‘International Standard’ in the TBT Agreement. Guidelines on equivalence issued by organizations such as the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the World Organization for Animal Health and the International Plant Protection Convention. Parallels between the EC mutual recognition regime and the WTO system. This is the first work on its subject. With its detailed and practical analysis of WTO law on standards, the book is a fundamental reference for practitioners, academics and policy makers in international trade law.

Harmonization, Equivalence and Mutual Recognition of Standards in WTO Law

Harmonization, Equivalence and Mutual Recognition of Standards in WTO Law
Author: Humberto Zúñiga Schroder
Publisher: Kluwer Law International B.V.
Total Pages: 234
Release: 2011-01-01
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9041136576

Standards are a feature of virtually all areas of trade in products and services. Yet, although standards may achieve an efficient economic exchange, they have discriminatory consequences for trading partners when governments formulate or apply them in such a way as to cause obstacles to trade, thus enrolling standards among the increasingly significant 'non-tariff barriers' regulated by the WTO. This unique and original study analyses the functions that standards fulfil in the market, their effect on trade, and the legal regime based on harmonization, equivalence and mutual recognition developed by the WTO to deal with standards. The author investigates the way in which both the WTO Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) and the Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Measures Agreements regulate these three tools, and discusses key topics including: The definition of the concept 'International Standard' in the TBT Agreement. Guidelines on equivalence issued by organizations such as the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the World Organization for Animal Health and the International Plant Protection Convention. Parallels between the EC mutual recognition regime and the WTO system. This is the first work on its subject. With its detailed and practical analysis of WTO law on standards, the book is a fundamental reference for practitioners, academics and policy makers in international trade law.

Elgar Encyclopedia of International Economic Law

Elgar Encyclopedia of International Economic Law
Author: Krista Nadakavukaren Schefer
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2025-08-28
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9781800882317

This revised and expanded Encyclopedia is the new benchmark and flagship reference work for the study of international economic law. A comprehensive resource, its pages present the breadth of the field in a real-world context. Organized thematically rather than alphabetically, the Encyclopedia includes four significant thematic sections: the foundations, architecture and principles of international economic law; regulatory framework; regulatory areas; and regulatory challenges. Including updated and new entries, traditional international economic law topics are now supplemented by coverage of critical perspectives and a broader range of newly developing areas such as taxation, sustainability, and digitalization. Concepts and rules of trade, investment, finance, competition, and international tax law are found alongside entries examining how international economic law impacts on environmental protection, labor standards, development, and human rights. Embedded within its own legal context, each concise entry presents an accessible and condensed understanding of what it means and why it is significant. Contributors offer insight into how institutions interact with each other and other legal systems, in addition to providing individual overviews of their history, structure, principles and procedures. Entries are followed by selected references suggesting directions for further study. Completely new to this edition is an entire section of extended entries on specific jurisdictions focusing on how these contribute to and engage with international economic law. These longer pieces describe the national legal frameworks responsible for developing international policies on trade investment, financial regulation, and tax, offering insight into how international rules actually work at the national level. Key Features: Concise, structured entries from top experts and new voices in the field Organised thematically, covering newly developing areas of international economic law Selected references for further study

Handbook of Deep Trade Agreements

Handbook of Deep Trade Agreements
Author: Aaditya Mattoo
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 768
Release: 2020-09-23
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1464815542

Deep trade agreements (DTAs) cover not just trade but additional policy areas, such as international flows of investment and labor and the protection of intellectual property rights and the environment. Their goal is integration beyond trade or deep integration. These agreements matter for economic development. Their rules influence how countries (and hence, the people and firms that live and operate within them) transact, invest, work, and ultimately, develop. Trade and investment regimes determine the extent of economic integration, competition rules affect economic efficiency, intellectual property rights matter for innovation, and environmental and labor rules contribute to environmental and social outcomes. This Handbook provides the tools and data needed to analyze these new dimensions of integration and to assess the content and consequences of DTAs. The Handbook and the accompanying database are the result of collaboration between experts in different policy areas from academia and other international organizations, including the International Trade Centre (ITC), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and World Trade Organization (WTO).

The pursuit of sustainable agriculture in EU free trade agreements

The pursuit of sustainable agriculture in EU free trade agreements
Author: Luchino Ferraris
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2023-09-14
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9086868975

This book explores the extent to which EU Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) pursue sustainable agriculture in third country parties. It contends that this should be part of a duty for the EU enshrined in the Treaties to promote its fundamental values in its external action. It suggests that the extent to which this occurs in practice, may be reviewed judicially by the Court of Justice of the European Union. Against this background, selected agreements concluded by the EU with developed and developing countries (Canada, South Korea, Ukraine, Chile, SADC countries and Vietnam) are taken as case studies. The author concludes that, in spite of the remarkable progress made hitherto, EU trade policy is still far from being in line with the increasingly strong commitment of the EU to take the lead in the international arena for environmental and climate matters. This work adopts primarily a legal methodology, but it broaches the subject in interdisciplinary terms. It is addressed not only to (EU) policy-makers, but also to scholars of different fields and to the wider public interested in topics that have become of common concern for the future of our planet. With a foreword by Daniel Calleja Crespo, Director General of the European Commission - DG Environment

Transparency in the WTO SPS and TBT Agreements

Transparency in the WTO SPS and TBT Agreements
Author: Marianna B. Karttunen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 359
Release: 2020-04-23
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1108486452

Presents transparency as a key tool for managing trade disputes on regulatory barriers between WTO Members.

The African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement

The African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement
Author: Collins C. Ajibo
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2024-04-23
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1040020496

This book provides a comprehensive assessment of African economic integration through the lens of International Economic Law. The analysis is contextualised within the prevailing regional economic integrations, the WTO and the peculiarity of the AfCFTA. Through legal analysis, bolstered by economic and political dimensions, the book illustrates the complex interplay of diverse factors that shape the AfCFTA. Each chapter presents a separate element of economic integration within the principles of international economic law, with an interdisciplinary approach encompassing legal, economic and political perspectives. Covering topics such as economic integration and multilateralism, market access, exceptions, trade facilitation, rules of origin and non-tariff barriers, the book also discusses trade remedies, dispute settlement, investment, intellectual property and completion policy. Additionally, human rights, corporate social responsibility and sustainable development principles are discussed, alongside small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), digital trade and gender in economic integration. The book will be of interest to students, instructors, practitioners and nonpractitioners in this area of international economic law.

The Nature of Mutual Recognition in European Law

The Nature of Mutual Recognition in European Law
Author: Wouter van Ballegooij
Publisher:
Total Pages: 414
Release: 2015-07-01
Genre:
ISBN: 9781780683263

There is substantial disagreement in academic literature over how to address the tensions between the application of mutual recognition and the safeguarding of individual rights, particularly in the EU's criminal justice arena. This book investigates those tensions by re-examining the nature of mutual recognition in European law from an individual rights perspective. A key question is the role played by mutual recognition in the process of reconciling free movement and other interests. The book contains a comparative analysis of mutual recognition in the internal market and the 'area of freedom, security, and justice.' It assesses mutual recognition in the context of the aims of both areas, as well as the principles of European law and norms laid down in primary/secondary EU law. The analysis follows mutual recognition in the fields of product requirements, professional qualifications, and judicial decisions in criminal matters. The book concludes that the core function of mutual recognition has been obscured by assertions made by EU policy makers regarding its consequences, which fail to distinguish between policy objectives, integration methods, and legal obligations. This has also led to a debate among academics and an interpretation of mutual recognition by the Court of Justice which presents an unnecessary conflict between the application of mutual recognition and the safeguarding of individual rights. It is argued that, for mutual recognition to have a stable future in the EU criminal justice area, clarity regarding its aims is urgently required and individual rights need to be enhanced, both in judicial cooperation measures and through harmonization of suspects' rights in criminal proceedings. (Series: Ius Commune Europaeum - Vol. 138) [Subject: European Law, Human Rights Law, Criminal Justice]