ISDS Case Map
bilateralism & multilateralism
how bilateral, multilateral, regional, unilateral and plurilateral approaches relate (e.g. FTAs vis-à-vis WTO)
Transnational companies today rely more than ever on IPR to structure their global value chains, writes Peter Rossman
The WTO General Council gathered virtually on Monday for the first of two days of talks amid increasing calls from civil society, states and nongovernmental actors to temporarily waive patents for COVID-19 vaccines and other coronavirus-related medical products.
The COVID-19 pandemic, and the race to make vaccines and other useful technologies more accessible to people around the world, has once again highlighted the tension between intellectual property rights and the promotion of public health.
In Brussels, the virus of free trade and the impunity of multinationals is far from receding. But social and ecological relocalization seems to us the only alternative that could embody a desirable collective horizon.
US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said the world needed either a multilateral system to govern global trade or a series of bilateral agreements, but the two were in conflict with each other.
The economic hegemony exerted by the trade regime — and related financial structures — mirrors and extends old colonial patterns of exploitation and dispossession. Its policies represent our “normal.”
A comparative analysis of treaty texts and their potential practical implications.
As ministers of the member countries of the RCEP meet for final negotiations over the trade agreement this week, regional lawmakers today expressed concern about the lack of parliamentary and public oversight of the deal, as well as its potential human rights impacts.
By threatening to withdraw from the GPA, the Trump administration can increase its leverage and obtain greater public procurement concessions in bilateral talks with the EU and UK.
The EU will assess whether a US-China deal to roll back some bilateral tariffs in exchange for increased US imports to China is compatible with World Trade Organisation rules.
