Regulation of Trade in 3D Printed Goods and WTO Modernization: An Opportunity for New Preferential Rules of Origin

Rules of origin are key legal tools for international trade. While they can pose a puzzle for trade analysts and traders to comprehend, they are not just technical elements of trade. It is important to understand how they function as rules can be utilized by states as non-tariff barriers to trade. This dissertation focuses on preferential rules of origin, which determine if a good receives preferential tariff treatment under a regional or bilateral trade agreement. WTO Members must follow the Common Declaration with Regard to Preferential Rules of Origin, an annex to the Agreement on Rules of Origin. This instrument gives Members sovereignty in designing rules. Prior to and since the formation of the WTO, Members have designed rules that traders find restrictive, especially for trade in inputs. As goods are constructed with parts sourced in global value chains, traders must verify the origin of each part to obtain preferential tariff treatment under an agreement. While digital technology facilitates access to information on rules of origin, traders must still understand and comply with national and regional custom procedures. Digital technology also is the basis for advanced manufacturing, which replaces or complements human labor with digitally based manufacturing techniques, such as additive manufacturing (3D printing). Traders looking to 3D printing to shorten global value chains and reshore manufacturing may face challenges when determining the origin of a 3D printed product, as current rules in trade instruments are based on human-labor manufacturing. Trade analysts have begun to explore rules of origin in the context of 3D printing, including whether the 3D file should be an origin-conferring input. This dissertation takes up these initial assessments and examines the potential outcomes of applying current rules to advanced manufactured goods (which are produced in developed and developing countries) or designing new rules. This investigation requires an exploration of the connections between digital trade and customs duties, the role of state sovereignty in a digital trade environment, and the impact of “deep” policy provisions in agreements on trade of advanced products. Using doctrinal, qualitative, and interdisciplinary research, this dissertation presents the rules under WTO law, the main criteria for determining the origin of a good, legal and economic critiques of preferential rules of origin, rules in the context of services and digital trade, the challenges of applying the origin criteria to 3D printed goods, and recommendations for designing rules for advanced manufactured products and for making rules more trader-friendly. Looking at preferential rules of origin in the context of 3D printing allows us to experiment with modernizing rules to support trade in a digital environment. Identifying aspects of the design and administration of rules where there is a risk for protectionist intervention or a risk of generating more confusion for traders leads us to question how the trade law system should regulate such rules. These considerations also tie into some of the challenges international institutions, especially the WTO, face at this moment: what role should multilateralism play in forming a framework for trade and how can organizations modernize along with technological changes

Preferential attachment of communities: the same principle, but a higher level

The graph of communities is a network emerging above the level of individual nodes in the hierarchical organisation of a complex system. In this graph the nodes correspond to communities (highly interconnected subgraphs, also called modules or clusters), and the links refer to members shared by two communities. Our analysis indicates that the development of this modular structure is driven by preferential attachment, in complete analogy with the growth of the underlying network of nodes. We study how the links between communities are born in a growing co-authorship network, and introduce a simple model for the dynamics of overlapping communities.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

Evolving Network With Different Edges

We proposed an evolving network model constituted by the same nodes but different edges. The competition between nodes and different links were introduced. Scale free properties have been found in this model by continuum theory. Different network topologies can be generated by some tunable parameters. Simulation results consolidate the prediction.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures, some contents revised, fluctuation of x degree adde

Assortativity and leadership emergence from anti-preferential attachment in heterogeneous networks

Many real-world networks exhibit degree-assortativity, with nodes of similar degree more likely to link to one another. Particularly in social networks, the contribution to the total assortativity varies with degree, featuring a distinctive peak slightly past the average degree. The way traditional models imprint assortativity on top of pre-defined topologies is via degree-preserving link permutations, which however destroy the particular graph's hierarchical traits of clustering. Here, we propose the first generative model which creates heterogeneous networks with scale-free-like properties and tunable realistic assortativity. In our approach, two distinct populations of nodes are added to an initial network seed: one (the followers) that abides by usual preferential rules, and one (the potential leaders) connecting via anti-preferential attachments, i.e. selecting lower degree nodes for their initial links. The latter nodes come to develop a higher average degree, and convert eventually into the final hubs. Examining the evolution of links in Facebook, we present empirical validation for the connection between the initial anti-preferential attachment and long term high degree. Thus, our work sheds new light on the structure and evolution of social networks

Betweenness Centrality as a Driver of Preferential Attachment in the Evolution of Research Collaboration Networks

We analyze whether preferential attachment in scientific coauthorship networks is different for authors with different forms of centrality. Using a complete database for the scientific specialty of research about "steel structures," we show that betweenness centrality of an existing node is a significantly better predictor of preferential attachment by new entrants than degree or closeness centrality. During the growth of a network, preferential attachment shifts from (local) degree centrality to betweenness centrality as a global measure. An interpretation is that supervisors of PhD projects and postdocs broker between new entrants and the already existing network, and thus become focal to preferential attachment. Because of this mediation, scholarly networks can be expected to develop differently from networks which are predicated on preferential attachment to nodes with high degree centrality.Comment: Journal of Informetrics (in press

Resisting Displacement in the Southwest Bronx: Lessons from CASA's Tenant Organizing

CASA is proud to present our new white paper, Resisting Displacement: Lessons from CASA's Tenant Organizing in the Southwest Bronx!In the last year, CASA has organized or provided technical assistance to over 90 buildings, which are home to more than 7,000 families. In the last year alone, over 4,000 tenants have actively engaged in CASA's work. Our new white paper shares lessons in tenant organizing, explores the forces of displacement that we are up against, and solutions for fighting displacement in the context of an impending rezoning.This is a critical moment for the Southwest Bronx. A potential rezoning is imminent, and could have devastating impacts on low-income tenants of color, their communities, and the state of affordable housing. CASA has drawn on our organizing experience, coalition work, previous research and the experiences of the tenants we work with to draft this white paper.In the report we:Present a clear and accurate definition of displacement and counter the false assertion that most tenants leave neighborhoods by choice;Explain the tactics that landlords already use to exert displacement pressures on low-income tenants of color;Emphasize the risk of increased displacement posed by rezoning, and in particular the Jerome Avenue rezoning, when new housing is not genuinely affordable and there are insufficient protections against displacement;Offer solutions that would protect tenants from displacement, allow them to remain in their homes, and preserve their communities