Antidumping Reform, Trade Policy Flexibility, and Compensation

Antidumping has become the dominant instrument for temporarily restricting imports. There is need for concern, as it represents a particularly distorting trade policy measure. Many observers have made suggestions on how to improve the current situation. These sug-gestions aim at restraining antidumping by reducing the number of circumstances where it may be applied. In other words, they envisage higher prerequisites for the use of antidump-ing. Yet, higher prerequisites for temporary import restrictions impair the government’s trade policy flexibility. This article assumes that governments are not ready to sacrifice such flexibility by means of an international trade agreement. Therefore, suggestions that merely intend to raise the prerequisites for the use of antidumping are difficult to realise. We pro-pose an alternative solution for antidumping reform. It considers abolishing antidumping and introducing a revised safeguard clause. This clause would permit temporary import restric-tions without any prerequisites, but would make these restrictions dependent on full com-pensation for affected trading partners. In contrast to existing suggestions for reform, this alternative solution preserves the trade policy flexibility provided by the current antidumping regime, but effectively restrains protectionist behaviour.Antidumping, Safeguard Clause, Compensation

A Renegotiation Perspective on Transatlantic Trade Disputes

Transatlantic trade disputes seem to be a rising concern. According to the most critical voices, they provoke notable "trade wars" and crucially impair the credibility of the WTO dispute settlement mechanism. In this paper, we suggest that such conclusions are unwarranted. Violation of WTO agreements and non-compliance with Dispute Settlement Body rulings should be considered as an instrument for renegotiation with unique features, providing indispensable flexibility to the world trading system. Such flexibility is necessary because of incomplete contracting and "local" lack of commitment at the time of concluding agreements.Dispute settlement, WTO, non-compliance, trade wars, renegotiation, flexibility, incomplete contracting

Cooperate or Antagonize: The EU's Dilemma on Anti-dumping and Safeguard Measures against China

After a 15-year accession path, China became a full member of the WTO in December 2001. Since then, China has become one of the most important trade partners of the EU countries. However, the increasingly strengthening trade relationship and China's official entrance into the WTO unexpectedly leads to many more trade disputes between China and the EU in the era of globalization and free trade. This paper thus investigates the motive and outcome of the EU government's frequent resort to trade protectionism against products made in China. Copyright The official journal of The Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) 2006.

Molecular Basis for Galactosylation of Core Fucose Residues in Invertebrates: IDENTIFICATION OF CAENORHABDITIS ELEGANS N-GLYCAN CORE α1,6-FUCOSIDE β1,4-GALACTOSYLTRANSFERASE GALT-1 AS A MEMBER OF A NOVEL GLYCOSYLTRANSFERASE FAMILY*

Galectin CGL2 from the ink cap mushroom Coprinopsis cinerea displays toxicity toward the model nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. A mutation in a putative glycosyltransferase-encoding gene resulted in a CGL2-resistant C. elegans strain characterized by N-glycans lacking the β1,4-galactoside linked to the α1,6-linked core fucose. Expression of the corresponding GALT-1 protein in insect cells was used to demonstrate a manganese-dependent galactosyltransferase activity. In vitro, the GALT-1 enzyme showed strong selectivity for acceptors with α1,6-linked N-glycan core fucosides and required Golgi- dependent modifications on the oligosaccharide antennae for optimal synthesis of the Gal-β1,4-fucose structure. Phylogenetic analysis of the GALT-1 protein sequence identified a novel glycosyltransferase family (GT92) with members widespread among eukarya but absent in mammals