Proliferation of Regional Trade Agreements: Complementing or Supplanting Multilateralism?

With the creation of the World Trade OrganiZation (JVTO) in 1995, the pyramidal design of the international trading system placed multilateralism at the top of the pyramid, regionalism/bilateralism in the middle, and the domestic trade and economic policies of WTO Member States at the bottom of the pyramid. This article questions whether this vertical structure is still the case today, given the tremendous proliferation of regional trade agreements (RTAs) in recent years and the fact that the WTO is losing its centrality in the international trading system. The thesis of this article is that the multilateral trading system\u27s single undertaking is no longer feasible, hence affirming RTA proliferation as the modus operandi for trade liberalization. This article also argues that RTA proliferation implies the erosion of the WTO law principle of non-discrimination, which endangers the multilateral trading system. RTAs can help countries integrate into the multilateral trading system, but are also a fundamental departure from the principle of non-discrimination. This raises the question of whether RTAs are a building block for further multilateral liberaliZation or a stumbling block. After an overview of RTAs, the article discusses the WTO rules that deal with RTAs (GATT Article XXIV, the Enabling Clause, and GATS Article V), the main trends identified in RTAs, the economic and political reasons why WTO Members engage in RTAs so frequently, as well as the positive and negative effects of regionalism on mulilateralism. By doing so, the article investigates whether it is RTAs or multilateralism that is the center of gravity of the international trading system, or whether we have a symbiosis between the two and, if not, how we can get there. The article concludes that the proliferation of RTAs implies the erosion of the principle of non-discrimination and wonders whether this means the beginning of the end of multilateralism. It also concludes that the single undertaking is no longer feasible and suggests variable geometry and sectoral agreements as the way forward in the multilateral trading system. Moreover, it concludes that bilateral and regional deals do not come close to matching the economic impact of agreeing to a global deal. Therefore, RTAs can complement but not supplant multilateralism

Kyoto and the COPs: Lessons Learned and Looking Ahead

This is the post-refereed, pre-print version of this article. The published version of this article is published by Brill (Martinus Nijhoff) in Hague Yearbook of International Law vol. 23, ISBN 9789004206809, pp. 17-90.This article argues that the Kyoto Protocol to the 1992 Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was doomed to fail ab initio because it systematically misunderstood the nature of climate change as a policy issue between 1985 and 2009. It explains why this is the case by analyzing the Kyoto Protocol’s shortcomings and deficiencies. Moving the climate change agenda forward multilaterally among the 195 parties to the UNFCCC is proving to be a serious challenge. The lack of progress in UNFCCC negotiations in recent years, especially the failure to obtain an international agreement on emissions limitations targets and timetables by all major developed and developing country emitters, has led many to question whether the UNFCCC is, in fact, the best and most effective forum for mobilizing a global response to climate change. The current approach to negotiating a comprehensive, universal, and legally binding global agreement on climate change is unlikely to succeed. The near-disaster 2009 Conference of the Parties-15 in Copenhagen empirically demonstrated that the UN machinery is incapable of moving forward fast enough to produce a global climate deal. Moreover, international climate policy, as it has been understood and practiced by many governments of the world under the Kyoto Protocol approach, has failed to produce any discernable real world reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases since the mid 1990s. Part 2 is devoted to the main legal, structural, and policy responses to climate change by providing an analysis of most Conferences of the Parties. Part 3 provides then an analysis of the Kyoto Protocol. Part 4 then analyzes the position of the three main players in climate change: the U.S., China, and the European Union. The article concludes with some recommendations for the future

The European Union and its energy security challenges: engagement through and with networks

Energy security remains a vital issue for the European Union (EU), even more so in the wake of the events that unfolded in early 2014 in Ukraine. The EU’s already fragile position in the international energy arena in terms of security of supply appears to be more uncertain than ever after its umpteenth fallout with its historic energy supplier, Russia. This situation is untenable and calls for swift and decisive action to adequately tackle the issue once and for all. The article looks at the creation of a single EU energy market through integration of energy networks in the EU. It then examines various ways to diversify the EU’s energy supply, whether through increasing the import of liquefied natural gas, through its relations with the Eurasian Union, the promotion of renewable energy or the construction of alternative pipelines and energy routes. The article then offers an analysis of the latest developments of the Energy Charter Conference. The article concludes that from energy transit, to technology transfer, to investment protection, energy and trade present interplays across various fields. Improvements can be made to the EU trading system to ensure greater energy security and more efficient energy markets

Data reduction in the ITMS system through a data acquisition model with self-adaptive sampling rate

Long pulse or steady state operation of fusion experiments require data acquisition and processing systems that reduce the volume of data involved. The availability of self-adaptive sampling rate systems and the use of real-time lossless data compression techniques can help solve these problems. The former is important for continuous adaptation of sampling frequency for experimental requirements. The latter allows the maintenance of continuous digitization under limited memory conditions. This can be achieved by permanent transmission of compressed data to other systems. The compacted transfer ensures the use of minimum bandwidth. This paper presents an implementation based on intelligent test and measurement system (ITMS), a data acquisition system architecture with multiprocessing capabilities that permits it to adapt the system’s sampling frequency throughout the experiment. The sampling rate can be controlled depending on the experiment’s specific requirements by using an external dc voltage signal or by defining user events through software. The system takes advantage of the high processing capabilities of the ITMS platform to implement a data reduction mechanism based in lossless data compression algorithms which are themselves based in periodic deltas

Does desmopressin acetate reduce blood loss after surgery in patients on cardiopulmonary bypass?

It has been suggested that desmopressin acetate (DDAVP) administration reduces blood loss after cardiac surgery. We have investigated the effect of DDAVP administration in a double-blind, randomized, prospective trial including 100 patients placed on cardiopulmonary bypass during surgery. Fifty patients received 0.3 micrograms/kg DDAVP and 50 patients received a placebo administered in a 50 ml saline solution over 15 min when cardiopulmonary bypass had been concluded. Results showed no significant differences either in total blood loss per square meter (458 +/- 206 ml in the DDAVP group vs 536 +/- 304 ml in the placebo group) or in necessity for red cell transfusions (1642 +/- 705 ml in the DDAVP group vs 1574 +/- 645 ml in the placebo group) in the first 72 hr after surgery. Only intraoperative blood loss per square meter was significantly lower (p less than .02) in the DDAVP group (131 +/- 106 ml) as compared with the placebo group (193 +/- 137 ml). The prolongation of bleeding time and the decrease of factor VIII:C and factor VIII:von Willebrand factor 90 min after treatment were significantly lower (p less than .001) in the DDAVP group as compared with the placebo group. We conclude that the administration of DDAVP in patients placed on cardiopulmonary bypass during surgery does not reduce total blood loss and is only effective in reducing intraoperative bleeding