Systemic Regulation of Global Trade and Finance: A Tale of Two Systems

The recent financial crisis has put enormous strains on the global systems governing international finance and trade. These two important international regulatory systems, created after World War II to promote growth and stability in the global economy, were put to the test in ways unprecedented since the 1930s. This article seeks to analyze and compare their performance as systemic regulators in the course of the crisis and concludes that the trading system performed quite well while the financial system virtually collapsed. This article seeks to account for this difference by looking at the nature of the rules and the institutions governing each and how they evolved so differently over the past 70 years. Central to the success of the World Trade Organization (WTO) is a regulatory approach that includes rules designed, and tested in practice, to align incentives with the public good and prevent regulatory capture and a self-enforcing dispute settlement mechanism that ensures accountability and enforceability. The article concludes that these differences hold important lessons for the reform of the rules and institutions governing finance and trade in the global economy, and the role the WTO should play in this reform

Recent Developments in the Legal Framework of U.S.-Canadian Trade

Article is part of the symposium: Canada and the United States: A Changing Relationship in a Changing World. This paper reviews recent trade law developments affecting U.S.-Canadian trade flows. Specifically, it covers: (1) the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, (2) the Agreement with Canada Concerning Automotive Products, and (3) several provisions of U.S. law which directly affect U .S.-Canadian trade. Illustrated is the dynamic and complex system of laws through which national economic policies are implemented. While great progress has been made in the reduction of trade barriers, there are still a number of serious problems which need to be addresse

Intellectual Property and International Trade: Merger or Marriage of Convenience?

This Article examines the interaction between trade and intellectual property rights policies through certain key developments in United States law, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). While this brief review is not intended to provide a definitive analysis, it will offer worthwhile insights into the prospects for, and implications of, such a merger. For this purpose, this Article considers the efforts in GATT to negotiate a code on intellectual property rights and the parallel efforts in WIPO to negotiate a treaty for the protection of semiconductor designs. While the GATT talks moved through their midterm review in April 1989, WIPO was scheduled to hold a diplomatic conference to conclude a semiconductor treaty in May. This Article focuses on the extent to which trade policy concepts have come to invade the intellectual property rights arena and, similarly, the penetration of intellectual property rights into the fabric of international trade law and policy. In the process, the Article discusses some of the central dilemmas facing United States policy: can the GATT accommodate the notion that implicit in the balance of GATT concessions is the requirement that GATT members respect minimum standards for the protection of intellectual property? Is reciprocity a workable principle for the enforcement of intellectual property rights? Finally, can WIPO be receptive to an enhanced system of enforcement and dispute settlement as a means of instilling greater discipline and rigor into its system of rules? In an effort to gain further insight into some of these issues, this Article also examines the operation of the Semiconductor Chip Protection Act of 1984 (SCPA), a sui generis United States law whose reciprocity provisions have spurred a number of countries to enact similar laws to protect chip designs

The U.S. Commitment to the GATT System: A Reappraisal of Basic Assumptions

The GATT system was established by a fairly homogeneous group of 24 countries in the late 1940s. With the exception of the U.S., the signatory nations were, for the most part, European or British Commonwealth countries with market economies. These governments shared a rough consensus on the fundamental goals of an international trading system. They intended to avoid the economic warfare that had characterized international trade in the late 1930s. Trading relationships were to be governed by a mutual commitment to commonly understood notions of fairness and equity. This meant allowing producing enterprises to compete, according to a set of agreed rules, without national government interference intended to affect the competitive outcome. Disputes were to be resolved by reference to the basic equitable principles shared by the signatories. The signatories believed that the system would ultimately benefit all participants by permitting producing enterprises to exploit their comparative advantages and thus optimize the use of the world\u27s resources and maximize the total output of goods and services available to meet mankind\u27s needs

Panel Discussion: Regulation of Foreign Investment and Trade

Article is part of the symposium: Canada and the United States: A Changing Relationship in a Changing World. Discussion among panelists regarding the new Foreign Investment and Trade Act of Canada, its implications regarding investment to Canada from the United States, tax treatment, and other investment issues

Panel Discussion: Prognostications

Discussion is part of the symposium: Canada and the United States: A Changing Relationship in a Changing World. The panel discusses effects of the Foreign Investment Review Act will have on the future of United States investment flows into Canada, while acknowledging the unique relationship these two trading patterns have and the symbiosis that each provides to the other for the betterment of both North American trading partners