This course focussed on the laws, principles, functioning and jurisprudence of World Trade Law. Students looked at the principles of multilateral and bilateral trade and engaged with the practice of international trade law with the help of current jurisprudence and hypothetical dispute scenarios. The students received an appreciation of the purpose and functions of the WTO and be familiar with its principal rules, impact and jurisprudence.
The renegotiation of NAFTA was surrounded by a dramatic atmosphere, just as Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland predicted. The negotiations took place against a backdrop of unilateral trade measures, President Trump’s mercantilist approach to trade policy, and the United States’ specified preference for bilateral trade deals. This article argues that, for the most part, economic, political and cultural relations in the NAFTA countries are bilateral in nature, but with important trilateral production chains in specific sectors, most notably in the automotive sector.
The article analyses the experience of Latin American countries (LAC) with regards to their participation in various economic dispute settlement mechanisms. Despite the existence of multilateral bodies and rules for dispute resolution, countries creating regional trade blocs usually try to develop their own dispute settlement systems for the defense of national economic interests. Latin America and the Caribbean are not an exception. The Andean Community, CACM, CARICOM, MERCOSUR, and NAFTA all have more or less comprehensive dispute settlement bodies.
The article discusses the experience of Russia's participation in trade disputes within the World Trade Organization. This experience is compared with the extensive practice of the European Union, which rather successfully defends its interests using this mechanism. The authors look at individual disputes, as well as consider the institutional structure existing in Russia and the EU.
The European Union nowadays is a significant trade partner for the Latin America countries. The structure of trade between the EU and Latin America, on the one hand, explains the opportunities for strengthening the cooperation from the perspective of its complementary nature. On the other hand, there are some limitations on the diversification of their trade relations. Despite the fact that there is a number of disagreements that are reflected in the applied protectionist measures and initiated trade disputes, the EU and the Latin American region continue to develop trade relations.