New publications from OECD, late January 2018

New OECD publications have been uploaded to the OECD iLibrary, a comprehensive digital repository of books, papers, and statistics from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Titles recently added include:

• Mexico’s e-Procurement System: Redesigning CompraNet through Stakeholder Engagement (OECD Public Governance Reviews series)
• Second Public Procurement Review of the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS): Reshaping Strategies for Better Healthcare (OECD Public Governance Reviews series)
• Public Procurement in Nuevo León, Mexico: Promoting Efficiency Through Centralisation and Professionalisation (OECD Public Governance Reviews series)
• OECD Competition Assessment Reviews: Mexico (OECD Competition Assessment Reviews series)
• How Immigrants Contribute to Thailand’s Economy
• Production Transformation Policy Review of Chile: Reaping the Benefits of New Frontiers (OECD Development Pathways series)

These volumes and more are accessible from the OECD iLibrary by WTO staff and WTO Library patrons.

New statistical publications from OECD, late January 2018

New OECD publications have been uploaded to the OECD iLibrary, a comprehensive digital repository of books, papers, and statistics from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Titles recently added include:

• Main Economic Indicators (volume 2018, issue 1)
• Quarterly National Accounts (volume 2017, issue 3)

These volumes and more are accessible from the OECD iLibrary by WTO staff and WTO Library patrons.

Plurilateral trade agreements: an escape route to the WTO? By Rudolf Adlung and Hamid Mamdouh.

Due to the persistent stalemate in the WTO ’ s Doha Round negotiations, various smaller-scale options have drawn attention in recent years, including the negotiation of plurilateral agreements (PAs) among interested governments. There are essentially two types of such agreements, an exclusive and an open variant. While the former apply among the signatories only, the latter are implemented on a Most-favoured-Nation (MFN) basis. To preclude ‘ free riding ’ , the entry into force of such open PAs is usually conditioned on the participation of a ‘ critical mass ’ of countries, representing market shares of some 80% or more – quite a challenging benchmark. To promote more frequent use of PAs, given the plethora of pressing policy concerns, whether investment-, competition- or labour-related, the negotiation of exclusive agreements is being (re-)considered in current discussions. However, the entry into force of any non-MFN-based agreement would need to be accepted by consensus among all 160-odd WTO Members, and this may prove virtually impossible to achieve. This article thus proposes, based on past experience, to further explore the potential for open PAs among interested Members in the form of co-ordinated improvements of current commitments or, if not covered by the existing WTO framework, by way of ‘WTOextra ’ understandings.

http://www.kluwerlawonline.com/document.php?id=TRAD2018005

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The Case for dropping preferential rules of origin by Petros C. Mavroidis and Edwin Vermulst.

In this article, we argue that the world trading system could do without preferential rules of origin. Preferences can be granted on the basis of most favoured nation (MFN) rules of origin anyway. Empirical literature suggests that, if the purpose for enacting preferential rules of origin was to facilitate commerce or promote inward investment, then their implementation has in practice defeated the purpose. Beneficiaries of preferences often prefer to trade using MFN rules of origin, rather than going though cumbersome procedures to show that they can ‘benefit’ from preferential rules. Thus, in the end, preferential rules of origin are neither necessary for preferences to be granted, nor have they facilitated trade or investment. Our policy recommendation for the negotiators of the Harmonized Working Programme (HWP), which aims to establish common rules of origin for all WTO members, is to also decide to outlaw preferential rules of origin.

http://www.kluwerlawonline.com/document.php?id=TRAD2018001

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Exclusionary Rules of Origin of mega-RTAs under WTO law : mega-RTA ‘fracturung’ its overlapping RTA by Jong Bum Kim.

A mega-RTA such as the planned Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) or the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) may overlap another RTA, with the result that some of the parties to the mega-RTA’s overlapping RTA may become common parties, while others may remain as single-agreement parties. If the mega-RTA provides rules of origin based on the change in tariff classification (CTC)-with-exception criterion such as yarn-forward rules, the rules of origin will become more restrictive with respect to the imports of the excluded intermediate goods from the single-agreement parties after the formation of the mega-RTA than before, thus failing to meet the requirement under GATT Article XXIV:5. The exclusionary rules of origin of the mega-RTA draw the trade away from the single-agreement parties, causing ‘fracture’ in the mega-RTA’s overlapping RTA. As a legal remedy to the problem, the mega-RTA should eliminate the restriction from the CTC-with-exception criterion by adopting the rules of origin based on the non-exclusionary criteria such as the value-added or the CTC criterion that does not presumptively exclude the use of certain non-originating intermediate inputs.

https://doi.org/10.1017/S1474745617000040

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Library acquisitions — December 2017

We are pleased to share our list of selected new acquisitions from December 2017. You can send your requests to Web.Librarian@wto.org.

The list is also available on Library’s website: http://intranet/__resources/library/_en/new_for_you_new_books.html.

For continuous updates on the latest trade news, don’t forget to check out the “Latest in trade” RSS feed: http://intranet/en/resources/library/library.htm

Kind regards,

Your WTO Library Team

Covers	Title, Authors/Editor details, WTO catalogue records email request links	Previews
	The Cambridge handbook of antitrust, intellectual property, and high tech / edited by Roger D. Blair, D. Daniel Sokol. WTO catalogue : http://wto.aquabrowser.com/?itemid=|WTO-Marc|1927042 Request: web.librarian@wto.org	Preview: https://goo.gl/2nQcBm
	Capitalism without capital : the rise of the intangible economy / Jonathan Haskel and Stian Westlake. WTO catalogue : http://wto.aquabrowser.com/?itemid=|WTO-Marc|1927044 Request: web.librarian@wto.org	Preview: https://goo.gl/B1opf1
	International Geneva : 100 years of architecture / Joëlle Kuntz. WTO catalogue : http://wto.aquabrowser.com/?itemid=|WTO-Marc|1927040 Request: web.librarian@wto.org	Preview: https://goo.gl/uMmTyb
	Manual sobre el Sistema de Solución de Diferencias de la OMC / preparada por la División de Asuntos Jurídicos y la División de Normas de la Secretaría de la OMC, y la Secretaría del Órgano de Apelación. WTO catalogue : http://wto.aquabrowser.com/?itemid=|WTO-Marc|1927050 Request: web.librarian@wto.org	Full-text: https://goo.gl/AA5ztU
	The next factory of the world : how Chinese investment is reshaping Africa / Irene Yuan Sun. WTO catalogue : http://wto.aquabrowser.com/?itemid=|WTO-Marc|1927056 Request: web.librarian@wto.org	Preview: https://goo.gl/U8Bkwm
	Postal services in the digital age / edited by Matthias Finger, Bernhard Bukovc and Muqbil Burhan. WTO catalogue : http://wto.aquabrowser.com/?itemid=|WTO-Marc|1926950 Request: web.librarian@wto.org	Preview: https://goo.gl/Pfi1Qi
	Promoting trade competitiveness in developing countries / edited by Wineaster Anderson, Marcellina M. Chijoriga and John R.M. Philemon. WTO catalogue : http://wto.aquabrowser.com/?itemid=|WTO-Marc|1927034 Request: web.librarian@wto.org	Preview: https://goo.gl/KpMk2g
	Sweet talk : paternalism and collective action in north-south trade relations / J. P. Singh. WTO catalogue : http://wto.aquabrowser.com/?itemid=|WTO-Marc|1927054 Request: web.librarian@wto.org	Preview: https://goo.gl/PcBxZH
	Vliianie preferentsialʹnykh torgovykh soglasheniĭ na mnogostoronniuiu torgovuiu sistemu / V.K. Remchukova. WTO catalogue : http://wto.aquabrowser.com/?itemid=|WTO-Marc|1927029 Request: web.librarian@wto.org	Preview unavailable
	The WTO agreements : the Marrakesh agreement establishing the World Trade Organization and its annexes / World Trade Organization. WTO catalogue : http://wto.aquabrowser.com/?itemid=|WTO-Marc|1927052 Request: web.librarian@wto.org	Preview https://goo.gl/7fFCwv

 

New publications from OECD, mid January 2018

New OECD publications have been uploaded to the OECD iLibrary, a comprehensive digital repository of books, papers, and statistics from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Titles recently added include:

• Gaps and Governance Standards of Public Infrastructure in Chile: Infrastructure Governance Review
• OECD Guidelines on Insurer Governance 2017 Edition
• Model Tax Convention on Income and on Capital: Condensed Version 2017
• Decentralisation and Multi-level Governance in Kazakhstan (OECD Public Governance Reviews series)
• Boosting Disaster Prevention through Innovative Risk Governance: Insights from Austria, France and Switzerland (OECD Reviews of Risk Management Policies series)
• Safety Assessment of Transgenic Organisms in the Environment, Volume 7: OECD Consensus Documents (Harmonisation of Regulatory Oversight in Biotechnology series)
• OECD Environmental Performance Reviews: Peru 2017
• OECD Economic Surveys: Norway 2018
• OECD Journal on Budgeting (volume 2017, issue 1)

These volumes and more are accessible from the OECD iLibrary by WTO staff and WTO Library patrons.

New statistical publications from OECD, mid January 2018

New OECD publications have been uploaded to the OECD iLibrary, a comprehensive digital repository of books, papers, and statistics from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Titles recently added include:

• National Accounts of OECD Countries: Financial Accounts 2017
• National Accounts of OECD Countries: Financial Balance Sheets 2017

These volumes and more are accessible from the OECD iLibrary by WTO staff and WTO Library patrons.

Amicus Curiae briefs in the WTO DSM : good or bad news for non-state actor involvement? By Theresa Squatrito.

Since 1998, non-state actors have had access to submit an ‘amicus curiae’ brief to the WTO DSM. Like other forms of non-state actor involvement in the WTO, amicus curiae access has been controversial. Despite this controversy, non-state actors have made use of this access and submitted amicus curiae briefs. This article asks: What has come of these briefs once they are submitted and what explains how amicus are treated by the DSM? This article empirically maps amici in all disputes from 1998 (after amicus access was first recognized) through 2014, arguing that amicus access is conditioned by a combination of political and legal constraints faced by the WTO panels and AB. In particular, whether the content of an amicus is considered hinges on it having the endorsement of a disputing party and whether its consideration interferes with the WTO DSM’s reputation for coherence. In all, these findings have implications for the debate over whether amicus curiae access is good or bad news for the WTO and non-state actor involvement.

https://doi.org/10.1017/S1474745617000052

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