Petros C. Mavroidis

• Columbia University

In this article, we provide some descriptive statistics of the first twenty years of the WTO (World Trade Organization) dispute settlement., that we have extracted from the data set that we have put together, and made publicly available (http://globalgovernancepro gramme.eui.eu/wto-case-law-project/). The statistical information that we present her...

The paper analyses various conflict scenarios that can result from the enforcement of competition law at the global level. We introduce a taxonomy of their origin and of the mechanisms that can be used to address them. We observe that a number of recent conflicts occurred because national competition authorities pursued non-competition goals in fav...

Private standards are increasing in number, and they affect trade, but their status in the WTO remains problematic. Standards-takers are typically countries with little bargaining power, who cannot affect their terms of trade, and, thus, even if they possess domestic antitrust laws, will find it hard to persuade standard-setters to take account of...

The World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement process allows a defending Member a “reasonable period of time” (RPT) to implement any findings that its contested measures are inconsistent with WTO law. If agreement on this RPT cannot be reached, Article 21.3(c) of the Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes...

This chapter focuses on antidumping, one of the three contingent protection instruments agreed upon during the negotiations of the GATT. Article VI of GATT and the Agreement on Antidumping are reviewed to see when dumping actives are sufficient to allow for the permissible implementation of antidumping duties. The chapter explores the appropriate m...

The WTO adjudicating bodies were busy in 2014, as they issued 22 reports, a net increase of 15 reports when compared to 2013. In fact, the WTO was forced to hire additional staff to work on disputes, since the caseload overwhelmed the existing limited administrative capacity dedicated to dispute settlement.

The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was created alongside other towering achievements of the post-World War II era, including the United Nations, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. GATT, the first successful agreement to generate multilateral trade liberalization, became the principal institution to administer intern...

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is one of the most important intergovernmental organizations in the world, yet the way in which it functions as an organization and the scope of its authority and power are still poorly understood. This revised new edition provides a complete overview of the law and practice of the WTO. The chapters begin with the...

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is one of the most important intergovernmental organizations in the world, yet the way in which it functions as an organization and the scope of its authority and power are still poorly understood. This revised new edition provides a complete overview of the law and practice of the WTO. The chapters begin with the...

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is one of the most important intergovernmental organizations in the world, yet the way in which it functions as an organization and the scope of its authority and power are still poorly understood. This revised new edition provides a complete overview of the law and practice of the WTO. The chapters begin with the...

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is one of the most important intergovernmental organizations in the world, yet the way in which it functions as an organization and the scope of its authority and power are still poorly understood. This revised new edition provides a complete overview of the law and practice of the WTO. The chapters begin with the...

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is one of the most important intergovernmental organizations in the world, yet the way in which it functions as an organization and the scope of its authority and power are still poorly understood. This revised new edition provides a complete overview of the law and practice of the WTO. The chapters begin with the...

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is one of the most important intergovernmental organizations in the world, yet the way in which it functions as an organization and the scope of its authority and power are still poorly understood. This revised new edition provides a complete overview of the law and practice of the WTO. The chapters begin with the...

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is one of the most important intergovernmental organizations in the world, yet the way in which it functions as an organization and the scope of its authority and power are still poorly understood. This revised new edition provides a complete overview of the law and practice of the WTO. The chapters begin with the...

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is one of the most important intergovernmental organizations in the world, yet the way in which it functions as an organization and the scope of its authority and power are still poorly understood. This revised new edition provides a complete overview of the law and practice of the WTO. The chapters begin with the...

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is one of the most important intergovernmental organizations in the world, yet the way in which it functions as an organization and the scope of its authority and power are still poorly understood. This revised new edition provides a complete overview of the law and practice of the WTO. The chapters begin with the...

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is one of the most important intergovernmental organizations in the world, yet the way in which it functions as an organization and the scope of its authority and power are still poorly understood. This revised new edition provides a complete overview of the law and practice of the WTO. The chapters begin with the...

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is one of the most important intergovernmental organizations in the world, yet the way in which it functions as an organization and the scope of its authority and power are still poorly understood. This revised new edition provides a complete overview of the law and practice of the WTO. The chapters begin with the...

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is one of the most important intergovernmental organizations in the world, yet the way in which it functions as an organization and the scope of its authority and power are still poorly understood. This revised new edition provides a complete overview of the law and practice of the WTO. The chapters begin with the...

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is one of the most important intergovernmental organizations in the world, yet the way in which it functions as an organization and the scope of its authority and power are still poorly understood. This revised new edition provides a complete overview of the law and practice of the WTO. The chapters begin with the...

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is one of the most important intergovernmental organizations in the world, yet the way in which it functions as an organization and the scope of its authority and power are still poorly understood. This revised new edition provides a complete overview of the law and practice of the WTO. The chapters begin with the...

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is one of the most important intergovernmental organizations in the world, yet the way in which it functions as an organization and the scope of its authority and power are still poorly understood. This revised new edition provides a complete overview of the law and practice of the WTO. The chapters begin with the...

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is one of the most important intergovernmental organizations in the world, yet the way in which it functions as an organization and the scope of its authority and power are still poorly understood. This revised new edition provides a complete overview of the law and practice of the WTO. The chapters begin with the...

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is one of the most important intergovernmental organizations in the world, yet the way in which it functions as an organization and the scope of its authority and power are still poorly understood. This revised new edition provides a complete overview of the law and practice of the WTO. The chapters begin with the...

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is one of the most important intergovernmental organizations in the world, yet the way in which it functions as an organization and the scope of its authority and power are still poorly understood. This revised new edition provides a complete overview of the law and practice of the WTO. The chapters begin with the...

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is one of the most important intergovernmental organizations in the world, yet the way in which it functions as an organization and the scope of its authority and power are still poorly understood. This revised new edition provides a complete overview of the law and practice of the WTO. The chapters begin with the...

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is one of the most important intergovernmental organizations in the world, yet the way in which it functions as an organization and the scope of its authority and power are still poorly understood. This revised new edition provides a complete overview of the law and practice of the WTO. The chapters begin with the...

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is one of the most important intergovernmental organizations in the world, yet the way in which it functions as an organization and the scope of its authority and power are still poorly understood. This revised new edition provides a complete overview of the law and practice of the WTO. The chapters begin with the...

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is one of the most important intergovernmental organizations in the world, yet the way in which it functions as an organization and the scope of its authority and power are still poorly understood. This revised new edition provides a complete overview of the law and practice of the WTO. The chapters begin with the...

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is one of the most important intergovernmental organizations in the world, yet the way in which it functions as an organization and the scope of its authority and power are still poorly understood. This revised new edition provides a complete overview of the law and practice of the WTO. The chapters begin with the...

Purpose – This paper aims to offer an overview of papers in the WTO @ 20 collection. Design/methodology/approach – An overview of the papers in the WTO @ 20 collection, complete with a personal perspective on the continuing relevance of the organization. Findings – This paper adds further support to the notion that the compliance rate with the WT...

The question we address in this paper is whether the WTO can continue to be policy-relevant by sticking to the 'single undertaking' approach. For various reasons that we advance a clubs-friendly approach is recommended.

this paper argues that the Appellate Body mischaracterized the EU ban on seals. In our view, it should have distinguished between two measures, one aimed at promoting public morals in the EU, and one that was a pure industrial policy measure. the former should be allowed to stand, and the latter should be judged WTo-inconsistent

The question we ask in this paper is how can climate clubs fare within the WTO

The question in this paper is whether it is more efficient to litigate against PTAs or conversely whether it makes better sense to increase transparency regarding the working of PTAs

World Trade Organization (WTO) judges are proposed by the WTO Secretariat and elected to act as ‘judges’ if either approved by the parties to a dispute, or, by the WTO Director-General in case no agreement between the parties has been possible. They are typically ‘Geneva crowd’, that is, they are either current or former delegates representing thei...

Preferential trade agreements (PTAs) have to be consistent with the WTO. Their monitoring at the multilateral level has failed so far for various reasons. The question arises what to do? Completion of the contract (‘legalization’) has failed repeatedly, and, in light of vested interests and incentives, there is no reason to believe it can succeed n...

Plurilateral agreements in the context of the World Trade Organization (WTO) allow sub-sets of countries to agree to commitments in specific policy areas that only apply to signatories and thus allow for ‘variable geometry’ in the WTO. Plurilateral agreements share a number of features with preferential trade agreements (PTAs), which are increasing...

Plurilateral agreements in the WTO context allow sub-sets of countries to agree to commitments in specific policy areas that only apply to signatories, and thus allow for variable geometry' in the WTO. Current WTO rules make it much more difficult to pursue the plurilateral route than to negotiate a preferential trade agreement outside the WTO. We...

Transparency obligations have undergone substantial transformations since the inception of the GATT in 1947. The paper begins by tracing the evolution of transparency principles during the WTO era. From an obligation to publish general laws affecting trade, the system now includes peer review by governments (monitoring and surveillance), and effort...

Services are typically regulated for a variety of reasons. Regulation is typically influenced by political economy forces and may thus at times reflect protectionist motivations. Similar considerations arise for goods, but the potential for protectionist capture may be greater in services as many are self-regulated by domestic industry. The GATT em...

This article discusses the evolution of case law regarding the treatment of cases that the authors qualify as ‘trade and environment’ in the case law of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). The main argument is that, as in many domestic jurisdictions, GATT/WTO courts moved from an original ‘hosti...

In US–COOL, the Appellate Body (AB) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) found that the US measure imposing country of origin labelling (COOL) requirements on livestock of domestic, foreign, and mixed origin was in violation of the obligation to avoid discrimination embedded in Article 2.1 of the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT)....

This study contributes to the debate concerning the appropriate role of multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) in WTO dispute settlement. It seeks to address this relationship in light of the reason why the parties have chosen to separate their obligations into two bodies of law without providing an explicit nexus between them. The basic conc...

The object of this article is to discuss and compare the role that different constituencies play in U.S. and EU procedures for merger control. We describe the main constituencies (both internal and external) involved in merger control in both jurisdictions and discuss how a typical merger case would be handled under these procedures. At each stage,...

Canada-Renewable Energy presented the WTO Panel and Appellate Body (AB) with a novel issue: at the heart of the dispute was a measure adopted by the province of Ontario whereby producers of renewable energy would be paid a premium relative to conventional power producers. Some WTO Members complained that the measure was a prohibited subsidy because...

The WTO does not squarely address the issue of jurisdictional ambit of national policies (affecting trade). And yet, absent some agreement as to what trading nations can and cannot do, the WTO loses much of its effectiveness. In the absence of explicit regulation of the issue in the WTO contract, one would reasonably expect WTO Members to behave in...

The objective of this paper is to discuss and compare the role that different constituencies play in US and EU procedures for merger control. We describe the main constituencies (both internal and external) involved in merger control in both jurisdictions and discuss how a typical merger case would be handled under these procedures. At each stage,...

This paper discusses the Fedon case-law of the European Court of Justice (Court of Justice), which involved a claim for compensation by Fedon (an Italian producer of eyeglass cases) from the EU for the imposition of World Trade Organization (WTO)-authorised retaliatory trade barriers by the USA following the failure by the EU to comply with an adve...

The article argues that focusing only on disputes formally raised in the World Trade Organization (WTO) Dispute Settlement system underestimates the extent of trade conflict resolution within the WTO. Both the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) and Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Committees address a significant number of 'specific trade c...

Following years of silence, the WTO Appellate Body (AB) issued almost simultaneously three reports dealing with issues coming under the aegis of the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT). The three Panel reports were hard to reconcile, and this feature in and of itself made the task of the AB quite onerous. Some progress has been made...

Following years of silence after EC-Sardines, three cases were adjudicated by Panels under the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) in 2011: US-Clove Cigarettes, US-Tuna II (Mexico), and US-COOL. These three cases dealt with key provisions of the Agreement, but the Panels adopted irreconcilable approaches. All three decisions were app...

The World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement covers international commerce in goods and services including measures that directly affect trade, such as import tariffs and quotas, and almost any type of internal measure with an impact on trade. Legal and Economic Principles of World Trade Law contributes to the analysis of the texts of World Trade L...

The WTO can be viewed as a public good in that it provides a forum for negotiations which also produces the necessary legal framework to act as a support for agreed liberalization. To avoid any misunderstandings, in this article the discussion focuses on the WTO as a forum and a set of agreements, not on free trade. Since the legal agreements comin...

The WTO’s Appellate Body (AB) dealt with a number of issues for the first time in the Report of EC-Fasteners. Importantly, the AB discussed the consistency of the European Union (EU) regulation with the multilateral rules on the conditions for deviating from the obligation to calculate individual dumping margins. Although China formally won the arg...

Sports Law is characterized by a multiplicity of sources: from the outset, law-making function was mainly carried out by different and competent sports associations (both national and international). Two major events have wreaked havoc: on one side, the ever-increasing professionalization of sports business has given birth to the outcrop of private...

The purpose of the study is to propose interpretations of the National Treatment (NT) provision included in Art. III GATT, unbound by case-law interpretations of this provision. To make such proposals, we need to understand the role of the provision in the agreement. To this end, we first examine in Chapter 2 the negotiating record relevant to the...

Introduction There is a plethora of writings regarding mutual recognition, which has long been recognized as a useful, and potentially powerful, means to tackle regulatory barriers impeding trade in services. Paradoxically, very little attention has been paid to empirical issues regarding recognition, such as the extent of unilateral or mutual reco...

This chapter explains why the dynamic of World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations tends to lead to the progressive liberalization of marketaccess barriers promoting consumer welfare. As all agreements tend to be 'incomplete', it is a legitimate task of WTO judges to clarify progressively the WTO requirements of nondiscriminatory treatment of lik...

This book brings together the 2009 output of the American Law Institute (ALI) project on World Trade Organization Law. Each chapter focuses on a different dispute from the adjudicating bodies of the WTO. Each case is jointly evaluated by well known experts in trade law and international economics. ALI reporters critically review the jurisprudence o...

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the busiest state to state court nowadays. It is a rarity in international relations since it includes compulsory third-party adjudication and a permanent second instance court. This paper aims to shed light on the actual use of the system by WTO Members. We divide WTO Members into five distinct groups and eval...

The Dispute Settlement (DS) system is a central feature of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement. This compulsory and binding two-level mechanism for the adjudication of disputes between WTO Members is the most active among international courts. The functioning of the DS system has attractive research interest among both lawyers and economis...

This paper asks two questions concerning border tax adjustments (BTAs) for climate purposes, when viewed from a trade perspective: First, under what conditions are BTAs possible in the WTO‐world? To address this issue, the paper provides a detailed discussion of the relevant law and case law. We also apply our main conclusions on what we consider t...

The authors endeavour to emphasis the paramount role of systemic interpretation, provided for and codified in Article 31 (3) c) of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, in the light of both general international and WTO Law. This short essay ultimately leads to the confirmation that this hermeneutics method accrues by all means to the...

The Uruguay Round services negotiations saw the light of day amidst pressures from lobbies in developed countries, unilateral retaliatory actions, and ideological struggle in the developing world. The final outcome, the GATS, certainly characterized by a complex structure and awkward drafting here and there, is not optimal but is an important first...

The disciplining of Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs) by the WTO has been ‘relaxed’ recently as a result of the new context (the Transparency Mechanism) within which notified PTAs are being multilaterally reviewed. This is probably a blessing for a number of reasons, including the success of the multilateral trading system in bringing tariffs do...

This chapter argues that the discussion on trade and investment will not take off unless we first put together all the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle. Both the discussion in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) suffer in this respect. Although the two negotiations were substantially d...

The World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement covers the vast majority of international commerce in goods and services. The Agreement covers not only measures that directly affect trade, such as import tariffs and import quotas, but potentially almost any type of internal measure with an impact on trade. Thus WTO legal texts are by necessity express...

It is often alleged that PTAs involving the EC and the US include a significant number of obligations in areas not currently covered by the WTO Agreement, such as investment protection, competition policy, labour standards and environmental protection. The primary purpose of this study is to highlight the extent to which these claims are true. The...

This article deals with preferential trade agreements (PTAs) coming under the aegis of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT; trade in goods where one party is not a developing country). The argument advanced here is that, as things stand, in the absence of theory explaining the rationale for PTAs, it is probably wiser from a policy pers...

This book brings together the 2008 output of the American Law Institute (ALI) project on World Trade Organization Law. Each chapter focuses on a different dispute from the adjudicating bodies of the WTO. Each case is jointly evaluated by well known experts in trade law and international economics. ALI reporters critically review the jurisprudence o...

This paper takes a novel look at the rationale for the rules on domestic subsidies in interna-tional trade agreements. We build a model where a government has a tari¤ and a production subsidy at its disposal, taxation can be distortionary and an industrial lobby is organized to inuence the political process to its advantage. The model shows that, u...

This Blueprint looks in detail at all the provisions of all the PTAs signed by the EC or the US and other WTO members. Henrik Horn, Petros C. Mavroidis and André Sapir find that Europe and the US have adopted different approaches to PTAs; however, both powers may also be seeking to project their priorities.

This paper discusses allocation of burden of proof in environmental disputes in the WTO system. Besides laying down the natural principles that (i) the complainant carries the burden to (ii) make a prima facie case that its claim holds, WTO adjudicating bodies have said little of more general nature. The paper therefore examines the case law of rel...

This paper discusses the 2005 dispute between the European Community (EC) and the United States (US) regarding the customs classification of two specific products and the ambit of Art. X GATT (Publication and Administration of Trade Regulations). The Dispute Settlement Panel and the Appellate Body (AB) essentially upheld the position advocated by t...

The purpose of this chapter is to report some initial findings based on the WTO Dispute Settlement Data Set (Ver. 2.0) that the authors have compiled for the World Bank. The data set contains approximately 28 000 observations on the workings of the Dispute Settlement system. It covers all 351 WTO disputes initiated through the official filing of a...

In this chapter, I discuss the manner in which the Appellate Body (AB) has been completing the WTO contract through its case law. To do that, I first briefly examine the mandate given to the AB. Having established that, I move to discuss the manner in which the AB has handled its mandate. The AB is called to settle disputes among WTO members by fol...

This book analyses the establishment and operation of international agreements regulating trade in goods, focusing on the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The book outlines the history of the international trading system from the creation of the first GATT agreement in 1947 to the establishment of the World Trade Organization in 1994....

Sperm mobility is known to be an important determinant of a male's sperm competitive ability. Although more debated, sperm length and its relation to sperm swimming ability has also been proposed to determine a male's fertilisation potential. Furthermore, both mobility and length may covary with a male's phenotype, either positively (the phenotype-...