Expanding the P-4 Trade Agreement into a Broader Trans-Pacific Partnership: Implications, Risks and Opportunities
In 2005, New Zealand, Singapore, Chile and Brunei entered into a path-breaking free trade agreement, the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement which is also known as the P-4 Agreement. The agreement contains an open accession provision which explicitly contemplates the expansion of the agreement to include other countries willing to commit to its terms. The expansion of the agreement has important implications for the world trading system. Its broad coverage and open accession provision may suggest that the agreement has the potential to serve as a stepping stone in the path towards further multilateral trade liberalization in the WTO context. On the other hand, expanding the agreement could result in an agreement so powerful that its members no longer consider devoting energies to liberalizing in the WTO context to be of great importance. The article explores some of the unique aspects of the TPP as well as the potential implications of expanding the agreement, both for the East Asian region and for the broader multilateral trading system.
Déjà Vu in the International Intellectual Property Regime
On June 26, 2012, close to 50 members of the World Intellectual Property Organization signed the Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances. A little more than a year later, WIPO also adopted the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled. Does the rejuvenation of WIPO norm-setting activities suggest the impending end of a much-feared 'non-multilateral era', precipitated by the active negotiation of bilateral, plurilateral and regional trade agreements? Do the recent norm-setting activities reinforce the Development Agenda painstakingly created by developing countries? Or do these activities indicate just the growing complexity of the international intellectual property regime, within which both multilateralism and non-multilateralism proceed at the same time? This chapter puts the recent multilateral and non-multilateral intellectual property developments in their proper historical contexts. Specifically, it examines three sets of recurring developments: (1) the establishment of development agendas; (2) the negotiation of non-multilateral agreements; and (3) the rejuvenation of multilateral norm-setting activities. From these developments, this chapter draws a simple but valuable historical lesson: international intellectual property developments are influenced by the repeated swings of an invisible pendulum. As this pendulum swings back and forth, history will repeat itself, causing us to feel like it is deja vu all over again. This chapter concludes by suggesting that this simple lesson provides three key insights into the current and future development of the international intellectual property regime.
Recovering the frontier state : war, ethnicity, and state in Afghanistan
Chapter 1 Table of Contents Chapter 2 1 Introduction Chapter 3 2 Ethnicity, Political Power, and Fragmentation Chapter 4 3 Rise of the Taliban and Civil War Chapter 5 4 The United States and War on Terrorism Chapter 6 5 Restructuring the Afghan State Chapter 7 6 Political Economy of Drugs and Warlordism Chapter 8 7 Afghanistan and Neighboring States Chapter 9 8 Conclusion Chapter 10 Bibliography