- •Describe the nature and main instruments of trade policy.
- •2. Describe main institutes of international trade system. How do these institutes correspond with each other?
- •What is the role of different institutes in the development of international trading system?
- •Discuss societal concerns with respect to agricultural production. How could trade policy deal with these concerns?
- •5. Discuss societal concerns of the development of Chinese (or any other country of your choice) economy. How does chosen countries’ trade policy respond to these concerns?
- •International:
- •6. What are the accession rules in the wto. Analyse main difficulties of the accession process.
- •7. What is the dispute settlement mechanism in the wto. Discuss pluses and minuses of such mechanism.
- •Wto as an international economic organisation: the institution, structure, objectives, main functions, key principles in decision-making process.
- •Compare the wto and the gatt.
- •10. Define key principles of trade in goods.
- •11. Define key exemptions from non-discrimination principles with regard to trade in goods.
- •12. Rules of origin in the wto
- •13. Standards and technical barriers to trade: nature, key definitions. Wto agreement on standards and technical barriers: main features.
- •14. Sanitary and phyto-sanitary measures: purpose, examples. Wto agreement on Sanitary and phyto-sanitary measures: main features.
- •15. Trade remedies: Safeguards
- •16. Trade remedies: Anti-dumping
- •17. Trade remedies: Subsidy/Countervail
- •18. Key issues of international trade in services. Leading exporters and importers of services. Importance of services for national economies.
- •Importance of services for national economies.
- •19. General Agreement on Trade in Services: key features.
- •Ipr protection – two polar views:
- •IpRs in open economies
- •21. Discuss pluses and minuses of stronger ipRs protection. Pharmaceutical debate
- •Ipr protection – two polar views:
- •IpRs in open economies
- •22. Discuss the role of wipo in setting international standards of ipRs protection.
- •23.Wto agreementon intellectual property rights protection.
- •Industrial designs
- •Integrated circuits layout designs
- •24.Trade in Agriculture: approach to the regulation. Importance of agriculture for the economic development. Key exporters and importers of agriculture products.
- •Importance of agriculture for the economic development:
- •25 Agriculture: market access
- •26Domestic support
- •27 Export subsidies
- •28. Discuss the nature of International investment agreements (iiAs) and the main types of iiAs
- •1. Bilateral investment treaties
- •2. Preferential Trade and Investment Agreements
- •3. International Taxation Agreements
- •29. Describe the evolution of and recent trends in International investment agreements.
- •30. Discuss the nature of international investment disputes.
- •31.Assess the role of governments in relation to environment and development.
- •32. Explain the relationship between economy and environment.
- •What is the current stage of dda nama negotiations? Analyse key issues and main problems of negotiations.
30. Discuss the nature of international investment disputes.
The evolving complexity of the IIA system may also create challenges. Amongst others, the complexity of today's IIA network makes it difficult for countries to maintain policy coherence. Provisions agreed upon in one IIA may be inconsistent with those included in a different IIA. For developing countries with lower capacity to participate in the global IIA system, this complexity of the IIA framework is particularly hard to manage. Additional challenges arise from the need to ensure consistency between a country's national and international investment laws, and from the objective to design investment policies that best support a county's specific development goals.
Furthermore, even if governments conclude IIAs with general development goals in mind, these agreements themselves usually do not directly deal with problems of economic development. While IIAs rarely contain specific obligations on investment promotion, some include provisions that advocate information exchange about investment opportunities, encourage the use of investment incentives, or suggest the establishment of investment promotion agencies (IPAs). Some also contain provisions that address public policy concerns related to development, such as exceptions related to health or environmental issues, or exceptions related to essential security. Some IIAs also grant countries specific regulatory flexibility, amongst others when it comes to making commitments for investment liberalization.
As the types and contents of IIAs are becoming increasingly diverse and as almost all countries participate in the conclusion of new IIAs, the global IIA system has become extremely complex and hard to see through. Moreover, the number of IIA-based investor-State dispute settlement cases has also been on the rise in recent years. By the end of the year 2008, the total number of known cases reached 317.
An additional burden arises from the growing amount of investor-State disputes, which are increasingly lodged against governments from developing countries. These disputes are very costly for the affected countries, which have to shoulder substantial expenses for the arbitration procedures, for the payment of lawyer's fees and, most importantly, for the financial compensation to be paid to the investor in case the tribunal decides against the host country. The problem is further exacerbated by inconsistencies in the case law that is emerging from investor-State disputes. Increasingly, tribunals addressing similar cases come to differing interpretations and decisions. This increases the uncertainty among countries and investors about the outcome of a dispute.
UNCTAD is widely recognized for its research and policy analysis on IIAs and functions as an important forum for intergovernmental discussions and consensus building on issues related to international investment law and development.
Common venues through which arbitration is sought are:
the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID);
the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL);
the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).