Lots to Blog

I'll get to Eurodif today.

Reminder that I'll be speaking at the Georgetown CLE International Trade Update March 5-6.

Substantively, the USTR is asking for comments on U.S. participation in a Trans-Pacific Free Trade Agreement.  Are we suffering free-trade agreement fatigue yet?  Is American industry clamoring for a new compliance regime to access trade with our neighbors around the pacific?  This proposed agreement would include:
  • Singapore
  • Chile
  • New Zealand
  • Burei Darussalam
  • Australia
  • Vietnam
  • Peru
Note that we currently have agreements with Singapore, Chile, Australia, and Peru.  So basically, this seems to me to say: "Doha is dead.  We are going it alone."  That is not really news.  

I do wonder whether the WTO can survive being continually undercut by the rapidly growing number of bilateral and regional trade agreements.  As of January 2005, there were 310 regional trade agreements notified to the WTO pursuant to GATT 1947 Article XXIV.  There have been a number since that time.  According to my colleague Prof. Ralph Folsom of the University of San Diego, the lone country on the planet without a regional or bilateral trade agreement is Mongolia.  See the handy WTO list here.

What is the value of WTO membership and most favored nation status, if Article XXIV lets regional agreements provide better market access and enhanced benefits to members?  Is a country better off with a bilateral agreement with its actual trading partners than a global agreement?  Tough question that I cannot start to answer.  It is something for the new administration and the USTR to think about.

For companies, a new agreement might provide valuable market access, protections for intellectual property rights, assurances to investors, and cheaper access for production materials.  For my part, it means another set of rules of origin, another certification process, and more enforcement by Customs and Border Protection.  At the detail level, this might be a great thing.  It's the big picture where things are troubling me.

Comments

Anonymous said…
If you would like more information about the program, you can visit the Georgetown Law site at www.georgetowncle.org.
Feb 9, 2009, 2:59:00 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ruling of the Week 2015.8: Old Jersey and Pitcairn Island

Image
For today's ROTW, I set out looking for a ruling dealing with some far off and preferably warm location. Turns out that, with the exception of coastwise transit issues, there are no Customs and Border Protection rulings involving Pitcairn Island or any of several Pacific Ocean microstates including Tuvalu , Niue , and Kiribati . Pitcairn Island What I did find is an interesting question about the country of origin marking for products of the Bailiwick of Jersey Island, Channel Islands. The ruling is HQ 561938 (Mar. 18, 2002). For those of you who may not know, Jersey is an island off the coast of Normandy, France. It is an independent international actor and not part of the U.K. although the U.K. is responsible for its defense and external relations. Also, the Queen is the Head of State in her capacity as "the Crown in Right of Jersey." It is, according to the U.S. Department of State, a " Crown Dependency " along with the Isle of Man and the Bailiwick o...
Read more

CAFC Decision in Double Invoicing Case

The Federal Circuit has issued a decision on the merits in United States v. Inn Foods, Inc.  There had been a previous decision on jurisdiction, which was followed by a trial at the Court of International Trade and then this appeal on the substance. The initial issue is whether Inn Foods' invoicing practice amounts to fraud.  Inn Foods had been receiving an invoice from growers in Mexico that had a relatively low sales prices on it.  Subsequent to entry, Inn Foods created a second invoice at something more similar to market value, retaining the original invoice number, and paid at that higher amount.   Superficially, this looks like a standard-issue double-invoicing scheme.  But, in the age of reconciliation, is it really more like a provisional pricing mechanism?  It might have been possible to make that argument had Inn Foods adjusted its entries accordingly.  It didn't and the loss of revenue was approximately $624,000.  Based on testimony and evidence indicating both knowl...
Read more

Ninestar and UFLPA Exhaustion

Image
Exhaustion is a key doctrine in administrative law. When applicable, it requires that a party unhappy with an agency’s determination complete the administrative appeal process before turning to the courts for judicial review. Requiring exhaustion typically promotes judicial efficiency by ensuring that disputes are resolved at the agency and, if they are not, that there is a complete record of the agency process. Exhaustion also ensures that the judiciary respects the executive agencies and their expertise.  There are, on the other hand, times when the courts will find that exhaustion is not necessary or appropriate. Such is the case in  Ninestar Corporation et al. v. United States  et al., a decision of the U.S. Court of International Trade.  Ninestar is also interesting because it is one of the first cases in the CIT involving the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, known as UFLPA. In my hiatus from active blogging, I missed the rise of UFLPA as a major compliance t...
Read more