Amidst the chaos created by “disTrumption”[1] globalization rolls on and international business pursues TESCM, or tax efficient supply chain management. What does this mean for trade and customs? TESCM arises from the OECD BEPS (base erosion and profit shifting)[2] initiative and will continue to drive multinational tax planning. The OECD effort is creating a restructuring…
There was legal mention recently about how the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) had increased the difficulty for business to deduct environmental litigation expenses (e.g., property remediation expenses or compliance costs) incurred incident to a U.S. Department of Justice Environmental and Natural Resources Department (DOJ-ENRD)-initiated enforcement action. The inability of a business to deduct expenses incurred…
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Paris Agreement was signed in December 2015 to widespread acclaim. Although largely symbolic and non-enforceable, it begat optimism that governments would act to substantially decrease carbon pollution. The agreement focuses on voluntary pledges to reduce carbon pollution in order to limit global warming to a 2.0°…
This the fourth post in a series of posts commenting on the NAFTA renegotiation process. For Part I click here, for Part II click here, for Part III click here. Reportedly, another thorny proposal being discussed in the renegotiation process is revamping or else doing away with the investor-State dispute settlement mechanism provided under Section B…
This the third post in a series of posts commenting on the NAFTA renegotiation process. For Part I click here, for Part II click here. The rule of origin for conferring duty-free treatment to imports of motor vehicles within the NAFTA region has become one of the most contentious issues in the renegotiation process. Currently,…
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed by Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, and American President George H. W. Bush on December 17, 1992, and entered into force on January 1, 1994. In addition to substantially increasing trade between the three countries, NAFTA has reduced trade friction…
This a second post in a series of posts commenting on the NAFTA renegotiation process. For Part I click here. What is Mexico’s Real “Plan B”? The Mexican press is full of statements to the effect that, should the United States withdraw from the NAFTA, Mexico would compensate any substantial reduction in exports to…
The renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (“NAFTA”) has become an increasingly difficult process. This is unsurprising, however, because there is no agreement amongst the member countries as to why the NAFTA needs be renegotiated. Mexico and Canada regard the renegotiation process as an opportunity to modernize NAFTA. Although the United States does…
While the symposium on Application of Competition Policy to Technology and IP Licensing hosted by the Center for Transnational Law and Business at the USC Gould School of Law on 10 November 2017 was, for many reasons, worthy of a suite of scholarly articles (I particularly look forward to Professor Jonathan Barnett’s upcoming article in…
In the “Trade for all” strategy issued in October 2015, the EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström explained how the Juncker Commission would translate the strong commitment to transparency into concrete actions in the EU’s trade policy. The actions identified by the Commission to increase transparency in trade defence as laid down in the Trade for…
Welcome to the newest Wolters Kluwer law blog, conceived to explore the inter-relationship among labor law, European law, and trade law in these turbulent times. As the editor for trade law I expect this blog to provide a forum to report on timely developments and to offer insight and analysis beyond the facts. For me,…
2017 may be the year that cognizance of the global warming threat reached a tipping point. Powerful hurricanes inundated Houston, Florida, Puerto Rico, and other lands, causing painful losses in lives and treasure. In what some might have thought was an Orson Welles “The War of the Worlds” sci-fi redux, Hurricane Ophelia, the easternmost Atlantic…
