BIT, Brexit, CJEU, EU, EU Law, Free Trade Agreement

(Oslo University & Europa Institute)/ /Leave a comment

Need for a transitory mechanism In 2009, the EU acquired exclusive competence to regulate foreign direct investment (FDI) – which previously rested with its Member States – through the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty. Since then, the European Commission has been engaging in the negotiation of international investment agreements (IIAs) and investment chapters…

Canada, Trade Law, USA

(U.S. International Trade Commission)/ /Leave a comment

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…

Canada, Free Trade Agreement, Labor Law, Mexico, NAFTA, Trade Law, USA

(Cassidy Levy Kent LLP)/ /Leave a comment

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…

Canada, Free Trade Agreement, Labor Law, Mexico, NAFTA, Trade Law, USA

(Cassidy Levy Kent LLP)/ /1 Comment

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…

Brexit, EU, UK

(Europa Institute, Leiden Law School)/ /Leave a comment

The European Commission’s chief Brexit negotiator Barnier recently stated that the ‘Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement’ (CETA) between the EU and Canada is the only feasible model left for Brexit. If this is so, it is bad news. Inevitably, a CETA-Brexit will be much closer to a hard Brexit than to the glorious bespoken deal…

Case Law, CJEU, Competition Law, EU Law, Tax Ruling

(Liege Competition & Innovation Institute)/ /Leave a comment

Since 2013, the European Commission has taken an increasing interest in Member States’ practices of granting tax benefits to mainly multinational undertakings by means of individual tax rulings or specifically tailored tax agreements. In this respect, the Commission in October 2015 found that the Netherlands has given unlawful aid to Starbucks and Luxemburg to Fiat…

ILO, Labor Law, Regulating

(Osgoode Hall (Canada))/ /Leave a comment

To date the debate on the “future of work” and technology has predominantly concentrated on the quantity of jobs that will be lost or gained because of automation. While this is certainly important, we should also be concerned about the quality of the jobs we are creating. Over the past few weeks, the news has…

Competition Law, IP Law, TRIPS, UK, USA

(Minter Ellison)/ /Leave a comment

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…

Case Law, CJEU, Competition Law, EU Law

, (Cleary Gottlieb)/ /Leave a comment

On September 14, 2017, the EU Court of Justice issued a preliminary ruling in Case C-177/16, Akka-Laa, on excessive pricing in the collective management of copyright licences. In 2013, the Latvian Competition Council fined Akka-Laa for abusing its dominance by imposing too high rates for its services. Akka-Laa is a copyright management organization. It enjoyed a…

Anti-dumping, Case Law, CJEU, EU, EU Law, Trade Law, USA

(Jones Day)/ /Leave a comment

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…

Brexit, EU, EU Law, Labor Law, Trade Law, UK, USA, WTO

(Crowell & Moring)/ /Leave a comment

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,…

Case Law, CJEU, ECB, EU, EU Law, Germany

(Europa Institute Leiden Law School) and , (Europa Institute, Leiden Law School)/ /Leave a comment

On 18 July 2017, the German Federal Constitutional Court issued its second preliminary reference to the Court of Justice of the European Union. This time, it doubts the legality of the ‘Quantitative Easing’ programme of the European Central Bank. The first reference, from 2014, also concerned central bank action. At the height of the debt…

EU, EU Law, Labor Law, Social Pillar

(Institute for Labour Law – KU Leuven (Belgium))/ /Leave a comment

On 17 November 2017 the ‘European Pillar of Social Rights’ was officially proclaimed by the EU leaders at the occasion of the Social Summit held in Gothenburg, Sweden. It was signed by Jean-Claude Juncker (President of the European Commission), Antonio Tajani (President of the European Parliament) and Prime Minister Jüri Ratas (on behalf of the Presidency…

Free Trade Agreement, Trade Law, WTO

(Department of Public Management at Harz University/Germany)/ /Leave a comment

Imagine living in a world in which trade comprised of only bilateral agreements. Do you suppose that such two-sided scenarios for trade relations would be capable of meeting the diverse needs of the world’s many trading partners? This view of the future is certainly hypothetical, but we are in fact right now observing a strong…

Anti-dumping, EU, Trade Law

(VVGB Advocaten/Avocats)/ /1 Comment

On 3 October 2017 the Council and the European Parliament agreed on a compromise proposal which will shape the EU’s new approach in anti-dumping cases against China, and possibly other countries, in the years to come. The proposal for assessing and addressing ‘significant distortions’ in the context of EU anti-dumping investigations is presently expected to…

Renewable Energy, Trade Law, USA

(U.S. International Trade Commission)/ /Leave a comment

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…

Brexit, EU, EU Law, ILO, Labor Law, Regulating, Trade Law, WTO

(Crowell & Moring)/ /1 Comment

Keep pace with change. We are witnessing change at a very rapid pace. Brexit and “disTrumption,” among other developments, have changed the landscape for international business.  A new blog will synthesize and make sense of these developments. The blog, initiated by Wolters Kluwer, will be called “Regulating for Globalization” and is designed to address the significant changes taking place…