WTO
Economic diplomacy: From pollie crises to polycrisis
Words of the year are already flowing freely with teal taking the prize at the Macquarie Dictionary to reflect the challenge being posed to Australia’s major political parties by…
Trade policy agenda facing new drivers
There can be little doubt that the conduct of Australian trade policy will become more complex and challenging for the foreseeable future.
Two trends are salient. First, with the…
Economic diplomacy: Free trade vs economic resilience
Santa clauses
The value of global goods trade during the biggest pandemic in a century last year dropped about a third less than it did during the biggest financial crisis in a…
Markets and resilience in the face of economic coercion
Australia’s stern statement at a World Trade Organisation review of China’s trade policy last month emphasised that Beijing’s trade disruptive measures may be targeted at…
WTO dispute settlement: why Australia bothers
I have three propositions about Australia’s participation in World Trade Organisation dispute settlement to put to Interpreter readers.Proposition one: the WTO dispute settlement…
Economic diplomacy: Little Australia spends slowly in the Pacific
Baby BRIs
It is now almost three years since Prime Minister Scott Morrison muscled up to China’s infrastructure building Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) with $3 billion in varied…
EU the new kingpin in global trade order
Under President Donald Trump, the United States launched an assault on the rules-based multilateral trading system, repeatedly threatening to withdraw from the World Trade…
New push for WTO trade reform
With the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Doha Round of negotiations stalled nearly 20 years after its launch, it takes an optimist to see the prospect of the multilateral rules…
Patent waiver for vaccines is a plus, but no panacea
The United States has thrown its support behind demands from developing countries to temporarily waive intellectual property (IP) rights for Covid-19 vaccines. Other rich…
Economic diplomacy: Deploying soft power and the future of trade
Power vacuum
Prime Minister Scott Morrison was swift to claim former finance minister Mathias Cormann’s selection as Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)…