Joseph A. McMahon

EU biofuels policy - raising the question of WTO compatibility

This article examines the question of the compatibility of the new EU Biofuels regime with the disciplines established by the WTO. After an explanation of the evolution of the Biofuels regime, the authors consider whether that regime is compatible with the rules on subsidies established by the WTO Agreement on Agriculture and the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures. Thereafter the authors assess the compatibility of the regime with the national treatment provision of the GATT, Article III. Concluding that there may be an incompatibility with the latter, the authors conclude by suggesting the need for international negotiations on the liberalization of trade in Biofuels and more especially on the issue of the sustainability of Biofuel production, an issue that lies at the heart of the changes made recently to the EU Biofuels regime.

The Agreement on Agriculture: Setting the Scene

Agriculture has been the unruly horse of the GATT/WTO system for a long time and efforts to halter it are still ongoing. This Research Handbook focuses on aspects of agricultural production and trade policy that are recognized for their importance but are often kept out of the limelight, such as the implication of national and international agricultural production and trade policies on national food security, global climate change, and biotechnology. It provides a summary of the state of the WTO agriculture negotiations as well as the relevant jurisprudence, but also, and uniquely, it focuses on the new and emerging issues of agricultural trade law and policy that are rarely addressed in the existing literature.

The negotiations for a new agreement on agriculture

This volume offers a history of the negotiations for a new Agreement on Agriculture up to the end of 2010, from the mandated negotiations under Article 20 of that Agreement to the negotiations launched by the 2001 Doha Declaration.

Brexit, Trade and Agriculture: Waiting for Answers

The purpose of this paper is to examine the nature of the trading relationship in agricultural goods that the United Kingdom (UK) will have when it leaves the European Union (EU). The decision of the UK to leave the EU has raised many questions, including some on the nature of the trading relationship that the UK will have with the EU and third countries once it leaves the EU.,For agriculture, the UK will need to develop its own agricultural policy as it will no longer be subject to the Common Agricultural Policy and one constraint on the development of that policy will be the Agreement on Agriculture concluded at the end of the Uruguay Round negotiations.,This paper examines the three pillars of that Agreement – market access, domestic support and export competition – to determine the commitments that the UK may make in each pillar and then looks at two other relevant agreements, the SPS Agreement and the TBT Agreement, to complete the discussion of the scope of the UK nascent agricultural policy.,The value of the paper lies in the discussion of the obligations to be assumed by the UK under the Agreement on Agriculture and the contours of UK agricultural policy once it leaves the EU.

Research Handbook on the WTO Agriculture Agreement

Agriculture has been the unruly horse of the GATT/WTO system for a long time and efforts to halter it are still ongoing. This Research Handbook focuses on aspects of agricultural production and trade policy that are recognized for their importance but are often kept out of the limelight, such as the implication of national and international agricultural production and trade policies on national food security, global climate change, and biotechnology. It provides a summary of the state of the WTO agriculture negotiations as well as the relevant jurisprudence, but also, and uniquely, it focuses on the new and emerging issues of agricultural trade law and policy that are rarely addressed in the existing literature.

The Doha Ministerial

This volume offers a history of the negotiations for a new Agreement on Agriculture up to the end of 2010, from the mandated negotiations under Article 20 of that Agreement to the negotiations launched by the 2001 Doha Declaration.

The Hong Kong Ministerial

This volume offers a history of the negotiations for a new Agreement on Agriculture up to the end of 2010, from the mandated negotiations under Article 20 of that Agreement to the negotiations launched by the 2001 Doha Declaration.

The Seattle Ministerial

This volume offers a history of the negotiations for a new Agreement on Agriculture up to the end of 2010, from the mandated negotiations under Article 20 of that Agreement to the negotiations launched by the 2001 Doha Declaration.

I. Fundamental Rights

Digital technology presents a problem for fundamental rights insofar as it increases the amount of data generated and results in a generally networked world; whilst it is not a negative phenomenon in itself, it raises issues around the content of fundamental rights and how they are implemented. It undoubtedly increases individuals’ capacity to enjoy certain rights, such as freedom of expression and freedom to do business, but at the same time it undermines others, such as the right to privacy or the right to security.

The Agreement on Agriculture

Governments intervene in the agricultural sector for a number of reasons, including the desire to provide adequate food for the population, to achieve self-sufficiency and to promote rural welfare. Concerns of this sort are not present in any other trade sector. Although at least in theory the GATT covered trade in agricultural products, the Contracting Parties were unwilling to subject their domestic agricultural policies to the same disciplines as industrial products. As a result, distortions, in the form of high tariff and non-tariff barriers, characterized the international market for agricultural goods. In addition, many developed countries, in particular the United States and the European Community (“EC”),1 have given huge amounts of support to their farmers, and surplus production generated by this support has been disposed of on the international market with the help of subsidies.