Posts tagged…Multilateralism
Argument for ‘least cost’ emissions policy
Thu, Jul 17 2008Paul Kelly's accurate assessment of the real 'diabolical dilemma'. Read the full article.
"[Overshooting on emissions controls] is a lethal risk for Rudd. His Government is a believer in multilateral idealism and the moral cause of mitigation. The truth, however, is that multilateralism is in serious retreat and idealism in climate change is the fraud of our age. Many senior Australian officials…
Read more…A ‘secret’ copyright treaty
Thu, Jun 05 2008In February this year, the Australian government joined negotiations with a number of other developed economies on a proposed ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement). The "negotiations"—if that's what they are, they seem more like a drafting convention—are being conducted behind closed doors in Geneva. There has been little information from the Australian government on the benefits for…
Would ‘critical mass’ agreements in WTO be ‘fissile’ or ‘fusional’?
Mon, Apr 07 2008Here is the paper I presented today to the Melbourne University Center for Public Policy seminar on the Future of the Multilateral Trade System. It asks would 'critical mass' agreements—as recommended by the Warwick Commission—reinforce ('fuse') the WTO's Single Undertaking or would they tend to pull it apart ('fission')? I welcome your comments.
Symposium: Future of the Multilateral Trade System
Thu, Mar 27 2008Monday, 7 April 2008 at the Center for Public Policy at the University of Melbourne. The team of analytical 'heavy-hitters'—I'm sure they love being called that—who served on the Warwick Commission will conduct a full-day symposium on why WTO is in such a mess (or not). I'll be speaking, too, on 'critical mass' agreements and whether they'll lead an explosionin the WTO. Please come…Program over…
Warwick Commission report on ‘The Way Forward’ for WTO
Fri, Dec 14 2007
[Updated post] The University of Warwick mandated the Commission to enquire into the ‘way forward’ for the multilateral trading system. They recommend, among other things, an expansion of 'plurilateral' agreements among a sub-set of the Members of WTO as a way of 'moving forward' and some principles for guiding their adoption. I agree; there is a good case to be made for these agreements that…
Innovation in trade agreements
Wed, Dec 12 2007In a speech yesterday in Singapore, Australia’s new Trade Minister (Simon Crean) pledged that future Australian bilateral agreements will ‘embody’ MFN commitments.
“As I said earlier, we do see a role for bilateral trade agreements but they must be consistent with our multilateral aims.
For example they ought to embody the most favoured nation principle.”(Simon Crean)
The Minister says he will…
Stern is mistaken to think binding targets will work
Sun, Dec 02 2007
Sir Nicholas Stern argues, ahead of the Bali meeting of the UNFCCC, for binding, differentiated emission targets and international trading. I think his own address betrays the fundamental problem with this approach to a collaborative regime for climate change mitigation.
Experience alone should make any student of history or economics deeply skeptical of a negotiated assignment of effective…
What the collapse of the Doha talks means for agreement on climate
Tue, Jun 26 2007
The news that the WTO talks had collapsed again probably deserves the familiar gripes and even the bored yawns that greeted it. But behind this story is a worrying lesson about the potential for agreement on other global challenges, like climate change.
Ignoring the WTO jargon, the collapse of the talks is a story about how the world has changed in the past half century or so since the WTO rules…
Design of a multilateral regime for emissions trading
Sat, Mar 10 2007
The most difficult questions about the management of climate change are not about taxes or trading but about the weakness of multilateral regimes. Their recent history should worry anyone who wants a global answer to a problem of managing a global commons.
In my submission to the Prime Minister’s Task Force on Emissions Trading I draw some lessons from the history of multilateral trade and…