Dispute Settlement in the WTO Veronika Honzíková Abstract The WTO dispute settlement represents a significant improvement compared to the dispute settlement system under GATT 1947, but is still considered as his successor. The mechanism under GATT 1947 had many weaknesses which resulted to the need of reform. The procedure under GATT 1947 was not contradictory and all members of the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) were entitled to use the veto right when adopting the reports. The contracting parties were conscious of such weaknesses and they have agreed on a new dispute settlement system during the Uruguay round. The Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU) is part of the Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization. The new system remains inter-state mechanism and as a consequence, available only to the Member States, excluding individuals and business operators. The dispute settlement under WTO has become compulsory while leaving each member the choice between this standard procedure and other dispute modes, such as Good Offices, Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration. The dispute settlement system has been unified and has become more judicial. It excludes national jurisdictions and means strengthening the multilateralism. The dispute settlement is administrated by the Dispute Settlement Body,...

Legal aspects of the securing of obligations in international trade The securing of obligations in the international trade is recently, possibly more than ever before, very topical issue, and the reason is quite clear - there is a strong need to secure international contractual obligations by effective and reliable securing instruments because of the economic and debt crises which started in 2008 and has been still a very actual problem. This thesis focuses on legal relations arising from the securing of contractual obligations in the international trade. The goal of the thesis is to describe legal aspects of securing obligations considering the determination of an applicable law, under which the securing is governed. Because of the author's long- term working bank experience, the final part of the text deals with a securing by a bank guarantee. In the first part of the thesis there are described legal relations in which an international element appears, and there are also described a purpose, function, categorization and different types of securing instruments respective of the international trade. The second part of the thesis deals with the problem how to determine which law is the applicable one for securing of obligations in the international trade. There are described legal aspects of...

This thesis investigates application of the gravity model of international trade on measuring a distance coefficient, which is known to be a proxy to globalization. This estimation is performed on a dataset containing information on EU 27 countries through the years 1996 to 2014. The presence of 10 post- communist countries enabled the author to perform the estimation on transformative economies, which had been isolated from their western trade partners for over 40 years. The division of the dataset into the Western and Eastern Blocs enabled measurement of convergence of the intra-blocs trade - the second goal of this thesis. This measurement was done through newly introduced intra-blocs trade variables that enabled measurements of both directions of trade. Through the application of this model on 10 sections, these measurements could be performed on single trade components. The analysis shows a substantial heterogeneity between single sections both in distance coefficient and inter-blocs trade. An increase in the level of globalization was observed in 9 out of 10 sections and convergence of some sections between the blocs was also found. Finally, globalization was found to progress with varying speed within single SITC sections during periods of economic crises. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

The thesis focuses on the impact of the banking regulation Basel III on bank-intermediated trade finance. The theoretical part of the thesis explains details of Basel III requirements, history of Basel Accords and their future in the form of Basel IV, characteristics of trade finance products and of the whole industry. Trade finance industry voiced worries about the negative effect that these new requirements might have on trade finance business. The thesis estimates determinants of bank-intermediated trade finance and includes a regulatory variable. We use trade finance data from the Czech Republic and Hong Kong in 2000−2014 and from India in 2007−2014. A negative effect of Basel III on trade finance growth is found using pooled OLS regression. Contrary to previous research, we also estimate a negative coefficient of banks' capital to assets ratios. To the best of our knowledge, the thesis provides the first empirical analysis of the impact of Basel III on trade finance. Trade finance research usually focuses more on the relationship of trade finance and trade flows and the thesis provides an extensive literature summary of this topic. The final part of the thesis contrasts different levels of risk of trade finance and shows that the imputed low-riskiness does not apply to the Czech data.

The main goal of this thesis is to identify the most problematic area of trade liberalization process within the WTO. The thesis is based on the presumption, that in the WTO context exist three potentially problematic areas - institutional, political and technical. The thesis consists of three chapters. The first chapter discusses institutional framework of the WTO. The second chapter contains analysis of positions and interests of the important member states. It also includes political and economic background of their attitude towards trade liberalization. Special attention is given to the various aspects of the relationship between advanced developing and developed countries. The third chapter is made up of three parts that correspond to the economic sectors and that describe technical aspect of negotiations about sensitive questions of liberalization. In conclusion, state of negotiations is summed up and some presumptions about the future of the negotiations and the WTO are presented.

The thesis is aimed at explanation of the factors that led to the creation of the current financial crisis in their mutual context. Emphasis is placed on the way of providing mortgages in the USA, policy of FED and credit derivatives. The impacts of the crisis on banking, stock and commodity markets, building industry and automotive industry are discussed as important determinants of international trade. It is shortly mentioned how countries like Germany, China or Czech Republic dealt with the crisis. The final part of the thesis is devoted to the impacts of the crisis on international trade, these impacts result from the issues that are described in the first two parts. Discussed are the commodity and territorial structures of the international trade during the years of crisis. Also the impacts on the foreign trade of the Czech Republic are stressed.

This thesis examines whether there is an effect of the Mercosur free trade agreement on export and import between member countries. The study uses an extended gravity model framework on a panel data between the years 1975 to 2017 for 34 countries, including the member countries. Two different regressions were run using OLS and country fixed effect. A Linder effect was also added to the regressions to further understand the impact on trade. The results show a significantly positive effect of the FTA on imports. The FTA yielded insignificant and significantly negative result for OLS and FEM respectively on exports.

The liability of the carrier in international carriage of goods is a classical issue, which is well known, but still actual. The increasing intensity of international trade has impact on the demand for the transport services. Different rules in different legal systems constitute a hindrance for a proper functioning of international transport services. Nowadays, this problem is well solved by the international conventions containing certain rules, regarding contract of carriage in international transport of goods. However, these conventions govern the contract of carriage only in particular mode of transport which is the reason why it is necessary to describe the liability of the carrier in all these particular modes of transport. The starting point of this thesis is to describe the applicable sets of rules, which can govern the contract of carriage in international transport. Today, the relation among these sets of rules can appear be genuinely complicated. The most crucial point seems to solve the problem of relation between the conventions containing certain rules regarding contract of carriage and the legislation of the EU. In the EU, the most important sets of rules are Regulation (EC) No. 593/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 June 2008 on the law applicable to...

Les échanges dans la zone euro-méditerranéenne ont été caractérisés par une intensification des flux commerciaux au début des années 2000. A cette même période, la question migratoire a été mise en avant en raison d’une explosion de l’immigration clandestine dans les pays du sud de l’Europe. L’objectif de cette thèse est d’étudier certaines conséquences économiques actuelles de ces migrations dans le cas de France. Dans cette optique nous abordons les questions liées à la relation commerce-migrations, à la politique migratoire, et à la localisation spatiale des immigrés en France. En utilisant des données récentes et en intégrant des paramètres jusque là peu utilisés, nous mettons en évidence des caractéristiques particulières de l’immigration en France. Nous apportons également des réponses quant a` la contribution des immigrés a` la production nationale, de même qu’a` l’accroissement du commerce bilatéral avec les pays d’origine. Les implications en termes de politiques économiques se situent d’une part dans la mise en œuvre d’une facilitation des opportunités d’aaires entre la France et les pays d’origine. Cela s’impose au regard de l’impact positif de l’immigration sur le commerce bilatéral. D’autre part, les difficultés relevées au niveau des politiques migratoires appellent a` une nécessaire harmonie de ces dernières, au plan européen, pour une gestion plus efficace. Cela passe encore par une implication des pays d’origine afin de faciliter l’immigration légale, et limiter les entrées clandestines. Enfin, la localisation spatiale des immigrés indique que leur concentration dans les pôles régionaux a un impact négatif sur leur contribution `a la production. La réponse peut se situer dans une analyse détaillée de la structure et du processus d’intégration des populations immigrés / The Euro-Mediterranean trade has grown up a lot in the early 2000. At the same time, the migration issue has been highlighted due to an explosion of illegal immigration in the Southern Europe countries. The aim of this thesis is to study some current economic impact this immigration in the French case. We address the issues of trade and migration relationship, migration policy, and spatial location of immigrants in France. Using recent data and shaping factors little used empirically, we highlight the specific characteristics of immigration in France. We also provide explanations to the contribution of immigrants to the domestic, as well as increasing bilateral trade with the country. In terms of economic policies, it lies firstly in the implementation of facilitating business opportunities between France and the countries of origin. This is necessary to take more profit from the positive impact of immigration on bilateral trade. On the other hand, problems identified in migration policies call for a necessary harmony of policies, at European level, for more effective management. Such objectives require the involvement of countries of origin to facilitate legal migration, and limit illegal entries. Finally, the spatial location of immigrants indicates that their concentration at regional level has a negative impact on their contribution to production. The solution may lie in a detailed analysis of the structure, and the integration of immigrant populations’ process.

Cette thèse élucide certains questionnements qui pourraient être soulevés au sujet de l’économie cambodgienne en prenant le commerce, l’investissement direct étranger et le tourisme comme sujets d’interrogation de notre recherche. Ces trois secteurs sont considérés comme secteurs clés du développement économique et source de bien-être et de prospérité économique du pays. Nous utilisons principalement les modèles empiriques pour étudier les problématiques évoquées. Nous profitons également des développements récents des modèles théoriques pour justifier la construction des modèles empiriques et expliquer les résultats d’estimations. L’examen des structures d’exportation révèle que le Cambodge dispose de forts avantages comparatifs dans les produits agricoles, les produits de textiles et de chaussures pour les exportations vers l’ASEAN et vers les marchés mondiaux. Les estimations obtenues sur la base du modèle de gravité montrent que les investissements directs étrangers, la logistique, et la qualité de la réglementation sont des facteurs qui favorisent les exportations, tandis que les droits de douane et la distance avec les pays importateurs constituent des obstacles aux exportations internationales. L’étude sur les déterminants de l’investissement direct étranger utilisant une analyse statique et dynamique des données de panel révèle que les facteurs d’attractivité locaux tels que la taille du marché ou la qualité de la gouvernance n’influencent pas les entrées des investissements directs étrangers au Cambodge. En revanche, des facteurs tels que les échanges commerciaux et l’adhésion à l’Organisation Mondiale du Commerce ont attiré davantage d’investissements étrangers. Nous avons également mis en lumière des effets complémentaires entre le commerce et le tourisme dans le sens où le tourisme favorise le commerce et réciproquement. D’après les analyses développées à travers ces quatre chapitres qui constituent notre recherche, cette thèse a révélé les effets pertinents et complémentaires des trois principaux secteurs de l’économie du Cambodge. Une augmentation des exportations du pays encourage davantage les investissements directs étrangers et le développement du tourisme au Cambodge. Les effets réciproques sont également confirmés par le fait que les investissements directs étrangers et le tourisme accroissent les exportations. / This thesis discusses the essential parts of Cambodia’s economy, in which trade, foreign direct investment, and tourism are the main research questions. It shows that the three sectors are the key components for economic development and the sources of welfare and prosperity for the country. We mainly use empirical approaches to investigate the problem that is raised. We also take advantage of recent theoretical advances in the area of research to complement the formulation of empirical models and to interpret and describe the significance of our findings in light of what theories have already proposed. The analysis of export patterns reveals that Cambodia has the large comparative advantages in agricultural, textile and footwear products. Further analysis using gravity models shows that foreign direct investment, logistics, and quality of regulation promote exports, while tariffs and distance with importing countries are barriers to international exports of goods. The study on the determinants of foreign direct investment using a static and dynamic panel data analysis reveals that the inflows of foreign direct investment are not influenced by local attractiveness factors such as market size or quality of public governance. In contrary, factors like bilateral trade and membership of the World Trade Organisation have attracted more foreign investments. We also found that trade and tourism have a complementary effect in the sense that tourist arrivals promote trade and vice versa. The outcomes of the four chapters in this thesis reveal notable and complementary effects between the three main sectors in Cambodia’s economy. Accordingly, an increase in exports encourages more inflows of foreign direct investment and tourist visits. The reciprocal effects are also confirmed in the sense that foreign direct investment and international tourist arrivals encourage bilateral trade.