Papers by Stephen Joseph Powell
While scholars and governments alike view the liberalization of international trade as a positive... more While scholars and governments alike view the liberalization of international trade as a positive development, they disagree on the medium that will accomplish this objective with the highest economic returns. Some experts believe that multilateralism through the 150+ member World Trade Organization (WTO) is the only way to achieve truly open and efficient trade. Others view multilateralism as but an aspiration and find that regionalism offers the only viable prospect for the meaningful further opening of markets. In light of what we label the new regionalism, our paper explores in detail the positive and negative effects of regional trade arrangements (RTAs). In so doing, we necessarily pass judgment on the counterfactual of using global trading rules to increase disciplines on government restrictions on the further liberalization of trade. In Part I, we describe the new regionalism and explain how it affects assessment of the benefits and disadvantages of RTAs. In Part II, we trac...
Alberta Law Review, 2007
This article examines whether customs, treaties, and historical facts have caused the ethical hum... more This article examines whether customs, treaties, and historical facts have caused the ethical human rights obligations of economically powerful states to assume a legal quality. The author argues that the legal quality of these obligations may arise from the global harm principle of international law and human rights obligations found in treaties. As a consequence, states may be held accountable for the human rights violations of transnational corporations. Further, the author examines the possibility of pursuing claims under the U.S. Alien Tort Statute for torts committed in violation of international treaties as another avenue for enforcing human rights obligations.
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2009
Chapter 19 of the NAFTA transfers judicial review of U.S., Canadian, and Mexican government inves... more Chapter 19 of the NAFTA transfers judicial review of U.S., Canadian, and Mexican government investigations under the controversial anti-dumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) laws from national courts to binational panels of private international law experts. The system stands as a unique surrender of judicial sovereignty to an international body, a hybrid of national courts and international dispute settlement with as yet no parallel in the world of international trade or other international law regimes. Binational panel decisions have been controversial because agencies chafe at their intimate examination of agency findings and supporting evidence. Panels also are viewed as substantially more likely to overturn agency conclusions than national courts. Given the record of chapter 19 NA ETA panels, the author examines whether the system created to fill a unique need among the NAFTA parties may have broader utility, albeit one perhaps less true to its original purpose. We will recall that U.S. recalcitrance on proposed changes to its ADI CVD laws (and its agricultural subsidies) were the principal reasons that Brazilforced Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) talks onto the back burner to await the Doha Round results on these issues. The United States is unlikely to condone major changes to the WTO Anti-Dumping and Subsidies Agreements, which will become the final sticking point for reaching agreement after members resolve the agriculture issues now blocking conclusion of the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations. Thus, trade remedies will again surface as major issues once FTAA talks resume. Studies indicate that binational panels reverse agency decisions at a greater rate than national courts and that existence of the system has reduced the rate of filing of industry requests for AD/CVD investigations. Rather than finding an elusive set of substantive revisions to these laws, might changing the method of review of agency determinations furnish a missing piece in the
Issue six focused on a variety of issues in U.S.-Mexican business law.
The Compendium of Foreign Trade Remedy Laws
This is a guide to the most important elements of the trade remedy laws of 27 major trading natio... more This is a guide to the most important elements of the trade remedy laws of 27 major trading nations. It offers advice for participating in antidumping, countervailling duty and safeguard investigations. It familiarizes businesses in exporting countries with trade regimes.
University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law, 1989
As interest increases in the prospect that the unfair trade laws could help domestic producers st... more As interest increases in the prospect that the unfair trade laws could help domestic producers stem the rising tide of energy imports into the United States, it is timely to make a close examination of energy-specific issues pertinent to future potential petitioners and of the federal agencies responsible for investigating their allegations. Imported downstream products, such as petrochemicals, and energy-intensive products, such as aluminum and paper, have also received additional scrutiny. This article surveys the principal issues that investigations of energy imports raise under the antidumping and countervailing duty laws,' Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974,2 and Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930.' The article explores the impact that recent developments in Department of Commerce and International Trade Commission practice, recent judicial decisions, the United States-Canada Free-Trade Agreement," and the major provisions of the Omnibus Trade and Competitiven...
One of the most important and controversial legal issues arising in connection with binational di... more One of the most important and controversial legal issues arising in connection with binational dispute settlement panels under the North American Free Trade Agreement (“NAFTA”) and its predecessor, the United States-Canada Free Trade Agreement (“CFTA”), has been the standard of judicial review that panels must apply to U.S. antidumping (“AD”) and countervailing duty (“CVD”) cases. This standard generated particular controversy in three cases involving substantial amounts of trade from Canada into the United States – lumber, swine, and frozen pork. The United States contended that panels reviewing U.S. agencies’ decisions in those cases incorrectly applied the standard of review by failing to grant the requisite deference to the agency. When the United States challenged the panels’ decisions before Extraordinary Challenge Committees (“ECCs”), the ECCs let them stand. As a result, when negotiating the NAFTA, the United States succeeded in strengthening the attention paid to the standa...
Boston College International and Comparative Law Review, 1987
I. INTRODUCTION Since January 1980 the International Trade Administration (ITA) of the Department... more I. INTRODUCTION Since January 1980 the International Trade Administration (ITA) of the Department of Commerce has been responsible for administering two of the country's most important unfair trade laws, the antidumping and countervailing duty provisions. With this responsibility, the Department received a statutorily mandated set of procedures, governing investigations and administrative reviews, that did not exist during the extensive prior history of these laws. These procedures were intended to ensure that parties were guaranteed access to the facts and were given an opportunity to comment before the final determination was made. To complement these new, more open and participatory administrative procedures, Congress also changed the standard of review by the Court of International Trade (CIT). De novo review of antidumping and countervailing duty determinations was eliminated. The CIT now reviews Commerce determinations based on the administrative record created during the proceeding and
The Peru-United States Trade Promotion Agreement: Toward the New Economic Model for Civil Society (Acuerdo De Promocion Comercial Entre El Peru y Estados Unidos: Hacia el Nuevo Modelo Economico para la Sociedad Civil)
With the signing of the US-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement on April 12, 2006, Peru and the United ... more With the signing of the US-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement on April 12, 2006, Peru and the United States opened the door to the new economic model of Latin America. The United States seeks increased economic development in Peru that will bring greater prosperity to both nations as players in the pan-American regional economic unit. For Peru, the Agreement secures preferential access to the U.S. market for Peru's goods and services and promises a predictable, business-friendly environment in Peru that will attract increased U.S. investment to stabilize the Peruvian economy and create well-paying jobs.This agreement was born into an unusually dynamic array of economic and political turmoil in Latin America. We describe in this article the shift toward economic development with a resurging reliance on export-led growth and a renewed vision toward regional integration, spurred on by a pink tide of populist new leaders. We then analyze whether the Peru-U.S. trade agreement, finally implemented by the United States in January 2009, is likely to deliver on its objectives of economic stability, independence, and prosperity, despite the great uncertainty of current events. Peru and her Latin American neighbors are developing a new economic model for the achievement of their long-term regional goals: greater control over trade relationships, more resilience to adverse conditions, and a better standard of living for all members of civil society. Does the U.S.-Peru agreement fit the new Latin American trade model or will its results mirror earlier U.S. trade pacts with developing Latin American countries, namely, enrichment of government and transnational corporation coffers at the expense of even greater inequality between rich and poor?(Cuando el Ministro peruano de Comercio Exterior y Turismo y el Representante Comercial de los Estados Unidos firmaron el Acuerdo de Promocion Comercial entre estos dos paises en abril 12 del 2006, abrieron las puertas a un movimiento comercial hemisforico en busca de un nuevo modelo economico en America Latina. Con este acuerdo, los Estados Unidos pretende aumentar el desarrollo economico en el Peru, que aportara una mayor prosperidad para ambas naciones como parte de la economica regional. Para el Peru, el acuerdo garantiza el acceso preferencial al mercado de los EE.UU. para los bienes y servicios y promete atraer una mayor inversion extranjera para estabilizar la economia peruana.Este acuerdo nacio en una epoca de agitacion politica y economica en la America Latina. En este articulo hablamos del cambio hacia el desarrollo economico y la nueva esperanza para el crecimiento impulsado por las exportaciones, y una nueva vision hacia la integracion regional, impulsada por una "marea rosa" de nuevos lideres populistas. A continuacion, analizamos si el acuerdo comercial, ejecutado por los Estados Unidos en enero de 2009, sera capaz de cumplir con sus objetivos de estabilidad economica, independencia y prosperidad, a pesar de la gran incertidumbre de los acontecimientos actuales. Peru y sus vecinos de America Latina estan desarrollando un nuevo modelo economico para lograr sus metas regionales a largo plazo, por ejemplo han establecido mayor control sobre sus relaciones comerciales, mas resistencia a condiciones adversas, y un mejor nivel de vida para todos los miembros de la sociedad civil. Pertenece el acuerdo EE.UU.-Peru al nuevo modelo de comercio de America Latina, o seran sus resultados iguales a los de otros pactos comerciales entre los EE.UU. y otros paises de America Latina, o sea, el enriquecimiento de los gobiernos y las empresas transnacionales a expensas de una mayor desigualdad entre ricos y pobres en la region?)
Georgetown Journal of Law Public Policy, 2011
Northwestern Journal of International Law Business, 1990
such negotiations to President Bush.' By official correspondence dated September 25, 1990, Presid... more such negotiations to President Bush.' By official correspondence dated September 25, 1990, President Bush notified the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance and the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means of the Administration's intention to enter into free trade negotiations with Mexico. 9 The Bush Administration projects that the free trade talks will begin sometime during the spring of 1991. Although these high profile developments have dominated U.S.-Mexico trade relations recently, other less prominent, but nonetheless critical, trade issues also continue to have a significant impact upon U.S.-Mexico bilateral trade. In particular, many Mexican exporters doing business in the United States have found themselves involved in a growing number of U.S. antidumping actions. Mexican exporters of steel wire rope, porcelain-on-steel cooking ware, steel pails, fresh cut flowers, and gray portland cement have been subject to complex U.S. antidumping proceedings during the past year.1 0 Furthermore, Mexican exporters, until recently, were involved in a relatively large number of U.S. countervailing duty actions. Although the number of these actions has decreased during the past few years, many Mexican exporters still are subject to outstanding U.S. countervailing duty orders. The existence of these orders creates uncertainty for Mexican exporters unfamiliar with U.S. countervailing duty procedures and plays a key role in the business decisions made by these individuals. As U.S. and Mexican negotiators attempt to unite two radically dis-8 136 Cong. Rec. S14,378 (daily ed. Oct. 2, 1990). 9 Id. 10 To date, the United States has initiated fifteen antidumping duty investigations covering Mexican imports.
Florida Journal of International Law, 2005
Regional trade agreements require governments to have a conscience and to hold a mirror to themse... more Regional trade agreements require governments to have a conscience and to hold a mirror to themselves." Gabriela Llobet Yglesias, Vice Minister of Trade, Costa Rica 2 A. Background: Direct Linkages between Trade and Human Rights In the 2003 Conference on Legal and Policy Issues in the Americas and in courses and seminars taught at the University of Florida College of Law since 2001, 3 the College's International Trade Law Program has explored the more visible and controversial linkages between international trade law and non-trade issues that span a broad range of vital interests that may collectively be described as human rights law. We have addressed the widespread criticism that international trade rules are insensitive to basic human rights and that globalization has done little with its enormous power 4 to preserve exhaustible natural resources and otherwise promote sustainable development, to alleviate the gap between rich and poor, 5 to encourage states to grant
Florida Journal of International Law, 2004
This essay is a preliminary summary of a fuller exposition of the topic in preparation. I would l... more This essay is a preliminary summary of a fuller exposition of the topic in preparation. I would like to thank Shireen Hormozdi and Nicole Kibert for their research assistance, Professor Berta Hernandez for her patience as my teacher, and the students in my International Trade Law, Trade and Human Rights, Dispute Settlement, and International Trade and the Environment courses for their intellectual curiosity.
As WTO Members relentlessly pursue new regional trade agreements to achieve even faster economic ... more As WTO Members relentlessly pursue new regional trade agreements to achieve even faster economic growth than the extraordinary numbers posted by global trade rules, the smaller number of parties and their greater cultural affinity have led negotiators to address the intersection of trade with human rights to an extent unparalleled in the culturally disparate and near-unmanageable 150-plus member WTO itself.
BC Int'l & Comp. L. …, 1987
I. INTRODUCTION Since January 1980 the International Trade Administration (ITA) of the Department... more I. INTRODUCTION Since January 1980 the International Trade Administration (ITA) of the Department of Commerce has been responsible for administering two of the country's most important unfair trade laws, the antidumping and countervailing duty provisions. With this responsibility, the Department received a statutorily mandated set of procedures, governing investigations and administrative reviews, that did not exist during the extensive prior history of these laws. These procedures were intended to ensure that parties were guaranteed access to the facts and were given an opportunity to comment before the final determination was made. To complement these new, more open and participatory administrative procedures, Congress also changed the standard of review by the Court of International Trade (CIT). De novo review of antidumping and countervailing duty determinations was eliminated. The CIT now reviews Commerce determinations based on the administrative record created during the proceeding and
One of the most important and controversial legal issues arising in connection with binational di... more One of the most important and controversial legal issues arising in connection with binational dispute settlement panels under the North American Free Trade Agreement (“NAFTA”) and its predecessor, the United States-Canada Free Trade Agreement (“CFTA”), has been the standard of judicial review that panels must apply to U.S. antidumping (“AD”) and countervailing duty (“CVD”) cases. This standard generated particular controversy in three cases involving substantial amounts of trade from Canada into the United States -- lumber, swine, and frozen pork. The United States contended that panels reviewing U.S. agencies' decisions in those cases incorrectly applied the standard of review by failing to grant the requisite deference to the agency. When the United States challenged the panels' decisions before Extraordinary Challenge Committees (“ECCs”), the ECCs let them stand. As a result, when negotiating the NAFTA, the United States succeeded in strengthening the attention paid to...
WTO and NAFTA Dispute Settlement for North American Agricultural Trade
Continuation of the brisk pace of international economic growth with its necessarily increased us... more Continuation of the brisk pace of international economic growth with its necessarily increased use of natural resources—often at unsustainable levels—and its higher levels of pollution—often at the cost of citizen health—combine with the rules of the global trading system to threaten human rights to health, to freedom from forced or child labor, to non-discrimination, to a fair wage, to a healthy environment, even to democratic governance and participation in the political process. As a result, in recent years a growing number of economists begrudgingly acknowledge the incontrovertible—although presently dysfunctional—linkage between trade and human rights and the need to integrate these two great global policies. In light of the slow progress in the recognition of human rights by the World Trade Organization (“WTO”) and the recent boom in regional trade agreements (“RTAs”), human rights advocates are now examining whether RTAs may be more effective avenues for human rights enforcem...
U. Pa. J. Int'l Bus. L., 1989
The views expressed in this paper are solely those of its authors and do not necessarily represen... more The views expressed in this paper are solely those of its authors and do not necessarily represent the position of the United States government or any of its agencies. 1 See infra Parts 2 & 3.
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Papers by Stephen Joseph Powell