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Call for Papers: TDM Special Issue on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP)

14 June 2016

November 2016: The TDM TPP Special Edition is being put on hold given the current developments regarding the participation of the United States in the TPP. The topic is still on the agenda and we will monitor events as they unfold and see how to proceed when there is further clarity on the status of the TPP.

Elizabeth Whitsitt, Devin Bray, Julien Chaisse, Tomoko Ishikawa, Joongi Kim, Stephanie Mullen, Donald Robertson and Frédéric Sourgens will be editing a Special Issue of Transnational Dispute Management (TDM, ISSN 1875-4120, www.transnational-dispute-management.com) on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement between Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement is one of three mega-regional agreements that will change the landscape of the international economic order in the coming years. The origins of the historic deal can be traced to the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership (TPSEP) Agreement concluded by Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore in the fall of 2005. Three years later, eight other Pacific-Rim countries began discussions with the members of TPSEP in hopes of concluding a broader deal on trade and investment in the region. After some delay, the 12 participating nations reached agreement on October 5, 2015 resulting in the historic and wide-ranging TPP, subject to national ratification procedures.

Similar to other mega-regional trade deals, state parties to the TPP have pledged to reduce or eliminate tariffs on a wide range of goods and services. The ambitious pact also attempts to establish closer relationships between the Pacific-Rim parties by promoting regulatory coherence and the reduction of non-tariff barriers to trade and investment. TPP chapters on competitiveness, customs administration and trade facilitation, services, investment, regulatory coherence and e-commerce attempt to reduce the burdens placed on businesses operating within the agreement. But, facilitating free trade of goods and services is not the only aim of the TPP. The presence of chapters such as those related to investment, capacity building, development, labour, and the environment underscore the intention of the state parties to balance economic goals with other objectives.

The TPP contains 30 chapters covering topics such as:

• Cooperation and Capacity Building
• Customs Administration and Trade Facilitation
• Dispute Settlement
• Development
• E-Commerce
• Environment
• Financial Services
• Government Procurement
• Investment
• Intellectual Property
• Labour
• National Treatment & Market Access for Goods
• Regulatory Coherence
• Rules of Origin
• SPS Measures
• State-Owned Enterprises and Designated Monopolies
• TBT Measures
• Textile and Apparel Goods
• Trade in Services
• Telecommunications

Also similar to other mega-regional trade deals, the TPP has been - and remains - controversial within the polities of its 12 state parties. While the concerns across the trans-pacific region, including those within the automobile, agriculture and technology sectors, typically reflect their own specific economic interests, what remains are passionate and compelling arguments both against and for the TPP. For example, Nobel Prize-winning economist and professor at Columbia University Joseph Stiglitz is reported to consider the TPP may be the worst trade agreement ever negotiated for Canada and has noted its potential to reduce workers' rights and interfere with the ability of governments to regulate business or to move toward a low-carbon economy (www.cbc.ca/news/business/joseph-stiglitz-tpp-1.3515452). On the other hand, Google supports the TPP as a positive force and an important counterweight to restrictive Internet policies around the world (publicpolicy.googleblog.com/2016/06/the-trans-pacific-partnership-step.html).

The co-editors invite you to explore the legal aspect of the controversy surrounding the TPP by contributing to this special edition with unpublished or previously published articles, conference papers, research papers and case studies addressing the TPP and corresponding issues raised by any of its chapters. For example the following topics raise interesting points for discussion:

• The convergence or divergence of international trade and/or investment law trends in the TPP.
• The balance struck within a TPP chapter between measures designed to facilitate international trade and/or investment and a host state's sovereign right to regulate as a means of achieving legitimate policy objectives, including the protection of human rights, health, the environment, public morals, cultural institutions, the financial sector or intellectual property.
• Intended and unintended legal consequences of the TPP's "rules of origin" provisions on local labour markets.
• The facilitation or impairment of market access for trade in services under the TPP.
• The treatment of technical barriers to trade, such as labeling and manufacturing standards, or food safety measures under the TPP versus WTO agreements and other mega-regional trade treaties.
• Supply chain risks and opportunities created by the TPP for multi-national organizations and/or member states and state-owned enterprises.
• The impact of the TPP on transformative/disruptive technologies or business models and related domestic law.
• Reconciling member states' rights and obligations under the TPP with their other international trade and/or investment law treaty obligations.
• Changes made to various aspects of the investment chapter, including the definition of investment and investor and the scope and application of non-discrimination provisions.
• Procedural and remedial advantages and disadvantages of the TPP's dispute resolution provisions as compared to other international trade and/or investment law treaties.

Feel free to circulate this call for papers amongst friends, colleagues and other people who you think may have an interest in this topic.

Proposals or papers should be submitted directly to the co-editors:

Contact details here. Please CC info@transnational-dispute-management.com when submitting your materials.

Publication is expected in 2017.

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