Professor Thomas Cottier, managing director of the World Trade Institute (WTI) and Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Trade Regulation shared his expertise on international trade law at the Summer Programme organised by the WTI and CUHK in Hong Kong.
Professor Cottier covered the international framework for IP protection, from the Paris Convention to the TRIPs Agreement, and about intellectual property in a trade law setting, and the crown jewel of the WTO: its effective dispute settlement.
After professor Cottier’s lectures one realises in a profound way that the life of international law is in its national law. China’s system is monistic, in that international law rules supreme over its national law.
Article 142 General Principles of Civil Law of the People’s Republic of China:
“The application of law in civil relations with foreigners shall be determined by the provisions in this chapter. If any international treaty concluded or acceded to by the People’s Republic of China contains provisions differing from those in the civil laws of the People’s Republic of China, the provisions of the international treaty shall apply, unless the provisions are ones on which the People’s Republic of China has announced reservations. International practice may be applied to matters for which neither the law of the People’s Republic of China nor any international treaty concluded or acceded to by the People’s Republic of China has any provisions.”
Professor Cottier explained that China, after it ascended to the World Trade Agreement in December 21, 2001, became a third party at every dispute at the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body. Therefore, China built up very quickly the expertise in this field and has applied it with great skill to cases in which it was a direct party.
What professor Cottier said about China was a feast of recognition: whether China was and is compliant to the Agreement on the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs), which is an integral part of WTO (namely annex C) I researched in my thesis Paper Tiger or Roaring Dragon, China’s TRIPs Implementations and Enforcement.
Professor Cottier quoted Tony Traubman who shows one can look at TRIPs, that was developed during the Uruguay Trade Round between 1986 and 1994, before the invention of the World Wide Web: as an essentially analogue treaty in a digital age, or a trade agreement, capable of retrofitting the Internet and facilitating the rise in trade in digital products and services. See Mira Burri and Thomas Cottier, Introduction: Digital Technologies and International Trade Regulation (September 28, 2011). TRADE GOVERNANCE IN THE DIGITAL AGE, Mira Burri, Thomas Cottier, eds., Cambridge University Press, 2012, here at page 10.
Professor Cottier mentioned that China will ultimately ascend to the multilateral Government Procurement Agreement. It is now negotiating its accession conditions and is not happy with the standards set by developed countries, according to the China Daily, see here via China.org.cn.
