Documents found
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491.More information
Private actors aiming to influence the interpretation of World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreements in a manner consistent with non-trade issues will quickly stumble on the monopoly of WTO members on its dispute settlement mechanism. Despite this significant barrier, recent evolution of the mechanism opens the door to new procedural access for private actors promoting non-trade issues such as sustainable consumption. The recognition of WTO panels and Appellate body's power to receive amicus curiae briefs seems most promising and needs to be further scrutinised. Careful analysis of its use by private actors however reveals that this means of private access to the WTO dispute settlement mechanism could be disappointing. Formalisation of national mechanisms for handling private complaints relating to infringement of WTO agreements by foreign States, exemplified by the United States and the European Community legislation, may be a more promising procedural means for private actors to strengthen the normative linkage between international economic law and non-trade issues.
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492.More information
Are French enterprises at a disadvantage compared with their foreign competitors as a result of the excessive charges they have to meet ? The present article, without giving a final answer to this much debated question, is designed to assemble elements of comparison. On the whole, these data do not indicate that the charges which have to be met by French enterprises are any higher than those in competing countries. In relation to value added, the proportion of personnel costs (including social security contributions) seems lower in France than in the other EEC countries, except Italy. The averages costs per employee (including social charges) seem similar to those observed in German, Belgian or Netherlands industry, but higher than those of Italian industry. The French tax system is marked by the importance of indirect taxation. Nevertheless, the tax charge on the economy as a whole (excluding social security contributions) is both lower, and has been growing more slowly since 1957 in France than in most other countries. The data on financial charges and transport and fuel and power costs are less precise, but there is nothing to indicate that, in these fields either, French enterprises, as a whole, suffer any appreciable handicap.
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493.More information
Jazz had a prominent place on French radio and in the French press after the Second World War, and gradually took its place on French television after 1955. The vast majority of the programs making up the first regular series on jazz, À la recherche du jazz, created by Maurice Blettery, were directed by Jean-Christophe Averty. They reveal a tension between two didactic ambitions: one used jazz as a pretext to address “social topics,” while the other sought to explore music for its own sake and to espouse jazz as the sign of a new equilibrium between “high-brow” and “popular” culture. Although the earliest programs were constructed around an often awkward alternation of clips from feature films and remarks by acknowledged experts, Averty gradually broke free of the series' editorial constraints to set the music to images and explore the resources television offered. In the late 1950s, he took over new programs such as Modern Jazz at Studio 4, in which he featured musical performances and made jazz an ideal locus of experimentation for inventing a visual world which we might describe, long before the work of Nam June Paik, as video art.
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497.More information
This article presents the current state of relations between the WTO and the NGOs. Above all, it focuses on the Dispute Settlement Mechanism in environmental related cases, as these are a major token in the debates and trends towards a greater opening of the WTO to the NGOs. The article first highlights the claims of the NGOs and the conflict between free-trade and environmental interests. In a second instance, in order to fully understand the current relations between the WTO and the NGOs, it is then necessary to concentrate on their relation outside the Dispute Settlement Mechanism. Thirdly, the article focuses on the analysis of the progress achieved within the frame of the cases brought forward to the Dispute Settlement Body. An in-depth focus on the Turtles/Shrimps case and its consequences is required, as it became a conclusive turning point in the relations between the WTO and the NGOs. At last, several propositions of reforms to be undertaken at various levels within the WTO are suggested in order to improve and increase the relations between these actors.
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498.More information
The advent of the euro has made the co-ordination of fiscal policies a major European issue. Growth in public expenditure is a particularly important focal point that calls for a clear and comprehensive approach. The system of national accounts provides the best benchmark for this, especially as regards European monitoring of growth in public finances. When taken as a whole, public finances are economically well described in the account for all public administrations in the national accounts. However, refining this observation calls for a clarification of expenditure by public administration sub-sector to improve the analysis of the public expenditure components. The three-year government spending objectives filed every year with Brussels in the multiannual public finance programme are broken down by these sub-sectors. Yet these measures remain incomplete, since growing financial overlapping is making the answer to fundamental questions increasingly difficult. Who is at the origin of the expenditure? What are the best public expenditure steering indicators? New expenditure indicators for each public administration sub-sector can be quite simply added up to find the overall public administration expenditure indicator. They are also more instructive and economically accurate. Their definition has hence raised questions about the real decision-making centres and "first-resort financiers” for all transfer expenditure internal to the public administrations. In addition, any analysis should be made in terms of constant responsibilities since legislators may change the breakdown of tasks assigned to each administration from one year to the next. Such a statistical reconstruction is a long-winded operation since it calls for an analysis of the nature of all the transfers internal to the public administrations. Consequently, the indicators are presented for just two years: 1999 and 2000.
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500.More information
As several governments today seek to control the risks associated with excessive alcohol consumption, policies to eliminate sources of ultra-low-priced alcohol are emerging. Minimum price policies establishing a floor price below which the sale of alcohol is prohibited are controversial, particularly in Scotland, for the trade-restrictive effects they can cause. When adopting a policy that potentially restricts trade in a certain product, it is necessary to assess its compatibility in the same way as international economic law. This article examines the issues surrounding implementing a minimum price policy per standard glass of alcohol in Quebec in light of applicable international trade commitments. After analyzing the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements and the case law resulting from them, we maintain that a minimum pricing policy is likely to be compatible with the commitments made under the WTO system and binding on Quebec. More specifically, we assess the consistency of the measure with the national treatment and quantitative restrictions obligations included in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), as well as with the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) and the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT). However, the minimum pricing policy as proposed demonstrates its compatibility with WTO law under the exception provided in paragraph XX(b) of the GATT relating to the protection of the life of individuals.