Spring 2021 SIEL Newsletter

Sneak peak of Peter Van den Bossche's commentary:

"While the COVID-19 pandemic is receding and rapid economic recovery is expected in Europe and North America, in many developing countries the end of human suffering and economic decline is not in sight yet. My heart goes out to the people of India (and of all other countries on which the media have not been reporting) who are hit so badly by the pandemic.

The past months have been quite interesting at the WTO. Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who started as WTO Director-General on 1 March 2021, has brought renewed hope and dynamism. Her leadership in the past three months has inspired many of us. While the WTO is still to achieve any breakthrough on the many problems and thorny issues beleaguering it, a clear sense of purpose seems to have returned to both WTO Members and the Secretariat. The debate on a COVID vaccine waiver took a very interesting turn when the Biden administration expressed its support for such a waiver. At least on this issue, the United States is leading the debate at the WTO again. Not directly WTO-related, but equally interesting, is the proposal of the Biden administration for a global minimum corporate tax. The negotiations on fisheries subsidies are now in their final phase. On 11 May 2021, Ambassador Santiago Wills circulated his Draft Consolidated Chair Text. This draft contains, of course, plenty of bracketed text and WTO Members will still need to make some tough compromises".

Other contents include a tribute to H.E Judge James Crawford, interviews with SIEL's new office bearers, information about conferences and other events, calls for papers and other activities.

The full news letter is linked below.