The growing interdependence between the different economic sectors all over the world has presented new opportunities and challenges for the international legal order at the same time. Indeed, it is almost impossible to find any kind of product that has been produced in a single country anymore. We can no longer use the term “products produced in a given country” in the same traditional sense even if it is still written on every product the label “made in”. For instance, an iPhone or a Mac Book Air and despite the fact that it could be stated on the product, that it was made in China, the reality is that the product whether its an iPhone or a Mac Book Air was assembled in China. This phenomenon is currently known as the manufacturing process where the production of a given product depends on the parts being assembled in several different countries. This increased interdependence has influenced the relations between the different states in the international sphere as the new economic realities have forced countries with a completely different set of ideological belief to cooperate with the objective of ensuring the economic growth of their respective societies. The economic interdependence has even led to the establishment of the ‘Made in the World Initiative’ (MIWI) and which was kicked-off in 2010. This initiative highlights “the way in which the global economy has become so interconnected that politicians’ traditional preoccupation with trade deficits may be irrelevant.” Indeed, it is inappropriate to state a location in which a product is made anymore, instead, it would be more suitable to claim that the product is made in the world. As such, this initiative represents one of the most explicit attempts to provide much-needed explanations to the fast changes that have taken place as a result of the growing economic interdependence worldwide. In the Chapter “Interdependence and WTO Law,” in the book “The Reform of International Economic Governance,” the author Chios Carmody explained this phenomenon from a legal perspective. As such, the author was concerned with the analysis of whether the law has managed to develop simultaneously with the fast changes that occurred in the international sphere. More specifically, the author examined more specifically the development of international trade law in this context. According to the author, the law, in general, had difficulties in dealing with this interdependence. In the author's words: the “law, including WTO law, traditionally has difficulty dealing with interdependence due to the atomized way in which law is arranged. At the risk of some simplification, the architecture of law can be understood as the assembly of rights and obligations.” As such, the legal scholars have so far neglected this interdependence. This reality is further confirmed in the decisions of the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) where the DSU seems “to be concerned with singular, or clusters of, obligations …or more rarely, with the vindication of rights.”
PDFPDFStay tuned for news on sustainable development, environment and climate change, international trade and human rights, Chinese issues and much more!
.png)
