Trade Notes

What is Trade Notes?

Trade Notes is an email newsletter providing ad hoc notes on trade or investment law or policy issues of interest on an almost monthly basis. What is “of interest” can vary, but you can expect a focus on Indo-Pacific issues and negotiations, digital trade, and niche legal issues. Some popular previous notes include:

• An explanation of some of the EFTA-India trade agreement’s more unique features;

• An analysis of the stabilised JSI E-Commerce text (the WTO E-Commerce Agreement);

• A complaint about the CPTPP’s lack of transparency;

• An analysis of IPEF’s overarching institutional mechanisms; and

• A look at some internal US government files from when the WTO’s moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions was instituted.

Why subscribe?

It’s 100% free and will deliver every Trade Notes post to your inbox so you never miss an update.

How can you support Trade Notes?

If you find Trade Notes interesting or useful, you’re continued free subscription is always appreciated. Other ways you can support Trade Notes are:

1. Sharing: it is always great to get new readers, so please do share Trade Notes emails if they are of interest.

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2. Contributing: I’d very much welcome guest posts, so please get in touch if there is a topic you’d like to write on. I also welcome ideas for posts from readers, so do send me an email or get in touch via the Substack Chat function.

   

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3. Donating: if you feel so inclined, donations to support my writing Trade Notes are also possible here.

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Who writes Trade Notes?

I previously spent almost a decade in the Australian government - at the Attorney-General’s Department working on Australia’s first investor-state dispute then at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade advising and negotiating trade (and trade related) agreements.

My expertise and experience spans trade negotiations (including regional/bilateral agreements and at the WTO), trade and investment advice to government, international dispute settlement (including investor-state and WTO matters), and broader public international law matters (such as law of the sea matters). I’ve also got a few academic publications, including in trade law, investment law, human rights, and international humanitarian law.

Nothing I write here should be taken as representing the views of my current or past employers.