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To review the recent evidence in the literature regarding the efficacy and safety of gonioscopy-assisted transluminal trabeculotomy (GATT) in the management of pediatric and adult glaucoma. A literature search was performed in the electronic databases of PubMed, Google Scholar, Embase the Register of Controlled Trials, and Ovid Medline for studies evaluating the safety and outcomes of GATT in glaucoma. GATT is a novel minimally invasive glaucoma surgery that allows the incision of the inner wall of Schlemm's canal increasing aqueous drainage through the physiologic outflow pathway with subsequent intraocular pressure reduction in different types if of glaucoma. GATT demonstrated favorable results in a wide range of both primary and secondary open-angle and angle-closure glaucoma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If one wants to get a grasp on the international institutional arrangement of what J. G. Ruggie called "embedded liberalism," which included the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), one must first carefully examine the conditions that made the regime of accumulation called Fordism possible. More precisely, it is essential to grasp how the particular evolution of class struggle in the US strongly influenced the organization of capitalism in this country, and subsequently the international institutions at the core of the embedded liberalism. Simply put, the thesis defended in this article is that the evolution of class struggle in the US in the 1930s and the following decades has been the main influence in the shaping of Fordism and an undervalued factor in the creation of the GATT. The GATT, in other words, is an agreement that strongly corresponds to the necessity of the management of the class struggle associated with Fordism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To evaluate the safety and efficacy of gonioscopy-assisted transluminal trabeculotomy (GATT) in treating patients with open-angle glaucoma (OAG) who had failed prior incisional glaucoma surgery. Methods: A consecutive case series of OAG patients aged ≥ 18 who underwent GATT with previous failed glaucoma incision surgery was retrospectively analyzed. Main outcome measures included intraocular pressure (IOP), the number of glaucoma medications, surgical success rate, and occurrence of complications. Success was defined as an IOP of ≤ 21 mmHg and a reduction of IOP by 20% or more from baseline with (qualified success) or without (complete success) glaucoma medications. For eyes with preoperative IOP of < 21 mmHg on 3 or 4 glaucoma medications, postoperative IOP of ≤ 18 mmHg without any glaucoma medications was also defined as complete success. Results: Forty-four eyes of 35 patients (21 with juvenile-onset open-angle glaucoma and 14 with adult-onset primary open-angle glaucoma) with a median age of 38 years were included in this study. The proportion of eyes with 1 prior incisional glaucoma surgery was 79.5%, and the others had 2 prior surgeries. IOP decreased from 27.4 ± 8.8 mm Hg on 3.6 ± 0.7 medications preoperatively to 15.3 ± 2.7 mm Hg on 0.5 ± 0.9 medications at the 24-month visit (P < 0.001). The mean IOP and the number of glaucoma medications at each follow-up visit were lower than the baseline (all P < 0.001). At 24 months postoperatively, 82.1% of the eyes had IOP ≤ 18 mmHg (versus 15.9% preoperatively, P < 0.001), 56.4% reached IOP ≤ 15 mmHg (versus 4.6% preoperatively, P < 0.001), and 15.4% achieved IOP ≤ 12 mmHg (compared to none preoperatively, P = 0.009). While 95.5% of eyes took 3 or more medications preoperatively, 66.7% did not take glaucoma medication 24 months after GATT. Thirty-four (77.3%) eyes achieved IOP reduction greater than 20% on fewer medications. The complete and qualified success rates were 60.9% and 84.1%, respectively. No vision-threatening complications occurred. Conclusions: GATT was safe and effective in treating refractory OAG patients who failed prior incisional glaucoma surgery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Paper seeks to review the articles published in the Journal of Intellectual Property Rights (JIPR) in the first half of the first decade of the twenty-first century from Volume 5 (1) (2000) to Volume 9 (6) (2004). During this period, a total of seven post-independent IP legislations were enacted in the country. This Paper reviews the articles published in JIPR yearwise. Paper attempts to identify: (i) total number of issues published; (ii) total number of articles published; (iii) total number of contributions made by the Indian and foreign scholars; (iv) total number of sole and joint publications; (v) publishing style of JIPR; and (vi) area of IP covered in each volume. Dissemination of information is a necessary condition for creation of new knowledge. JIPR through an open-access platform has provided an opportunity to the IP scholars to publish their writings addressing the gaps in the areas of IP. In the end, Paper develops an argument that JIPR has significantly contributed in the development of IP by disseminating IP information and knowledge and also in creating IP knowledge and awareness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thirty years after its founding, the WTO is experiencing unprecedented turmoil and uncertainty, as the United States has raised questions relating to its national sovereignty and expressed serious doubts about the effectiveness of multilateralism. Perhaps more importantly, United States representatives have questioned the fairness of Appellate procedures that appear to run counter to the interests of the United States. A recent dispute between Hong Kong and the United States over the question of the "branding" of goods emanating from the customs territory of Hong Kong has served as a "crisis point" or proxy to the larger dispute between the United States and China relating to needed reforms in the organization. How this dispute is resolved may go a long way in determining both the future of multilateralism and the participation of the United States in the World Trade Organization itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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(Series Information) European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, 2022 7(1), 239-252 | European Forum Insight of 13 May 2022 | (Table of Contents) I. Introduction. - II. Le MACF:entre protection du climat et défense commerciale. - II.1. Une extension du SEQE. - II.2. Une mesure climatique de défense commerciale. - III. Le MACF: une mesure climato-commerciale en prise avec la rigueur des disciplinaires commerciale de l'OMC. - III.1. La qualification juridique du MACF dans le droit de l'OMC - III.2. Le risque d'incompatibilité avec le principe de non-discrimination - III.3. La justification du MACF sur le fondement des exceptions générales. - IV. Le MACF: un révélateur de la nécessité de réformer les règles du droit international économique. - IV.1. Les défaillances du système économique international. - IV.2. Les perspectives de réforme du droit de l'OMC. - V. Conclusion. | (Abstract) The adoption of the EU carbon border adjustment mechanism raises several questions of compatibility with World Trade Organization (WTO) rules. Although the European Commission is presenting this measure as a “purely environmental” measure, it is, in reality, a trade defense measure that aims to protect the competitiveness of European companies. This does not detract from the legitimacy of the Carbon Border Adjustment (CBAM). But it does shed light on the outdat-ed nature of WTO law. Rather than looking at how to make the CBAM WTO-compatible, it is time for a deep reform of the rules of international economic law.

The European Union enacted the Renewable Energy Directive 2018/2001 (RED II) policy under the pursuit of environmental protection. The authors will analyze how RED II is discriminative toward Indonesian trade of CPO, primarily within the concept of indirect land use change (ILUC), which restricts trade toward crude palm oil (CPO) whereas other domestic like products are exempted from such reduction. After the promulgation of this policy, Indonesia requested WTO to examine whether RED II follows the international obligations set forward in WTO. The author will analyze non-discrimination under WTO Law, specifically based on the provisions of Article 2.1, 2.2, and 5.1 Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Agreement as well as Article III:4, XX(b), and XX(g) of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994, alongside with relevant jurisprudence of WTO case laws. This research is conducted through juridical-normative method, which utilizes library materials and secondary data. The outcome of this study shows that RED II does violate obligations of non-discrimination based on GATT and TBT due to differential treatment of like products that inflicts less favorable treatment and unequal opportunities of competition for CPO.

After the end of the Second World War, the second half of the twentieth century brought in, one the one hand, the establishment of GATT provisions in 1947 and the legal texts implemented during its negotiation rounds as a regulatory framework, and on the other hand, the creation in 1995 of the WTO as the central normative entity for international trade. In this way, the states' economic opening strategy focuses on reducing rampant protectionism, usually reflected in tariff barriers and non-tariff barriers as foreign trade policy. Therefore, the GATT-WTO paradigm enhances trade flows between countries as freely as possible, contributing to economic growth and world development. Likewise, the GATT provisions endorsed the creation of many different typologies of trade agreements legitimated by its article XXIV and the Enabling Clause of the Tokyo Round. In this sense, the international trade agreements had a notable growth since the WTO establishment until the Great Recession in 2008. However, it is paradoxical that this approval from the GATT-WTO paradigm regarding the signing of these international trade agreements strengthen regionalism as the easy path, leaving out the multilateralism philosophy of the WTO, where precisely member governments try to solve the trade disputes through its legal framework but not through specific law from trade agreements. In this manner, this research carries out a descriptive study where trade agreements are marked adopting the sociological research scientific approach where a factual question is proposed to analyze the phenomenon. Hence, this paper suggests that the current legal framework in the GATT-WTO paradigm is not dynamic nowadays, pushing countries to sign international trade agreements for promoting commercial exchange and create new rules that, at the multilateral level, the GATT-WTO do not develop for political will absence and particular interests of some full members. A scenario that merely seems to undermine the WTO pushing countries to make parallel rules apart from the traditional multilateralism model giving a more prominent role to regionalism.

This paper seeks to review the articles published in the Journal of Intellectual Property Rights (JIPR) in the last decade of the twentieth century from Volume 1(1) (1996) to Volume 4(6) (1999). There are seven intellectual property (IP) statutes in force in India. When JIPR published its first Volume in the year 1996, only two IP statutes, legislated and enacted in post-independent India, were in force, namely: (i) The Copyright Act, 1957; and (ii) The Patents Act, 1970 -- enacted after 10 years and 23 years respectively after the independence of the country. Nevertheless, the Imperial Act on designs was also in force by the virtue of Article 372 of the Constitution of India, until the Indian Parliament enacted a separate statute on designs. Two statutes were enacted in 1999 and the other three statutes were enacted in the first decade of the 21st century but some of them took a time of almost a decade to come into force. For convenience, the papers published in JIPR have been reviewed year-wise. Paper attempts to identify the: (i) total number of issues published; (ii) total number of articles published; (iii) total number of contributions made by the Indian and foreign scholars; (iv) total number of sole and joint publications; (v) publishing style of JIPR; and (vi) area of IP covered in the publications. JIPR since its inception has aimed to fill void in the IP literature in general and the Indian IP literature in particular. Paper develops an argument that JIPR has significantly contributed in the dissemination of IP information and knowledge, and also in creating IP knowledge and awareness by publishing quality research articles on an open access platform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Colombiana de Sociologia is the property of Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Facultad de Ciencias Humanas, Departamento de Sociologia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper applies an endogenous institutionalist framework to understand the evolution of the rules‐based international trading system since the end of World War II. We argue that the initial success of the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs and re‐enforcement that led to the formation of the WTO can be explained by three major factors: the hegemonic position of the US, the belief that international trade would foster prosperity and peace, and Cold War politics. However, declining US hegemony along with a shift in global comparative advantage in labor‐intensive manufacturing led to a shift from multilateral towards preferential trade agreements since the 1990s. Today, the WTO faces several new challenges, including increasing geo‐political competition between the US and China, increasing digitization of commerce, and disrupted supply chains following COVID‐19. A functioning WTO that facilitates global economic re‐integration remains crucial to ensure a strong recovery from the pandemic and continued long‐term prosperity and stability of the global economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Considerando que el Impuesto a los envases de plástico no reutilizables busca reducir la utilización de estos productos dentro de España y que su hecho imponible incorpora un ajuste fiscal en frontera que impacta sobre el comercio internacional de bienes, el objetivo de este trabajo es comprobar si este impuesto se ajusta a los parámetros del GATT. De manera que, partiendo de la hipótesis que es posible alcanzar una sinergia entre los objetivos ambientales y los comerciales, pretendemos responder si este tributo ambiental se ajusta o no a las restricciones de los tratados de la OMC.

At the end of the 1960s, the Romanian authorities awarded more and more importance to foreign trade, aiming to increase trade relations with all states, regardless of their political and economic system. One of the main international organizations regulating international trade was the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), to which Romania became an observer in 1957 and with which it established “technical contacts” in 1966. This article investigates Romania’s diplomatic efforts to be accepted as a Contracting Party to the GATT. The timeframe of the paper spans from 1968, when Romania applied for membership to 1971, when it signed the protocol. In this sense, this article will look at Romanian-European Economic Community (EEC) contacts within the GATT, a subject rather ignored by the scholarship until now. For the first time in historiography, this article investigates Romania’s GATT accession negotiations. Based on multi-archival research, the work is structured into three main parts. The first section briefly presents the context in which, at the end of the 1960s, Romania decided to become a contracting party to GATT. This framework details the country’s expectations / hopes for accession. The second part analyzes the actual negotiations, highlighting especially the points of divergence between Romania and the contracting parties. The third part details the official and unofficial assessments of the Romanian side regarding the results obtained following the accession negotiations.

Purpose: The paper aims, from an African perspective, to investigate the practice of inconsistent custom duty valuations experienced by related MNEs and to explore the impact this may have on MNEs. Design/Methodology/Approach: Perceptions from industry experts from various African countries were sought by means of a questionnaire and supplemental literature was reviewed with a view to address the stated objectives. Findings: The main findings point to custom officials’ lack of knowledge of transfer pricing principles, possible corruption by custom officials and custom authorities keeping reference prices. The impact on MNEs appear to mainly relate to additional costs in the form of storage, consignment seizure, and lengthy court battles. Implications/Originality/Value: Strategies to address challenges arising in custom valuations suggest training of customs officials, coordination and exchange of information between relevant departments within the revenue authority and making use of advanced pricing agreements.

Abstract The Indonesian government through the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Regulation No. 11 of 2019 regarding the Second Amendment to the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources Regulation No. 25 of 2018 regarding Mineral and Coal Mining has decided to accelerate the implementation of nickel ore exports starting from January 1, 2020. This regulation is considered to violate the General Elimination of Quantitative Restriction in Article XI of the General Agreement in Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and is being sued by the European Union to the WTO DSB. This article analyzes the scope of Article XI of the GATT and the conformity of the regulation on the ban on the export of nickel ore with justification in the GATT regulatory framework. This article uses a normative juridical approach, with the research done by examining library materials and secondary data. This research is a descriptive-analytical study that analyzes legal instruments related to the issues discussed, to deliver a comprehensive and systematic comprehension of the scope and application of the Quantitative Restriction Principle. This article also shows DSB WTO interpretation on Quantitative Restriction cases is still considered narrow and overrides the goals and rights of a country. Abstrak Pemerintah Indonesia melalui Peraturan Menteri Energi dan Sumber Daya Mineral No. 11 Tahun 2019 tentang Perubahan kedua atas Peraturan Menteri Energi dan Sumber Daya Mineral No. 25 tahun 2018 tentang Pengusahaan Pertambangan dan Mineral Batubara (Permen ESDM 11/2019) memutuskan untuk memberhentikan kegiatan ekspor bijih nikel mulai dari tanggal 1 Januari 2020. Peraturan ini dianggap melanggar Prinsip Restriksi Kuantitatif dalam Pasal XI General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) dan dituntut oleh Uni Eropa kepada Dispute Settlement Body World Trade Organization (DSB WTO). Artikel ini menganalisa mengenai ruang lingkup dari Pasal XI GATT dan kesesuaian regulasi larangan ekspor bijih nikel dengan justifikasi dalam kerangka peraturan GATT. Artikel ini menggunakan metode pendekatan yuridis normatif, yakni penelitian hukum yang dilakukan melalui penelitian bahan pustaka serta data sekunder. Penelitian ini bersifat deskriptif analitis yang menganalisa instrument-instrumen hukum terkait, untuk memberikan pemahaman secara menyeluruh dan sistematis terhadap ruang lingkup dan pemberlakuan Prinsip Restriksi Kuantitatif. Artikel ini juga menunjukan bahwa, interpretasi dari panel DSB WTO terhadap suatu kasus masih ternilai sempit dan mengesampingkan tujuan serta hak suatu negara.

Agricultural trade has been historically beset with a plethora of interventions by WTO member countries, which have led to numerous disputes. These trade disputes involve prolonged litigations and resolution processes, and during this time, trade barriers continue to exist. Furthermore, considerable resources are spent litigating these disputes which give rise to pervasive directly unproductive activities, resulting in significant inefficiencies and welfare loss. In this WAEA presidential address, I (i) review the WTO dispute settlement process, (ii) provide an up-to-date catalog of agriculture disputes, (iii) summarize major disputes involving the United States, (iv) present a detailed analysis of the US-China trade war, and (v) examine the benefits of global agricultural trade liberalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In December 2019, the European Commission released a mechanism to fight climate change, namely the European Green Deal. This policy was put in place to materialize the goals of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change of 2015, that is, to combat the issue of climate change along the lines of sustainable development and fight poverty. In the context of the European Green Deal, one of the key instruments envisaged to achieve the ambitious plans of the European Union (EU) is the so-called Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), which is the focus of this article and has been described as an 'extraterritorial outreach' for attempting to regulate matters outside the EU borders. This article seeks to answer is whether the CBAM is justified in line with the need to protect the environment and address climate change as well as increasing global economic welfare and reducing poverty. This article provides an overview of CBAM, analyses the rationale behind CBAM as well as the various misgivings from third parties. It contextualizes CBAM in the context of free trade and examines whether CBAM is consistent with multilateral trade rules. It then provides the design of a CBAM based on the principles of international trade and sustainable development. The article concludes that, overall, the analysis of CBAMs, particularly regarding the fervency of the EU to make its CBAM compatible with both trade rules and climate change objectives, demonstrates states' growing interest in protecting the planet, while preserving economic values; it also indicates the importance of trade in managing those interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to determine whether Indonesia’s nickel ore export restriction policy is in accordance with the principles of international economic law. It is because Indonesia’s actions in implementing quantitative restrictions on the export of nickel ore are deemed to have violated one of the principles in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, namely the principle of prohibiting quantitative restrictions. This principle is contained in Article XI: 1 GATT. Data was collected through library research techniques. Namely by collecting and analyzing writings and literatures that are closely related to the problems that are being researched by the author, and analyzing data with descriptive analytical techniques, so that Indonesia can analyze their export restriction policies with juridical provisions in international trade law. The results shows that Indonesia’s action is in accordance with Article XI: 2 (a), which regulates the exception to Article XI: 1, with certain conditions which is a dispensation from the principle of quantitative restriction. Indonesia’s nickel ore export restrictions were also implemented to protect the environment in order to prevent scarcity and to encourage the battery industry in Indonesia to improve the economy. So that Indonesian policy is valid and can be justified by international law.

The article discusses issues related to the settlement of disputes within the framework of the World Trade Organization, as well as assesses the advantages and disadvantages of this system. The specific problems of the dispute settlement system functioning today are considered, and options for optimizing the dispute resolution mechanism and various ways to improve the effectiveness of legal remedies in cases of non-compliance with decisions are proposed. Special attention is paid to the latest topical disputes involving the Russian Federation, the European Union, Ukraine, China and USA resolved within the framework of the World Tr ade Organization, as well as to the crisis faced by the organization due to the absence of a permanent appeals body.

The topic of Czechoslovak scientific c-technical cooperation with the Western Bloc has recently enjoyed a revival of interest, which can be illustrated by the works of Doubravka Olšáková, Valentina Fava, or Emilie Těšínská. Nevertheless, there is still a range of specific aspects that have been omitted from the consideration of contemporary studies, the analysis of which seems to be a prerequisite for a comprehensive depiction of the history of the cross-Curtain flows of know-how, experts and capital. In this respect, it is appropriate to revisit some of the works of more technically oriented authors of the communist and early post-communist era (Miloslav Ernst, Jaroslav Nykryn, Karel Kaplan) and to objectivize their often ideologized conclusions with new findings from primary sources. To this end, both the fonds of industrial ministries in the Czech National Archives, as well as records of international organizations (UN, GATT, UNESCO) located in Geneva were consulted. As these newly accessible archival materials reveal, compared to the Gottwald era (1948--1953), the subsequent period of Antonín Novotný (1953--1968) saw a dynamic development of the forms and content of inter-bloc cooperation, which allowed for the exchange of competitive scientific-technical know-how and modern technologies that proved to have a significant positive impact on the further development of the Czechoslovak economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Purpose. The main purpose of this study was to report a case of cystoid macular edema (CME) after gonioscopy-assisted transluminal trabeculotomy (GATT). Methods. We describe the case of a 73-year-old woman with ocular hypertension and history of cataract surgery combined with posterior vitrectomy and epiretinal membrane peeling 2 years before, who developed CME after uncomplicated GATT procedure. Results. Uneventful GATT surgery was performed in an eye with ocular hypertension. A month after GATT surgery, the patient complained of blurry vision. Best corrected visual acuity had deteriorated from 20/20 on Snellen chart, to 20/70. The patient was diagnosed with CME. Treatment with topical non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) and topical corticosteroids for one month, and oral carbonic anhydrase inhibitor for one week achieved a total CME regression with recovery of a normal macular and foveal architecture. Conclusions. Surgery-induced CME may occur following standalone microinvasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS) such as GATT. It would be worthwhile to conduct studies to explore whether the prophylactic use of NSAID and corticosteroids is justified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To investigate the prognostic factors affecting gonioscopy-assisted transluminal trabeculotomy (GATT) surgical success. Methods: Fifty-three eyes were retrospectively enrolled. Open-angle glaucoma patients with at least 6-month follow-up were included. At baseline, demographic characteristics, intraocular pressure (IOP), number of anti-glaucomatous medications (AG), and glaucoma type were recorded. Postoperatively, IOP, complications, and number of AG were noted. The effects of these parameters on surgical success were investigated. Results: The median follow-up time was 13.7 months. The mean IOP decreased from 25.6 ± 6.2 mm Hg at baseline to 14.6 ± 3.5 mm Hg at final, and the number of AG decreased from 3.2 ± 0.78 to 1.2 ± 1.3. When target IOP was considered as 18 mm Hg and 15 mm Hg, surgical success rates were 81.1% and 60.4%, respectively. When target IOP was considered as 18 mm Hg, a positive effect of the combination with cataract surgery and a negative effect of postoperative macrohyphema on success rates were observed. Other factors did not show any association with the success rates for both target IOP values when analyzed by the Cox proportional hazards regression analysis. Conclusion: Postoperative macrohyphema may affect surgical success rates negatively. The contribution of the combination with cataract surgery is controversial. Glaucoma stage does not seem to affect surgical success.

Copyright of Revista Română de Drept European is the property of Wolters Kluwer Romania and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Recent years have seen an increase in goods-related services. Such services range from conventional maintenance contracts sold with goods, to database and data processing services as necessary parts of the Internet of Things. Indeed, the Internet of Things has increasingly blurred the distinction between goods and services insofar as the latter enable essential functions of the goods. Services such as production related research and development (R&D) are also making an increasingly significant contribution to the final value of goods. On the other hand, the World Trade Organization (WTO) regulates the cross-border trade in goods and services separately in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). Therefore, it is legitimate to ask if this approach is now outdated and a new mode of trade should be created. This paper provides some thoughts on these questions and is based on the author’s dissertation which comprehensively deals with this topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of Russia's World Trade Organization (WTO) accession on international trade patterns at the firm level. A large literature of cross‐country studies examines the long‐run trade effects of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)/WTO membership. Our paper contributes to this literature by bringing short‐run micro‐level evidence from the experience of a large trading country. Using customs data on the monthly import and export transactions of Russian firms over the period 2011–2015, we investigate the short‐run responses of firm‐level trade along the intensive and extensive margins following Russia's WTO accession in 2012. Our results indicate an increase in the number of foreign countries that Russian firms export to or import from, and a significant increase in the number of exported products. The evidence on the effects of the WTO accession on the intensive margin of firm‐level trade is mixed. Additionally, we find suggestive evidence that the Russian retaliatory food embargo imposed in response to the Crimean economic sanctions might have been intended as a protectionist policy to help out a vulnerable domestic industry (i.e. agriculture) directly impacted by the country's WTO accession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2019 the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) celebrates its 30th anniversary. APEC emerged at a turning point in international relations history as the break-up of the socialist camp ruled out the alternative to capitalism model of social and political development and created new opportunities for internationalization of production. However, those new opportunities were yet to be realized. The 30th anniversary of APEC provides a good opportunity to revisit the history of the forum and to highlight complex negotiations between the countries of the Asia-Pacific region at the end of the Cold War. The paper examines both the structural factors that shaped global and regional contexts of the negotiation process and the role of those politicians and diplomats who had decisively contributed to the success of the negotiations. Special focus is made on the role of the United States, Australia, and Japan. The author examines their views on a wide range of issues related to the development of economic and political cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region, including its aims and scope, institutional arrangements, potential participants, and prospects for cooperation with regional organizations (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) — in particular) and mechanisms of global trade management (primarily — the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)). As for the ASEAN member states, the author emphasizes that they were particularly concerned that a new forum would place itself centrally in the regional economic cooperation and would overshadow the Association. In addition, they sought to ensure that APEC won’t be dominated by larger, stronger states, notably by the United States and Japan. Under these conditions, Australia decided to take the initiative. It managed to dispel major fears of the ASEAN member states and convinced them to join the new regional alliance, and ultimately it was Australia who played the central role in founding of APEC. At the same time the author notes that the forum has gone far beyond the initial expectations of its creators: it is not merely an effective tool for further trade liberalization in the Asia-Pacific region, but a unique platform for consultation, negotiation, and decision-making process suited for needs and capacities of each individual member state. As a result, economic cooperation among countries of the Pacific has reached a fundamentally new level.

INTRODUCTION. Since there are many threats in the modern world, states consider the essence of security in its various manifestations. A rather extensive understanding of security should be noted, as this concept applies to multiple directions of our life. So-called SPS measures are one of the vectors aimed at ensuring safety (protection) of human life and health. The scientific literature covers rather extensively SPS measures, taken by states, which include mandatory sanitary, veterinary and quarantine phytosanitary requirements and procedures. The novelty of the study is that SPS measures will be analyzed in terms of their use as hidden barriers to international trade, as well as how often they are used when a particular sanitary or phytosanitary measure imposed by a state or maintained in force by a member of an international organization restrains or can potentially restrain export of its goods.MATERIALS AND METHODS. In international trade certain issues of the contemplated problem are regulated by Article XX of GATT, as well as by the Special Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement). Security measures reflected in the Article XXI of GATT-94 are not considered.RESEARCH RESULTS. Th author concluded that SPS measures construe hidden barriers to international trade. However, it is possible to establish "rules of the game", to agree on this problem in concluded agreements on the rules of application of SPS measures, minimizing the possibility of their unfair use. As for the EAEU law, it affects the development of international norms in the field under consideration.DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. The urgency of the issues dealt with in the article is based on the fact that every resident of any state in one way or another wants to be sure of the safety of all that he consumes and that the state or a number of states within the framework of an international organization are obliged to ensure this. The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) is no exception, it also faces similar tasks. The article analyzes the results of activities in the sphere of decision-making on SPS measures and the framework of the international organization of regional economic integration – the EAEU.

Purpose: To report a case of gonioscopy-assisted transluminal trabeculotomy (GATT) in a patient with primary congenital glaucoma. Observations: A three-year-old boy who presented with buphthalmos and elevated intraocular pressure. Despite the presence of iris and iris processes extending to Schwalbe's line, GATT was performed successfully. Conclusions: GATT may be successful with primary congenital glaucoma even when angle structures are not initially visible.