Past Events

A major challenge raised by China's accession to the WTO is whether the WTO dispute settlement system can cope with China, one of the major traders in the world with an economy that is halfway between a planned economy and a market economy. Historically, the senior leadership in China attached disproportionate importance to the WTO dispute settlement system and preferred to avoid using it. In the first four cases in which China was sued or threatened to be sued in the WTO, China tried to keep a low profile and settled the cases with the complainants.

The EU is stepping up its common approach towards immigration policies, and immigration is one of the priorities of the current French presidency. But do the policies adopted respond to Europe’s needs? The newly approved "return directive", for instance, allows governments to detain illegal migrants for up to 18 months. Beyond a question of fundamental human rights, is an approach based on restricting migration economically sound in today’s ageing and increasingly services-oriented European societies? While the focus has long been on the costs of immigration to Europe’s welfare states, an increasing number of studies are suggesting that freer international migration could bring huge economic benefits to Europe.