First Impressions of the US and China Trade Friction As noted in a report of Global Trade Alert that the US had initiated actions on their trade protection on 143 items in 2017，which comparatively listed 112 items more than the year before. Trade protection policy was not solely carried out by President Donald Trump in recent years, but also former President Obama directed such during his both presidency periods, which averagely exceeded the amount of which Mr. Trump indicated. The magnificent difference of the new trade protection policies is putting a red flag on the trade between the US and China, which is purposely targeting on China’s 2025 Plan. In this April, Trump’s newly published a draft list was about 1,300 Chinese products slated for tariffs. The list released Friday, June 15th, 2018 incorporates feedback and criticism received in the ensuing weeks. It contains about 1,100 items, including about 285 newly proposed items, such as items for the semiconductor industry, that are subject to further review. The lead began since the WTO Conference in December 2017, under the “sugar coated pressure” of custom taxation of the US, the US itself, EU and Japan jointly declared to enhance the cooperation among each other ...

Flying into the Unknown: The UK’s Air Transport Relations with the European Union and Third Countries Following “Brexit” ( Part 3 )   POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS A key part of EU external aviation policy has been the extension of EU aviation liberalization to neighbouring countries, and this has been achieved with many of them, such as Switzerland, Norway, Morocco, Israel and the Western Balkan countries. It is also on ongoing process, with an agreement on the point of being signed with Ukraine, and plans to negotiate with other Mediterranean countries. This has been achieved in a variety of legal ways; in the case of Norway – through membership of the European Economic Area (EEA); in the case of Switzerland – by way of a package of cooperation agreements in seven specific sectors, one of which concerns air transport; in the case of Mediterranean countries – through the conclusion a Euro-Mediterranean Aviation Agreement (EMAA) modelled after the first such agreement with Morocco; and in the case of the Western Balkan countries – by means of a multilateral agreement establishing the ECAA. Given this policy towards neighbours, and the UK’s current major role in the EU internal air transport market, it might seem ...

Flying into the Unknown: The UK’s Air Transport Relations with the European Union and Third Countries Following “Brexit” ( Part 2 )   3. EXTERNAL AVIATION RELATIONS 3.1. Aviation relations with the United States. Aviation relations between the UK and the United States have a long history. The Bermuda Agreement 1946 (hereinafter the ‘Bermuda I Agreement’) exchanged transit rights, as well as the third, fourth and fifth freedoms of the air on routes and to airports specifically named in the Route Schedule. It is therefore nog surprising that the most important provisions are found in the Annex to the Agreement and not in the main text. The Bermuda I agreement required government approval of rates and subjected capacity and frequency to certain agreed principles, although it is questionable whether these were in fact agreed. Declining traffic flows, exacerbated by the 1970s oil crisis and general economic recession, led to overcapacity, damaging the industry on both sides of the Atlantic. As a result, the UK and the United States terminated the Bermuda I Agreement and entered into a new agreement in 1977. In the areas of capacity, frequency and tariffs the ‘Bermuda II’ Agreement made few substantial changes to the regime established by Bermuda I; ...

    Flying into the Unknown: The UK’s Air Transport Relations with the European Union and Third Countries Following “Brexit” ( Part 1 )   INTRODUCTION The United Kingdom has been a member of the European Union (EU) since 1972. The constitutional principle of parliamentary sovereignty and the UK’s dualist approach to international law meant that EU law required implementation in national law. The European Communities Act 1972 gave EU law direct legal effect in the UK. Ever since then, EU law has been an integral part of the UK’s legal system, shaping its industry and being shaped by it. Forty-four years later new solutions are being sought, this time to distance that UK and its industry from EU law. Withdrawal from EU membership under Article 50 of the Treaty on EU takes place from the date of entry into force of the withdrawal agreement or, failing that, two years after a notification withdrawal is given the Council, and there will be no change to the existing legal framework within such time and until the European Communities Act 1972 has been amended or repealed. THE EU INTERNAL AVIATION MARKET 2.1. Market Access In the context of a traditionally highly regulated industry ...

The role of Legal Opinions In most important international business transactions, particularly where one of the parties has retained EU lawyers – but increasingly also where no European lawyer is involved – opinions of counsel are required as a condition precedent to the consummation or “closing” of the transaction. Legal opinions of the kind discussed here state conclusions of law but do not set forth the reasoning underlying such conclusions. Parties to a business transaction usually ask for legal opinions in order to evaluate the legal risks that may be involved in the transaction. The recipient of a legal opinion rendered in the context of a business transaction wishes to obtain counsel’s professional judgment that the legal assumptions upon which the recipient is basis his decision on whether or not to go forward with the transaction are correct. An unqualified favorable opinion is a statement to the recipient that counsel has examined specified legal aspects of the transaction and found them in order. To the extent that counsel is unable to give an unqualified favorable opinion, the recipient is put on notice that the transaction involves certain legal risks which the recipient should evaluate. Generally, one can say, a legal ...