How does China balance economic growth and sustainable development? How does it cope with the conflicts between international trade and protection of the environment, public health, food safety and other “Non-Trade Concerns” (NTC), as they are called in WTO jargon? Quite well, authors in a new book edited by Paolo Davide Farah and Elena Cima argue. The 550-pages volume entitled “China’s Influence on Non-Trade Concerns in International Economic Law” has now been completed with the support of the China-EU School of Law. 42 researchers from Europe, China and India argue that China can play a leading role in protecting NTCs. Not only has Beijing adopted several new regulations to address NTCs, it also plays a key role in drawing new rules of the game in international fora such as the WTO or G20. To better understand China’s global role and influence, the authors critically examine a broad range of NTCs in China. They cover corporate social responsibility, investment in Africa, labour law, the right to water, media control, product safety, access to medicine, among others. Whenever researchers observe conflicts with international economic rules, they suggest appropriate policy solutions. Thus, their findings can also be useful for numerous other developing and developed countries who seek to better balance their trade and NTCs.

Paolo Davide Farah held a China-EU School of Law Research Grant in 2011 and 2012. He organised three conferences on “China and Non-Trade Concerns” at the University of Turin, at Tsinghua University, and at Maastricht University. Farah is an expert in the interaction between trade, economic globalization and NTCs, such as sustainable development, energy, environment, and human rights, with a special focus on China and Asia. He is aUniversity Professor at West Virginia University, USA, and Director of Research at gLAWcal, United Kingdom.

Elena Cima is a PhD candidate in international law at the Graduate Institute of International Law and Development Studies in Geneva. She focuses on public international law, international trade law, energy law and Chinese law. Elena holds an LLB from the University of Milan and an LLB from Yale Law School.

The book and ebook version of “China’s Influence on Non-Trade Concerns in International Economic Law” are nowavailable in bookshops or online at Routledge.

To download for free the front matter of the book: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2876883

To read other publications of Prof. Paolo Davide Farah:

SSRN Author's Page:http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=629289

Academia:https://wvu.academia.edu/PaoloDavideFarah

Research-Gate:https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Paolo_Farah?ev=hdr_xprf

Personal Blog:http://paolofarah.wordpress.com

Publications:http://paolofarah.wordpress.com/list-of-publications

Text and Photos by Routledge, Paolo Farah