The 8th TED Virtual Conference:
After Seattle: New Cases that Will Help Define the Limits of the World Trading System

You are invited to participate in the 8th TED Virtual Conference. To visit the papers and comment on them, go to The Conference. More classes and students will be joining the virtual conference soon and it will last until the middle of December. Then, final papers will be submitted.

This virtual conference is being held in conjunction with Dr. Craig VanGrasstek, who is focusing on trade and security issues in the conference. Dr. Van Grasstek's cases are available at: Trade and Security. In connnection with these cases see the Inventory of Conflict and the Environment (ICE).

I will also make a shameless plug for my new book, Exploring the Gaps: The Vital Links between Trade, Evironment and Culture. This book includes some special TED case studies spread through time and examines how these factors have evolved over time to their current state of crisis in the WTO. Here is a Web support page for the book and a description of it.

About the Virtual Conference

The events in Seattle and the collapse of the multilateral trade negotiations of the WTO have caused a palbable shift in the debate on trade and its relations to non-trade issues such as environment, labor, rights and culture. The events of course only reflected the reality of the issues that are arising in the lives of average people in many parts of the world. The events also reflect the kinds of cases that are making their way into the WTO through the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) and the rulings that are being made that must inevitably touch on subjects outside the realm of strict trade disciplines. Thus, they are having some institutional reverberation and naturally some type of presence in policy constructs.

Below are links to the TED and ICE cases that are part of this virtual conference that touch on some of these issues of trade and environment as well as a new look at cases of environment and conflict.

TED Case Studies OnLine Journal
ICE Case Studies OnLine Journal

These set of cases come from students in various locations, starting with Washington, DC but including distance learning students from as diverse places as Wisconsin and the Ukraine. The cases are produced by on-site and distance communication with these authors through the Global Classroom.

The Panels and Cases

1. Trade, Transport and Energy
614 BOLPIPES Bolivian Pipeline Spills and Environment Impacts, by Mauricio Rios
611 IRANPIPELINE Iran to India Oil Pipeline, by Shamila Chaudary
619 BURMAPIPELINE Burma Gas Pipeline and US Court Case, by Zaw Oo
2. Trade and Labor
607 CUBATOUR Cuba Tourism and Women's Rights, by Lisa Campeau
606 THAIWOMEN Women Trafficking from Thailand to Japan, by Tomoko Ashizuka
608 SOCCERTRADE Soccer and Free Trade, by Niklas Enander
3. Trade and Culture
617 MONGOLIA Mongolia and Globalization, by Gretchen Warner
605 IRISHMUSIC Bar Music and Irish WTO Case, by Dima Al-Azem
616 GRAPPA Who owns Grappa? The Name and the EU-South Africa Trade Agreement, by Petra Ticha
4. Trade and Rights
615 SAIPAN Saipan, Textiles, Labor Rights and Wal-Mart, by Elizabeth Sobel
619 BODYSHOP The Bodyshop and Exploitation, by Samantha Xiao
612 UKRAINE-IT Ukraine Policies on Information Tehnology and Rights Issues, by Dmitriy Taukchi
5. Trade and Environment
609 SURINAM Surinam Forest Deal with Malaysia, by Sharon Grau
610 SUKPAI East Russia Trade and Environment, by James Griffin
620 KYOTO-UKRN Kyoto Potocols and Ukraine, by Victoria Boyko
6. Inventory of Conflict and Environment
91 DIAMOND-SL Diamond Registry and Sierra Leone Civil War, by Carl von Berneuth
92 CONGO Congo Diamonds and Domestic and International Conflict, by Nadia Martinez



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