Our experienced lawyers share their unique perspectives on the latest market news and trends. Moulis Legal and our lawyers are highly ranked by respected peer review agencies Chambers & Partners, Who’s Who Legal and Best Lawyers. Our recognitions include consistent Band 1 recognition by Chambers & Partners Asia Pacific, and as one of Australia’s top 20 law firms (Chambers & Partners, 2015).
Two events which took place in courts at opposite ends of the world in September of this year have accelerated the prospects for expensive “climate change litigation” against carbon-emitting companies and government regulators.
In an increasingly integrated world trading environment, globalisation and the threat of terrorism have brought security concerns to the fore. New regulations dealing with everything from container inspection requirements to “trading with the enemy” restrictions are increasingly common.
The Court of First Instance at Luxembourg has handed down a decision that will further liberalise the treatment of Chinese exporters accused of the practice of selling products at low prices to European customers (“dumping”).
Foreign investment stories have dominated media headlines in recent months. Australia-China business stakeholders will have noticed:
On 24 March 2009 the Assistant Treasurer, Chris Bowen, and the Home Affairs Minister, Bob Debus, jointly announced that the Government has requested the Productivity Commission, Australia’s highest level economic research and advisory body, to undertake an inquiry into the “effectiveness and impact” of Australia’s anti-dumping and countervailing system.
The two week post-election political stalemate in Canberra has ended with the announcement that the Greens will support the Labor Party’s Jon Stanhope as Chief Minister of the ACT. The Greens have decided not to take up any Ministerial portfolios.
The Mortimer review of export policies and programs, entitled Winning in World Markets (“Mortimer Report”) was released on 1 September 2008. It provides an export blueprint for small to medium enterprises (“SMEs”) that are or might become exporters over the next 5 years, and makes important recommendations about how they can be supported in the future.
Daniel Moulis participated in the interesting and topical Commercial Practice in a Global Economy conference in Sydney on 1 August 2008, hosted by the Commercial Law Association of Australia in conjunction with the Ross Parsons Centre of Commercial, Corporate and Taxation Law of the University of Sydney.
Australia has been a popular target for Chinese outbound investment over the last decade, especially in the mining and resources industries. The Federal Treasury’s Foreign Investment Review Board (“FIRB”), which is based in Canberra, has the role of assessing such investment proposals in the “national interest”.
Minor changes which have been proposed to the subsidy disciplines of the WTO Subsidies and Countervailing Measures Agreement recognise that the existing Agreement is fundamentally sound, and reflect a widely held view that the interpretation and observance of the rules is a more important issue than what they say.