International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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Julia Qin

China – Financial Information Services: Dispute Settled

We had a good discussion on this blog about this case a year ago before the dispute was formally launched. See No News is Bad News at the WTO? The U.S. and EU filed their WTO complaints in March 2008, and Canada joined them in June 2008. Now the

Where is the link between financial markets and WTO?

This last week just witnessed the largest government intervention in the financial market - the U.S. government took control of the two mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and will acquire $1 billion of preferred shares in each and provide as much as $200 billion to the two

Global Food Crisis and the Doha Negotiation

It seems all of sudden, the world is facing a food crisis. Food prices are rising and food shortages growing in different parts of the world. According to news reports, many food producing countries have recently imposed ban, quota or taxes on the export of rice, wheat, barley, and soybeans,

AB in Tyres and the Chapeau Jurisprudence

The AB report in Tyres reversed the Panel’s interpretation of “arbitrary or unjustifiable” discrimination under the chapeau of Article XX with respect to the Mercosur exception and the Panel’s interpretation of “arbitrary” discrimination with respect to the used tyres exemption. Upon a preliminary reading of the report, I

iPod and U.S. Trade Deficit with China

An interesting NYT article today reports that due to using conventional trade statistics, “Even though Chinese workers contribute only about 1 percent of the value of the iPod, the export of a finished iPod to the United States directly contributes about $150 to our bilateral trade deficit with the Chinese.

Brazil–Tyres: Breaking New Ground in Chapeau Interpretation

In an earlier post, Joel and Simon commented on the importance of the Panel decision in the Brazil–Tyres case and indicated that there would be much more to discuss, especially how the Panel treated Brazil’s obligation under Mercosur. Here are some of my thoughts to share. I believe

Exchange Rates and Trade: A void in international economic law

It has long been recognized that the Bretton Woods system no longer serves the contemporary international trade order. As Frieder Roessler concluded in his piece "The Relationship Between the World Trade Order and the International Monetary System" (see Chapter 7 of his book, "Essay on the International