International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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Mona Paulsen

Is this the end of MFN as we know it? The EU submission on WTO reform and the meaning of development

With the release of the EU submission on WTO reform, it has become clear that the MFN principle’s central role within the WTO architecture is under challenge. As a keystone, it risks the entire bridge falling. Even if the foundations are retained but deemed outdated or unusable, and a

Is Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act a Fall-Back Option for Trump to Impose Tariffs?

Without IEEPA authority, as we have all discussed, where there is a will, there is a way. In all likelihood, this way involves the expanded use of other statutory authorities, such as Section 232 of the 1962 Trade Expansion Act and Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. In

Bound Rates and the Stakes of the Cambodian Trade Deal

Far from being incoherent, the United States’ recent moves against trading partners suggest a unique restructuring of its economic structure, with executive-dominated foreign investments planned to drive much of its future economic growth. I’ll focus on the Agreement concluded with Cambodia for this post. Cambodia has not signed a

International law aspects of the U.S.-Australia critical mineral and rare earth deal

Upon reading the US-AUS framework concerning the financing of rare earth mining. While there is very little to go on, I wanted to share some thoughts that connect current assessments with what we know about international investment law and existing institutional development. The Framework commits $1 billion in financing projects

Have the Japanese turned investment lemons into investment project lemonade?

Last week, the governments of the United States and Japan completed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to flesh out the details of a $550 billion pledge to invest in the United States made as part of the bargain to ‘buy down’ the tariffs imposed on Japanese traded products. For months,

What Trump's Trade Representative Got Wrong

Last week, USTR Jamieson Greer wrote an essay in The New York Times entitled, ‘Trump’s Trade Representative: Why We Remade the Global Order’. Simon has already done the heavy lifting by asking some necessary questions about this new order. Out of all the inaccuracies and “too early to tell”

Collective Economic Security

Collective Economic Security By Mona Paulsen (LSE Law) and Dan Ciuriak (C.D. Howe (Senior Fellow)) With a flurry of pomp and circumstance, the second Trump administration has reset United States trade with its trading partners. Based on U.S. laws that afford wide Executive discretion towards trade actions owing

Security Exceptions Redux

In April 2017, the US Secretary of Commerce initiated an investigation under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 to evaluate the effect of imported steel and aluminium on national security. In 2018, the United States imposed Section 232 tariffs on foreign steel and aluminium products from several

Risky Futures: Indonesia's Nickel and EV Production

Can governments future-proof their economic power in a green(er) global economy? This question seems to lie at the heart of many governments’ trade policies. It is not a new question per se. In 1974, many resource-rich countries resolved that it was time to create a new international economic order

Designing an Economic Security Safeguards Mechanism to Reform the WTO Security Exception

During the WTO Public Forum, the TradeExperettes published a report entitled, Ten Quick Wins for: Re-globalization and Resilience in Trade. The report captures a collection of terrific trade analysts (who happen to be women) short, policy briefs that capture ideas and potential solutions for urgent issues for the multilateral trading