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Rob Howse

Can Congress Block a Return to the Iran Deal by the Biden Administration?

With Ted Cruz in the lead, a group of Republican Senators has sent a letter to the Biden Administration threatening that the Senate, or Congress, could block a return to the JCPOA. Within the next days or weeks, there may be a consensus in the Vienna talks between the original

The Iran Deal: As the Vienna Talks Resume With a Focus on Economic Sanctions Relief, A Look Back at Snapback

Tomorrow, negotiators from the parties to the original Iran Deal, the JCPOA, will return to Vienna to continue talks on restoring the accord that was broken by the Trump Administration. In the coming days and weeks, the focus will move squarely to Iran's demands for sanctions relief. As

Taking Stock of the Vienna Talks on a Restored Iran Nuclear Deal

As negotiators interrupted the 8th round of talks on restoring the JCPOA for the New Year's holiday, the mood in Vienna ranged from confidence that the bargaining would continue until an agreement is reached, to more cautious statements of hopefulness from the United States. Since until now the

Of Carrots and Sticks:Why Economics Sanctions Relief is the Only Way Forward With Iran-the Threat of Force is Delusional

Recently on this blog, Ruti Teitel and I suggested some ideas for persuading Iran's leaders that economic sanctions relief in return for restored nuclear curbs can be of durable economic benefit for the country-even on the nightmare scenario of a future Administration breaking America's word and

From Grievances to Guarantees: Getting to Yes in the Iran Nuclear Talks

(This post is co-authored with Ruti Teitel, Ernst C. Stiefel Professor of Comparative Law at New York Law School and a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations) After a long hiatus that followed a change in Iran’s political leadership (and something of a rocky start in the

Economic Sanctions, Nuclear Proliferation and Regional Stability: Whither Iran & the Biden Administration?

From its earliest days, restoring the Iran nuclear deal has been a priority of the Biden Administration. A signal foreign policy accomplishment of former US President Barack Obama, the deal involved Iran agreeing to concrete verifiable steps to constrain those aspects of its nuclear energy program feared by the West

The Battle of Ben & Jerry's-WTO Law as a New Front

One week ago, global ice cream maker Ben & Jerry's announced that the firm would no longer allow products to be sold under its brand in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OTP). Israel's continuing occupation of these territories is almost universally considered a violation of international law-except

How to begin to think about the WTO compatibility of the European Union CBAM

Widely leaked in various versions over the last weeks, the formal Commission proposals for carbon border adjustment have today been publically released. Already on social media, a debate has been unleashed (not surprisingly) about the WTO compatability of the proposals, including a guest post on this blog. My overall thinking

Decision & Democracy at the WTO: An Insightful New Study Offers a Genealogy of the Consensus Norm

After Trump, multilateralism is supposedly back. According to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, it is "still our best tool for tackling big global challenges." In the case of trade, of course, multilateralism means, primarily the WTO. The Organization's approach to decisionmaking-"consensus"-allows

A Good Fortnight for the TRIPs Waiver: Building Momentum

In the last two weeks, United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai spoke with the trade ministers of India and South Africa, the leading co-sponsors of the original TRIPs Waiver proposal, providing encouragement to move forward on a revised text. The new draft, released Friday, is a strong signal of momentum,