Rob Howse

Last week the second 21.5 compliance panel report was released in the long-running Tuna/Dolphin, or Tuna II, dispute between Mexico and the United States. Finally after two rounds of the US tweaking of the measure, the WTO panel gave the voluntary labeling scheme for Dolphin-Safe tuna a clean

There has been much handwringing in recent days about the imminent likelihood that President Trump will "decertify" the Iran deal.  But little of the media coverage has focused on the exact meaning and legal and political consequences of "decertification."  Often "decertification" is associated with

By a long stretch, the Financial Times is my favorite English-language newspaper.  Not only because it covers better than others the international economic stories that are of concern to folks like me, the readers of this blog.  More importantly, the line-up of outstanding writers and thinkers is stunning: Gillian Tett,

As most of us know, including Kim Jong Un (I hope by now!), Donald Trump is a guy who doesn't like to be threatened.   But big business lobbies such as the US Chamber of Commerce are menacing the Administration with grave consequences if it goes ahead with a

The recent Eiser v. Spain ICSID award is yet another example of a state being condemned to pay a large monetary sum merely because an investor has been economically disadvantaged by a reasonable and necessary regulatory change.  Eiser, which generates renewable energy in Spain, complained, like many other companies (Spain

(This post was inspired in some ways by Damon Linker's insightful writing about the current US political scene and in other ways by Edward Luce). Most of my political and economic ideas and ideals line up with the progressive movement in the Democratic Party; that's to

(This post was inspired in some ways by Damon Linker's insightful writing about the current US political scene and in other ways by Edward Luce). Most of my political and economic ideas and ideals line up with the progressive movement in the Democratic Party; that's to

(This post was inspired in some ways by Damon Linker's insightful writing about the current US political scene and in other ways by Edward Luce). Most of my political and economic ideas and ideals line up with the progressive movement in the Democratic Party; that's to

This morning, in a major address, Canada's foreign minister Chrystia Freeland laid out the government's objectives for the renegotiation of NAFTA.  This is the key passage from her speech: First, we aim to modernize NAFTA. The agreement is 23 years old. The global, North American, and

Once again, the international media, along with some EU officials, are presenting Greece's former chief statistician Andreas Georgiou as a martyr.  The story goes as follows:  during the crisis Mr. Georgiou was not only an honest but heroic apostle for truth in numbers, unflinching in revealing the awful