International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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Simon Lester

Jake Sullivan's International Economics Legacy

Never having worked in government at a high level (I was a summer intern once a long time ago), I am only vaguely familiar with the idea of bolstering your "legacy" at the end of your time in office. But people who seem to know what they are

Is NAFTA a Good Explanation for Workers Leaving the Democratic Party? The Case of Ohio

The Washington Post recently published an op-ed about Sherrod Brown, a long-time Democratic Senator (and previously a Representative) from Ohio who lost his seat in the November election, highlighting his view that the passage of NAFTA led to "workers" leaving the Democratic party: ... Brown says the political shift

Appeal/Review Proposals under Consideration in the WTO Dispute Settlement Reform Process

In a recent post on appeal/review issues being discussed as part of the WTO dispute settlement reform process, I quoted something that referenced "an updated draft of the document known as the Appeal/Review Tables, which will reflect the progress made in the discussions since the summer break

Discussing Tariffs with Michael Pettis

Finance professor Michael Pettis had a recent FT piece on tariffs. His piece builds on one of his Bluesky threads, which I discussed with him there. In this post, I'm going to react to some of the things he said in both the FT piece and the Bluesky

The U.S. Proposal on How to Handle Disputes on Essential Security Measures

At a DSB meeting in January 2023, the U.S. made clear its position that "it was a mistake to begin adjudicating national security at the WTO," and said: "we believe Members need to clarify and adopt a shared understanding of the essential security exception, and we

More Discussions of Appeal/Review in the DS Reform Process

In July, I mentioned that the the WTO Dispute Settlement Reform Process was underway, with one of the key topics being a fix for the Appellate Body crisis. People can follow the discussions in limited detail as WTO news summaries are released, or in somewhat greater detail a few weeks

Guest Post: Are the USMCA’s rules of origin for automobiles enough to stop Chinese sourced parts coming into the US/Canada?

This is a guest post by Karen Soriano, a recent Masters graduate in international economic policy from the Norman Paterson School Of International Affairs With President-elect Donald Trump’s frequent social media pronouncements on trade, it would be a futile practice to fact-check every claim made. However, recent comments by

Will "Post-Neoliberalism" Mean Unfettered Markets or Unfettered Industrial Policy? (Or Are We Post-"Post-Neoliberalism" Now?)

There has been a lot of talk over the past eight years about whether we are now in a period of "post-neoliberalism," with efforts to flesh out exactly what that means for economic policy. To some extent, it even seemed as though there was an alliance between those

Foreign Savings and U.S. Budget Deficits

In the context of expressing concern with trade imbalances, a recent piece by Michael Pettis and Erica Hogan argues that high foreign savings in some countries (e.g. China and Germany) is linked to the growing U.S. fiscal deficit (among other things): The global trade system is broken. Current

Will Trump's Early Tariffs Be Used To Fight Digital Regulatory Barriers?

CNN reports that some of Trump's early tariffs might be used to fight foreign digital regulations: The campaign has commissioned its own studies on the economic impact of these tariffs, with levies not far below the levels Trump has suggested, according to people familiar with the effort. Some