International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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Simon Lester

It's a Big Week for NAFTA

Round 4 of the NAFTA renegotiation starts on Wednesday. After this round, we may have a better sense of the chances of a successful renegotiation. We have heard hints and rumors of a number of U.S. proposals, but this round may give us something more concrete. Here are some

The EU's New Anti-Dumping Calculation Methodology

This is from the European Commission: Brussels, 4 October 2017 The European Parliament and the Council have agreed to change the EU's anti-dumping and anti-subsidy legislation following a proposal from the European Commission from November 2016. The main change to the anti-dumping legislation is the introduction of a

NAFTA Conferences

It sounds like the NAFTA renegotiation is about to get exciting, with proposals on controversial issues such as ISDS, rules of origin, and dispute settlement coming soon. To hear more about all this, you might want to attend a (free!) conference or two in Washington, DC. Georgetown University has one

Counting Down the Appellate Body Members' Terms

This is from Manfred Elsig, Mark Pollack and Gregory Shaffer: The future of the world trading system is at stake thanks to an impasse in Geneva over the appointment of members of the Appellate Body (AB) of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The Trump administration has been waging a behind-the-scenes

Is International Economic Law International?

Following up on my earlier posts, I want to talk briefly about U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer's response to a question about WTO dispute settlement: ... We’ve had other provisions where the WTO has taken – really, I think, took the position that they were going to strike

USTR's NAFTA Chapter 20 Proposals

Recall that at a recent CSIS event, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said this: ... Back when Senator Brock and I were there and there was a system, it was before 1995, before the WTO, under the GATT, and there was a system where you would bring panels and then

Lighthizer on WTO Dispute Settlement

This is an excerpt from the Q & A at the Lighthizer CSIS event mentioned in the last post, relating to WTO dispute settlement. I'm just going to quote it for now, but I should have more to say later. MR. MILLER: ... To continue with the WTO, the

Lighthizer on Trade

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer spoke at CSIS yesterday. The full transcript is here. I'm going to respond to some of his specific points. Early on, he refers to a growing skepticism about trade: For decades, support for what we call free trade has been eroding among

Guest Post: A Follow-up to the EU Commission’s Decision to ‘Split’ Trade and Investment Protection

This is a guest post by Szilárd Gáspár-Szilágyi In a previous post Simon Lester has commented on President Juncker’s wish to rescue the EU’s trade policy, by concluding a set of streamlined trade agreements with Australia and New Zealand that would carve out contentious clauses on investment protection.

Juncker's "Risky" Decision to Split Trade and ISDS/Investment Protection

This is from Politico: Jean-Claude Juncker wants to style the EU as the undisputed champion of global trade when he steps up to deliver his State of the Union address in Strasbourg Wednesday. The European Commission president’s pièce de résistance will be to propose a fast-track system to ensure