Simon Lester

Jenny Leonard of Inside US Trade reports the following statements by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer after the NAFTA press conference earlier this week: U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on Tuesday said he was seeking to shake up the congressional voting landscape for free trade deals, suggesting a

From the SIEL and Hart Publishing: Submissions for the new SIEL/Hart Prize in International Economic Law are now open! ABOUT THE PRIZE The SIEL/Hart Prize is a brand new prize awarded every two years to an outstanding unpublished manuscript by an early career scholar in the field of

This is from the Indonesia - Chicken WTO panel report, circulated yesterday: Fn. 318. We note that Indonesia's defence under Article XX(b) raises a food safety issue. We observe that the SPS Agreement, according to its Preamble, "elaborates rules for the application of the provisions of

Here are two posts on the original GATT negotiations, from Roy Santana of the WTO: CLASH OF THE GATT NEGOTIATORS September 1947: Following months of good progress in Geneva, GATT negotiators had entered a delicate phase where the most difficult issues had to be tackled, chief amongst which was the

After NAFTA Round 4 wrapped up today, there were some strong words at the press conference. I can't find the full transcript of her remarks, but here is a news report on what Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland had to say: Freeland said the "unconventional" demands

Here's a U.S. proposal, in the NAFTA renegotiation, to open Canada's dairy market a bit: The proposal came as the U.S. made its first significant move on dairy, a traditional sticking point with Canada. Several insiders said Friday the U.S. has asked Canada

Politico has this report today: U.S. ISDS PROPOSAL WOULD CUT TWO KEY PROTECTIONS: Expect USTR to put at least one of those “poison pills” forward at talks this week. The final U.S. proposal on investor-state dispute settlement comes not only with an “opt-in” provisions that effectively makes the

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

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

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