Simon Lester

Inside US Trade describes the steel quotas agreed to as part of the KORUS modifications as follows: Korea’s trade minister Kim Hyun-chong announced at a press briefing Monday that Korea would receive a quota of about 2.68 million tons of steel exports to the U.S. annually,

Unlike NAFTA, the KORUS FTA renegotiation was not a complete overhaul, but more of a "refurbishing" of the agreement (as Ambassador Lighthizer put it the other day), one that was designed to avoid Congressional oversight. There are reports out now that the KORUS talks are complete, with what

When I hear people claim that ISDS/investment protection "de-politicizes" investment disputes, in the sense that governments can avoid the unpleasant task of espousing diplomatic claims against other governments, I usually respond by pointing out that ISDS claims create political controversy of another kind, so at best

This is from the NY Times: The contentious negotiations over the fate of the North American Free Trade Agreement have veered into one of the world’s most pressing health issues: fighting obesity. Urged on by big American food and soft-drink companies, the Trump administration is using the trade

The U.S. submissions in the Russia - Traffic in Transit case are now available here. Here's an excerpt from the third party oral statement: III. The Text of Article XXI, in its Context, Establishes That the Exception Is Self-Judging 11. Article XXI of the GATT 1994, in

A clarification of the scope of the GATT Article XXI security exception may come sooner than expected, as Russia has invoked Article XXI(b)(iii) in the Russia - Traffic in Transit (DS512) dispute. The EU's third party submissions are now online: Third party written submission and third party

In my last post, I highlighted the comments of John Leddy, a U.S. delegate to the GATT negotiations, on the meaning and scope of the GATT security exception. But you probably noticed that the version under discussion as part of the New York draft does not have the crucial