Simon Lester

From Reuters: U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday will sign a directive asking for a speedy probe into whether imports of foreign-made steel are hurting U.S. national security, two administration officials said on Wednesday. Trump is to sign the memorandum related to section 232 of the Trade Expansion

... is here.  This is an excerpt: By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and to ensure the faithful execution of the laws, it is hereby ordered as follows: ... Sec. 2.  Policy.  It shall be the policy of

This is from a DOC notice and request for comments related to the use of domestic steel and iron in pipelines: The Department of Commerce is seeking information on the construction and maintenance of American pipelines. This information will help the Department develop a plan for the domestic sourcing of

The link is here, and the full text of the DOC's "Notice of public hearing and request for comments" is below. I hope they get lots of good submissions on macroeconomics. Notice of public hearing and request for comments. Pursuant to Executive Order 13786 of March

This is from Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross: Speaking ahead of the arrival in Washington of global finance officials for this week’s IMF and World Bank spring meetings, commerce secretary Wilbur Ross said those accusing the Trump administration of protectionism were firing at the wrong target. The billionaire investor, who

There was this: President Trump on Wednesday said he would not label China a currency manipulator, contradicting one of the biggest economic promises he made on the campaign trail. And there was also this: COMMERCE TAKES ‘UNPRECEDENTED’ STEP IN TRADE CASE: The Trump administration flexed its enforcement muscles by taking

Carveouts for tobacco control measures are spreading. The carveout was first used in the TPP, then was brought over to the Australia-Singapore FTA update. Now there is one in the Canadian Free Trade Agreement: Article 806: Tobacco Control Measures This Agreement does not apply to any measure adopted or maintained

Over the years, I've tried on this blog to get people interested in the Canadian Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT), with little apparent success.  In part, that may have been because there just weren't enough cases (roughly 3 per year -- the list is here).  A

In a recent interview with the FT, President Trump had this to say about the existing U.S. trade relationship with China: How do you bring China’s trade surplus down quickly? By telling China that we cannot continue to trade if we are going to have an unfair deal

On Friday, President Trump signed an executive order for an "Omnibus Report on Significant Trade Deficits."  Here's how it starts: OMNIBUS REPORT ON SIGNIFICANT TRADE DEFICITS By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America,