Simon Lester

In my last post, I cited a Politico article which suggests that ISDS/investment protection will be removed from the Japan - EU free trade agreement (JEFTA) that is currently under negotiation.  But now I see that Greenpeace has leaked some of the JEFTA text, which shows that it has

To follow up on Anthea's post from last week, there is another fundamental question about ISDS/investment protection: If it is going to exist, in one form or another, where exactly does it belong? Should it be part of the trade regime? Or should there be a separate

Article 1708.14 of NAFTA says: Each Party shall refuse to register trademarks that consist of or comprise immoral, deceptive or scandalous matter, or matter that may disparage or falsely suggest a connection with persons, living or dead, institutions, beliefs or any Party's national symbols, or bring them

In its early years, NAFTA Chapter 20 state to state dispute settlement functioned as expected.  There were complaints, a couple panels were set up, they issued reports, and compliance was sometimes achieved.  However, as I understand it (and I confess I'm fuzzy on the details), in a case

This is from law prof Eric Posner: I’m told by someone who knows about these things that the Obama-era climate actions, combined with ongoing shifts in the U.S. energy sector, will ensure that the U.S. will reach its announced (voluntary) target under the Paris agreement, or nearly

A couple weeks ago, I suggested that it was possible the Trump administration had already made up its mind on the Section 232 investigations, and would almost certainly find that steel and aluminum imports have impaired national security, giving the President the authority to impose trade restrictions in response (the

Last month, I blogged about a press conference by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, in which, among other things, he seemed to criticize the MFN clause as a barrier to trade liberalization. I explained (briefly) there why I thought this criticism was misguided. Chad Bown and Alan Sykes subsequently wrote a

This is from Inside US Trade: U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, at his first public appearance here during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation trade ministers meeting, said the U.S. defending its own market against unfair trade practices should not be confused with protectionism -- the definition of which, he

You may have thought the much discussed U.S. border adjustment tax proposal was dead, as not much has been said about it recently, but the Washington Post reports on a Congressional hearing yesterday: Much of corporate America is in agreement that it would like to see a sweeping overhaul

This announcement is from Ming Du at the Centre for Chinese Law & Social - Legal Studies of Surrey University: On 31st May 2017, the Centre for Chinese Law & Social - Legal Studies of Surrey University, together with the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, will hold an