Simon Lester

My head is spinning trying to keep track of what is real and what is just rhetoric. Here is more from Trump's press secretary: It was not clear exactly how the Trump administration would impose the new tax on Mexican exports. But Spicer said it would be part

This is from a group of European academics, from more than 15 countries, who "set out their belief that a more critical reflection is needed on what an effective and democratic decision-making process in the EU requires": TRADING TOGETHER For strong and democratically legitimized EU international agreements 25

From Reuters: President Trump today signed executive actions to accelerate the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipeline projects and to decree that American steel should be used for pipelines built in the United States. I want to see the precise language of the requirement (should be available later today), but

This is from the Australian Parliament web site: Twelve countries are involved in the TPP negotiations but most market access issues are negotiated at a bilateral level—that is, country to country. And here are some specifics from a CRS report: Negotiating the terms of agricultural trade liberalization within the

For those of you trying to figure out where the Trump administration is going with trade policy, here are a few tidbits from Sean Spicer (the White House press secretary) at yesterday's press conference: QUESTION: (inaudible) news. After the executive order withdrawing the U.S. from the TPP,

Here it is: Regarding Withdrawal of the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership Negotiations and Agreement MEMORANDUM FOR THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE SUBJECT:                    Withdrawal of the United States from the                                     Trans-Pacific Partnership Negotiations                                     and Agreement It is the policy of my Administration to represent the American people and their

I haven't seen the presidential memo yet, but Inside US Trade reports: President Trump on Jan. 23 signed a presidential memo formally withdrawing the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, assuring the Obama administration's flagship trade agreement will not come into force as negotiated and prompting

A few people I know who are big supporters of North American integration worried a bit about what the TPP might do to NAFTA.  To some extent, it seemed as though NAFTA would get folded into the TPP.  If that happened, would everybody just forget about NAFTA?  The momentum for

Here's the latest WTO complaint, brought by the U.S. against various British Columbian measures governing the sale of wine in grocery stores: The BC wine measures provide advantages to BC wine through the granting of exclusive access to a retail channel of selling wine on grocery store

Investment Arbitration Reporter has a piece on a recent award involving a counterclaim by a state against an investor. Jarrod Hepburn explains: As discussed in a companion article, a tribunal at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) has found one discrete breach of the Spain-Argentina bilateral investment