International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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Simon Lester

Executive Trade Actions

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

Will Trump Reinvigorate NAFTA?

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

U.S. Complaint about British Columbian Wine Measures

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 Treaty Counterclaims by States against Investors

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

Is There a Non-Violation Claim Against Trump's Tariff Threats?

Donald Trump has suggested he would impose tariffs on car imports from specific companies who produce in Mexico and export to the United States. Ford, GM, and Toyota have all been mentioned. Here is his Toyota tweet: Toyota Motor said will build a new plant in Baja, Mexico, to build

Can a Foreign Investor Bring a NAFTA Chapter 11 Lawsuit Against a Non-Host Country Government?

According to this Reuters article, some foreign investors in Mexico are having financial difficulties as a result of Ford's decision -- partly in response to statements by Donald Trump -- not to build a planned factory there: Ford Motor Co's (F.N) abrupt move to scrap

How are Foreign and Domestic Firms Treated by Governments?

This is from a new paper by Emma Aisbett and Lauge Poulsen, called "Relative Treatment of Aliens: Firm-level Evidence from Developing Countries": Foreign firms are subject to a wide range of political risks when operating in developing countries that lack strong property rights institutions. Important insights about the

Global Trade Watch on the Lighthizer Nomination

From the Global Trade Watch blog: The nomination of Robert Lighthizer to be U.S. Trade Representative signals President-elect Donald Trump’s interest in altering the trade policy approach that has prevailed through Republican and Democratic administrations for the past two decades. Lighthizer has consistently noted that historically Republicans favored

Robert Lighthizer as U.S. Trade Rep

From the WSJ: Donald Trump is expected to name Robert Lighthizer, a former trade official under President Ronald Reagan, to head the U.S. Trade Representative office, the first in a final push of appointments anticipated this week as Mr. Trump fills the remaining senior government vacancies in the run-up

Prospects for a NZ-US FTA

I'm not a fan of letting foreign policy influence trade policy (which is one of the reasons I prefer multilateral trade liberalization to bilateral or regional trade deals, which are particularly susceptible), but there is no question that it sometimes does. In this regard, I often come across