International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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Simon Lester

Discussing Tariffs with Michael Pettis

Finance professor Michael Pettis had a recent FT piece on tariffs. His piece builds on one of his Bluesky threads, which I discussed with him there. In this post, I'm going to react to some of the things he said in both the FT piece and the Bluesky

The U.S. Proposal on How to Handle Disputes on Essential Security Measures

At a DSB meeting in January 2023, the U.S. made clear its position that "it was a mistake to begin adjudicating national security at the WTO," and said: "we believe Members need to clarify and adopt a shared understanding of the essential security exception, and we

More Discussions of Appeal/Review in the DS Reform Process

In July, I mentioned that the the WTO Dispute Settlement Reform Process was underway, with one of the key topics being a fix for the Appellate Body crisis. People can follow the discussions in limited detail as WTO news summaries are released, or in somewhat greater detail a few weeks

Guest Post: Are the USMCA’s rules of origin for automobiles enough to stop Chinese sourced parts coming into the US/Canada?

This is a guest post by Karen Soriano, a recent Masters graduate in international economic policy from the Norman Paterson School Of International Affairs With President-elect Donald Trump’s frequent social media pronouncements on trade, it would be a futile practice to fact-check every claim made. However, recent comments by

Will "Post-Neoliberalism" Mean Unfettered Markets or Unfettered Industrial Policy? (Or Are We Post-"Post-Neoliberalism" Now?)

There has been a lot of talk over the past eight years about whether we are now in a period of "post-neoliberalism," with efforts to flesh out exactly what that means for economic policy. To some extent, it even seemed as though there was an alliance between those

Foreign Savings and U.S. Budget Deficits

In the context of expressing concern with trade imbalances, a recent piece by Michael Pettis and Erica Hogan argues that high foreign savings in some countries (e.g. China and Germany) is linked to the growing U.S. fiscal deficit (among other things): The global trade system is broken. Current

Will Trump's Early Tariffs Be Used To Fight Digital Regulatory Barriers?

CNN reports that some of Trump's early tariffs might be used to fight foreign digital regulations: The campaign has commissioned its own studies on the economic impact of these tariffs, with levies not far below the levels Trump has suggested, according to people familiar with the effort. Some

Guest Post: Reining in the Foreign Subsidies Regulation through international investment law

This is a guest post from trade lawyer Victor Crochet and law professor Bin Ye 1. Comes the Foreign Subsidies Regulation The European Union’s Foreign Subsidies Regulation entered into force a year ago. It grants the European Commission far reaching power to screen mergers and acquisitions as well as

What To Look For In a Trump II Trade Policy

It has only been a few hours since the election results came in, so at this point I have lots of questions but few answers as to what the incoming Trump administration will do on trade policy. Here are a few of the questions. Personnel Who will Trump put in

Conference on “Navigating the Future: Industrial Policy and Global Competitiveness”

Centre for International Trade and Business Laws, NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad in collaboration with World Trade Institute, University of Bern and Centre for Trade and Investment Law (IIFT) and The WTO Chairs Programme in India is organising International Conference on “Navigating the Future: Industrial Policy and Global Competitiveness” on