Simon Lester

This is from CTV: The [Canadian] federal government is launching consultations on a potential free trade agreement with China. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang announced the beginning of exploratory discussions in September. Now the government says it is seeking input from individuals, businesses, civil society organizations,

Here is former UN Ambassador John Bolton writing about the DSU in the WSJ: Agreed to during the Uruguay Round of world trade talks in 1994, the DSU has had some successes. But it is often criticized for failing to deter violations of the WTO’s substantive trade provisions and

If you are looking for indications as to how the Trump administration trade policy team might approach changes to WTO dispute settlement, this new report by Terry Stewart and Elizabeth Drake, entitled "How the WTO Undermines U.S. Trade Remedy Enforcement," might be a good place to start.

The FT has a copy here. It is being portrayed as more evidence of the U.S. planning to move away from the WTO, and perhaps it is, but to be honest the language is not as radical as I expected.  Yes, there are mentions of "sovereignty" and

This is from the FT: The Trump administration is exploring alternatives to taking trade disputes to the World Trade Organisation in what would amount to the first step away from a system that Washington helped to establish more than two decades ago. Incoming officials have asked the US Trade Representative’

Over on twitter, my friend Colin Brown and I were discussing exceptions clauses in international investment agreements.  When I suggested that it was important to have such exceptions apply to the fair and equitable treatment obligation, he asked, "but why would one need an exception from failure to provide

Details are here. Some highlights: * The deadline to apply is Wednesday 8 March. * You will not be alone. It says, "NUMBER OF POSTS: Up to 17" * Not that I am buying this, but it says, "For those working full-time, you will be expected to work a

This is from the CBC: The first Canadian troops will arrive in Latvia in June, kicking off a much-anticipated NATO deployment to restrain potential Russian ambitions in eastern Europe, Gen. Jonathan Vance said Friday. Roughly 450 Canadians will form the backbone and leadership of a multinational battle group that

This is from Inside US Trade: Trump administration officials this week defended the current methodologies applied to collect and present U.S. trade data and statistics, and dismissed as “completely inaccurate” a report by the Wall Street Journal that claimed U.S. agencies are considering changing those methodologies. Last week&

From Politico: America’s relationship with the World Trade Organization is about to get a lot more complicated. President-elect Donald Trump already has threatened to withdraw from the Geneva-based organization, but his selection of Robert Lighthizer to be the next U.S. Trade Representative last week increases the