Simon Lester

Recall that the TPP tobacco carveout says this: Article 29.5: Tobacco Control Measures12 A Party may elect to deny the benefits of Section B of Chapter 9 (Investment) with respect to claims challenging a tobacco control measure13 of the Party. Such a claim shall not be submitted to arbitration

At the outset of the TTIP talks, people were talking up regulatory issues as the most important part.  But perhaps it was just too much to deal with, at least in such a short period of time.  Can everyone accept a "TTIP Light"?  This is from Inside US

This is from the FT: Washington has warned Brussels against granting China ‘market economy status’, saying the long-sought trade concession could hamper efforts to prevent Chinese companies flooding US and European markets with unfairly cheap goods. ... US officials have warned EU counterparts that granting Beijing MES would amount to “unilaterally

In various papers I've written, I'm sure I have made the point that prior to the GATT, world tariffs were around 40%, and the GATT/WTO brought them down from there to much lower levels.  I suspect others have done the same. But Chad Bown and

Investment Arbitration Reporter has the scoop: A tribunal at the Permanent Court of Arbitration has issued a decision dismissing a high-profile case between cigarette multinational Philip Morris and the Commonwealth of Australia. The PCA website indicates that a Decision on Jurisdiction and Admissibility was issued on December 17, 2015. A

Last week, in a post about a systemic issue involving the calculation of the level of nullification or impairment in an Article 22.6 proceeding, Joost said:  "as systemic as this finding is, 22.6 arbitration reports cannot be appealed. Is this, however, not the kind of finding one

... but then I see this: More than 50 members of the World Trade Organisation on Wednesday concluded the biggest tariff-reduction deal in almost two decades, eliminating restrictions on the $1.3tn trade of 201 IT products. Wednesday’s expansion of the 1996 Information Technology Agreement will increase global gross domestic

Here's something from an op-ed by Senator, and Presidential hopeful, Ted Cruz, making the case for legislation he is co-sponsoring: ... as scientists and investors abandon the U.S., the FDA continues to prevent life-saving drugs from coming into the country. Take, for example, the multiple-sclerosis drug Lemtrada, which

This is from the Washington Post, in the context of an article about how Donald Trump's recent statements are affecting his business activities: In the longer term, however, Trump could face problems. There have already been several worrisome harbingers for the Republican presidential candidate. This week, a major

Recall that in the U.S. - COOL arbitration proceeding over the amounts of suspension of concessions: Canada asked for $2.41 billion in retaliation; the U.S. has countered with $43.22 million. ... Mexico wants $713 million; the U.S. countered with $47.55 million The Arbitrator's