Simon Lester

Donald Trump has a sophisticated and nuanced take on the MFN principle as applied in trade negotiations.  Ha ha, just kidding. Here's what he said a couple weeks ago: "I want one-on-one: If somebody treats us well, we make a trade agreement, and I'

The American Society of International Law International Economic Interest Group is now accepting papers for its Biennial Conference, which will take place September 30, 2016 - October 1, 2016 at Georgetown University Law Center.  This is from the call for papers: I. Overall Concept and Themes Overall theme: Making International Economic

This is from the Draft Interim Technical Report, Trade Sustainability Impact Assessment on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the EU and the USA, prepared by the consultancy Ecorys for the European Commission: 14. Main expected social impacts from TTIP: long-term wages and prices rise, short-term

This is a guest from trade lawyer Adarsh Ramanujan Continuing from my earlier post on the recent ECJ judgements relating to the EU Directive on tobacco products, one part of the dispute involved Poland’s challenge that the EU-wide ban on cigarettes with characteristic flavouring, including menthol, was not

This is a guest from trade lawyer Adarsh Ramanujan Last week, the European Court of Justice, issued its judgment (here, here, and here) has dismissed the action initiated by Poland against the EU’s Directive 2014/40/EU concerning tobacco products, and upheld the validity of said Directive. I don’

From Politico: And now for some drama in Geneva, the United States has informed the chairman of the World Trade Organization's Dispute Settlement Body that it cannot support the reappointment of South Korean national Seung Wha Chang to the Appellate Body. The U.S. is concerned that some

This is from Politico: COUNCIL TO AMEND CETA AS ‘MIXED AGREEMENT:’ Coming as no big surprise to frequent Morning Trade readers, Friday’s Trade Council will see the EU ministers changing the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with Canada into a ‘mixed agreement,’ meaning that not only the Council

For a while, the Mexico-U.S. WTO dispute over U.S. measures related to dolphin-safe labels on tuna was pretty conventional. Mexico brought a complaint; the U.S. lost. The U.S. revised its regulations, and Mexico challenged the new regulations in an Article 21.5 proceeding. The

With all of the trade talk in the U.S. presidential election, there has been some demand for commentary, to make sense of it all. Personally, I can't make sense of much in this election, but nevertheless here's Joel on Fox News talking about the Democratic

Here are some of the details: The Secretariat of the WTO is seeking to fill the position of Director in the Legal Affairs Division. General Functions Reporting to a Deputy Director-General (DDG), the incumbent will lead the Legal Affairs Division, which is primarily responsible for assisting dispute settlement panels