Simon Lester

This is from the recent AB 21.5 report in Tuna: 7.32 ... Under Article 2.1, ... a complainant must show that, under the technical regulation at issue, the treatment accorded to imported products is less favourable than that accorded to like domestic products or like products originating in any

What is it with Canadian provincial restrictions on internal trade in beer? I blogged about one issue here. Now there's this: On Tuesday, the Alberta budget included an overall five per cent liquor tax increase on top of the 10 per cent increase introduced by the former Tory

This is from the U.S. statement at yesterday's DSB meeting, commenting on the Tuna 21.5 panel and Appellate Body reports: Panels and the Appellate Body should not make their conception of the “perfect” measure the enemy of all the possible good ones. In pursuing legitimate objectives,

From the European Commission: The European Union and Vietnam today finalised talks for a free trade agreement (FTA), marking the end of the negotiating process. After the agreement in principle reached in August, today’s announcement follows the successful resolution of the few remaining issues on the table. ... Vietnam has

With the AB's recent Tuna 21.5 report in mind, I think it's fair to say that the focus when analyzing less favorable treatment tends to be on the "stems exclusively from a legitimate regulatory distinction" element.  I agree that this element is crucial,

I am not as critical as Rob of the AB's Tuna 21.5 report, but I do have some concerns. Let me set them out briefly. First, the Appellate Body said the following about the standard it applies under TBT Article 2.1: 7.153. We have already

Earlier this year, I was speculating about a NAFTA Chapter 11 claim against a U.S. tax provision that had an impact on marijuana businesses, and more generally I've been wondering about ISDS challenges to marijuana regulation.  I thought the first such claim -- or rather, the intent

This is a guest post from Nataliya Haletska, a PhD student at Ivan Franko Lviv National University, Ukraine I am working on a paper regarding the possibility of bringing territorial disputes under the auspices of the WTO. Particularly, I came to conclusion that the annexation of the part of Ukrainian

I'm sure Rob (and maybe others) will weigh in soon on today's WTO Appellate Body ruling in the Article 21.5 proceeding of U.S. - Tuna, but let me just quickly mention one point that occurs to me.  (The facts of the measure here are

From the TPP cross-border trade in services chapter: Article 10.3: National Treatment2 1. Each Party shall accord to services and service suppliers of another Party treatment no less favourable than that it accords, in like circumstances, to its own services and service suppliers. 2 For greater certainty, whether treatment