Simon Lester

If President Obama's mention of the TPP in the State of the Union address falls flat in Congress, and most people pretend they didn't hear it, will we hear the sound of Congress passing the TPP any time soon? This is from Inside US Trade: Members

This is from Inside US Trade: One business source said the Keystone ISDS claim definitely complicates the TPP approval process, but should be “manageable.” This source said the administration will likely fight back against criticism by arguing that the Keystone claim is frivolous and by highlighting the changes it secured

PluriCourts, at the University of Oslo Faculty of Law, has issued a call for papers for a conference on "Adjudicating International Trade and Investment Disputes: Between Interaction and Isolation" (more details at the links): CALL FOR PAPERS Adjudicating international trade and investment disputes: between interaction and isolation The

From TransCanada's press release: TransCanada Corporation ... announced today it has filed a Notice of Intent to initiate a claim under Chapter 11 of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in response to the U.S. Administration's decision to deny a Presidential Permit for the Keystone

10 years, man! 10 years! That's how long it has been since Joel did the first post (Tomer had the first comment).  It was on the EU GMO ban, and the EU's failure to comply with its WTO obligations.  What are the chances this issue will

You may have heard that there's this leading U.S. Presidential candidate making threats to violate U.S. international economic law obligations.  Yes, that one, but also this one: Hillary Clinton signaled a willingness to hold as "leverage" the patents of American companies keeping assets overseas

Recall that a while back, I talked about a new draft Indian model BIT.  As Investment Arbitration Reporter explains, India now has a final version of this model BIT.  IA Reporter has the complete rundown; I'm just going to mention briefly the general exceptions clause.  In the draft

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