Simon Lester

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.

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

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-

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 decision

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,