Simon Lester

In response to the recent NAFTA Chapter 11 Bilcon award, Canada, Mexico and the U.S. all made submissions in the ongoing Mesa arbitration, offering their views on the Bilcon reasoning. One issue they all addressed was whether the national treatment standard covers only nationality-based discrimination: * Canada: "As

This is from the U.S. written submission in the COOL DSU Article 22.6 arbitration between the U.S. and Canada (DS384), although Mexico's argument in the parallel DS386 proceeding is referenced too: 118. Both Canada and Mexico's Methodology Papers add to the alleged trade

As we await the TPP conclusion, not to mention the inevitable Donald Trump position paper on trade policy (I'm setting the over/under at 20 WTO violations -- place your bets!), there are some interesting WTO disputes going on. First, there is the COOL retaliation litigation.  Canada asked for

A couple months ago, I mentioned the possibility of a NAFTA Chapter 11 claim by TransCanada related to the failure to approve the Keystone XL pipeline. I'm not sure why this issue suddenly made headlines again the other day, but here is something from Bloomberg: A two-decade

This is a guest post from trade lawyer Adarsh Ramanujan:Comments on Article 31 of the Vienna Convention The AB Report in DS457: Peru –Agricultural Products (adopted on July 31) had some very interesting points on Article 31 of the Vienna Convention, in particular, sub-paragraphs (a) and (c), and

From the WSJ: A U.S. appeals court this month will consider whether federal tariff law gives the International Trade Commission the power to order a halt to foreign digital transmissions into the U.S. when those communications infringe U.S. intellectual property. Traditionally, the ITC has intervened only to

As everyone has probably heard by now, negotiators could not reach a TPP deal in Maui.  Here's a roundup of some commentary: Washington Post: High-level talks to forge a ­12-nation trade deal spanning the Pacific broke up Friday without resolving contentious disputes over Canadian dairy tariffs,

There's a job opening in the Appellate Body Secretariat. These don't come along too often, so take advantage of the opportunity! Vacancy Notice No.: EXT/F/15-36    Title: Dispute Settlement Lawyer    Grade: 9    Contract Type: Fixed-term    Starting Salary: CHF 134,940 net per annum

I've been reading the U.S. - Animals (yes, that's the official short title!) WTO panel report.  It's over 200 pages long, and goes into great detail about foot and mouth disease and the relevant international standards, before delving into a variety of claims under

I recently came across this: According to US trade lawyer Simon Lester, dispute settlement between states under the TPP or TTIP would then require them to invoke their rights within the WTO and seek the jurisdiction of the WTO’s dispute settlement understanding (DSU). However, the right to invoke the