Simon Lester

Hillary Clinton was talking trade in New Hampshire today, in response to questions from reporters.  I don't see the full video or transcript anywhere on the internet yet (I suspect it will be up there soon), but Ted Alden of CFR sent me something he had (this is

This is from The Economist: A FEW years ago a wise pollster—pondering how labels like left-wing and right-wing have been scrambled by globalisation—came up with a different way to sort voters in Western democracies. Electorates, he suggested, broadly divide into two groups, one of which sees

This is from my Cato colleague Bill Watson: A very unexpected outcome during a series of votes on trade policy in the House of Representatives has managed to confuse pretty much everyone today. The most important and controversial bill in the package was Trade Promotion Authority, which narrowly passed the

This is from the White House Blog: As Ambassadors, we are on the front lines representing the United States. We know firsthand that U.S. interests are best served when we pursue policies that also advance our values. That’s why trade policy is among our most promising tools. Done

I'm puzzled by this: One of the largest companies to manufacture solar panels in the United States uses a surprising resource to keep costs low and compete against producers from China: prison labor. Suniva Inc, a Georgia-based solar cell and panel maker that is backed by Goldman

First there's this: The [Indonesian] government will soon ban sales of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) nationwide amid growing concerns over the product’s negative impact on people’s health. Trade Minister Rachmat Gobel said on Monday that sales of e-cigarettes would be banned in line with the

From the ASIL/ESIL/Max Planck: The International Economic Law Interest Groups of the American and European Societies of International Law together with the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law are pleased to announce a joint 2015 Works-in-Progress Workshop on: The Future of Transatlantic

From the Economist: HUMAN hands are extremely good at making clothes. While many manufacturing processes have been automated, stitching together garments remains a job for millions of people around the world. As with most labour-intensive tasks, much of the work has migrated to low-wage countries, especially in Asia.

From PluriCourts The Present and Future Role of Investment Treaty Arbitration in Adjudicating Environmental Disputes (Oslo, 5-6 November 2015) – Call for Papers, Deadline: 15 July 2015. The interaction between international investment law and (inter)national environmental law has been of interest to scholars and practitioners for quite some time.

I'm not sure what to make of their changing views, but here's what they said: "First, now we have restricted resources and we would like to send them to the direct trade interest of Ukraine. Second, economic logic is absent in this dispute, and third,