International Economic Law and Policy Blog

Sign in Subscribe

Simon Lester

Tie Votes at the ITC

One of the claims in the the latest WTO complaint, brought by Indonesia against a U.S. AD/CVD measure, is the following: The United States' imposition of anti-dumping and countervailing duty orders appears to be inconsistent with at least the following provisions of WTO law: ... With respect to

International Investment Obligations in Domestic Law

Here's more from the ISDS in TTIP debate between Lauge Poulsen, Jonathan Bonnitcha, Jason Yackee, on one side, and Freya Baetans, on the other. Poulsen, Bonnitcha, and Yackee say the following: While the high quality of the US judicial system (and US laws) concerning foreign investors is beyond

ISDS as Good Governance

There's a good back and forth on ISDS in TTIP between Lauge Poulsen, Jonathan Bonnitcha, Jason Yackee, on one side, and Freya Baetans, on the other. I'm going to get 4 or 5 blog posts out of all this! I'll start with something from

Can ISDS Serve as an International Antitrust Court?

This is from three well-known labor economists, writing in support of the TPP: If passed, the TPP also would create a powerful template for future trade deals, including with China, which would move the U.S. closer to resolving conflicts the WTO has been unable to handle. Consider, for example,

A New Structure for Appellate Body Reports

The Appellate Body has announced a change related to how it approaches summaries of parties' arguments in its reports: The Appellate Body intends to continue the practice of asking participants in appeals to submit executive summaries of their written submissions. The deadlines for filing such summaries will also remain

More on a TPP Secretariat

Continuing with the theme of issues I think are interesting, but few people are talking about, let me raise again the question of whether there should be a TPP Secretariat. This is from Deborah Elms: The TPP requires a robust Secretariat to ensure the long-term health and success of this

More on That Interesting Debate

In the comments on that last post, Marc Benitah asked why I thought this was such an important debate. I had been planning to explain this anyway, so I'm glad he asked. I think the distinction between "protectionism" and "terms of trade manipulation," as

The Most Interesting Trade Debate You've Probably Never Heard Of

There's a great debate that has been going on slowly and sporadically, over a period of years, about the purpose of trade agreements. On one side are Don Regan of Michigan Law School and economist Bill Ethier; on the other side are economists Kyle Bagwell and Rob Staiger,

State Subsidy Competition Is Bad

From a new paper by economist Ralph Ossa: U.S. cities, counties, and states spend substantial resources on subsidies trying to attract firms. According to a New York Times database which I describe in detail later on, expenditures for such subsidies range from $33.4 million per year in Nevada

Fifteen Fully Funded PhD Positions in Dispute Resolution in International Law

From the International Max Planck Research School for Successful Dispute Resolution in International Law: Fifteen fully funded PhD positions in International Law, starting in 2015 and 2016, are currently open at the International Max Planck Research School for Successful Dispute Resolution (IMPRS-SDR), a doctoral school established in Heidelberg (Germany) and