Simon Lester

Simon Evenett and Alejandro Jara have a piece at vox criticizing the "settlements" in U.S. - Cotton Subsidies and U.S. - Clove Cigarettes.  Here's an excerpt: During October 2014 two WTO disputes were settled in an extraordinary manner: In both cases the US largely

As we all know, most WTO complaints are successful.  I've got the figures at about 90% for cases in which at least one violation is found. So what happens in those cases where the complaint did not succeed?  What are the various reasons that complaints fail? I can&

A criticism I hear a lot is that the Obama adminstration is not doing enough on trade, in particular in relation to domestic trade politics.  Not having worked in this area, I have trouble evaluating this argument.  How much are they actually doing?  How much should they be doing?  What

By the way, if you want to read more about DSU Article 3.10, which played a key role in the Peru - Agricultural Products panel report Joost described yesterday, see this recent paper by Bregt Natens and Sidonie Descheemaeker: Say it Loud, Say it Clear — Article 3.10 DSU’

This is from last week's Peru - Agricultural Products WTO panel report: 7.525. Peru affirms that, if the Panel finds that the PRS [Price Range System] is inconsistent with its obligations under the WTO agreements, there would be an inconsistency between the FTA (which allows Peru to

This is from Judge Stephen Schwebel: Opponents of investor-state arbitration claim that it faces a “legitimacy crisis.” There are three essential contentions advanced by such critics: (1) tribunals are biased toward multinational enterprises; (2) arbitration is asymmetrical because of investors’ freedom to bring claims against states, while states cannot bring

This is from a new paper by Tania Voon: ... Discrimination and trade-restrictiveness are two distinct concepts that, while overlapping, should not be conflated. A non-discriminatory internal measure is unlikely to restrict trade, because it is unlikely to reduce the competitive opportunities of imported products vis à vis domestic products. A

This is from a paper by Tomer: considering anti-dumping as an expression of global governance may seem to promise a breath of fresh air. Might governments actually be pursuing some deeper - or loftier - regulatory agendas that could somehow be understood as a form of benign global administration, albeit

This is from the panel request in DS429: Because the United States has acted in the manner just described, Viet Nam considers the proceedings to be inconsistent, as such and as applied on a continued and ongoing basis, with certain WTO obligations. Viet Nam considers these actions to be inconsistent

The European Commission and the Germans have met on ISDS, and see a way forward for CETA: Only small changes can be made to an investment protection clause in a trade pact between Canada and the European Union, European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström said on Monday (10 November). "There