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Simon Lester

Katherine Tai on Negotiating at the WTO

Here's an exchange between Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) and U.S. Trade Rep. Katherine Tai at a House Ways and Means Committee hearing in mid-April: Beyer: I, with a number of my colleagues here, visited the WTO a couple of years ago, in the midst of all the

Is AD/CVD the Answer to Chinese Non-Market Policies and Practices?

In a recent Washington Post op-ed, Brian Deese, the former director of the National Economic Council in the Biden administration, calls for a coordinated use of AD/CVDs as a way to "discourage" China's "anti-market behavior": Responding to China’s anti-market behavior strongly enough

Katherine Tai on WTO Complaints against China

U.S. Trade Rep. Katherine Tai had a couple exchanges at last week's Senate Finance Committee hearing in which she suggested that WTO complaints against China had not been effective, and for that reason the Biden administration had moved away from filing these complaints. I disagree with her

Katherine Tai on Trade Policy Pitting Americans against Americans

At a House Ways and Means Committee hearing last week, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said a couple times that she wanted "to stop pitting Americans against Americans" in U.S. trade policy: * "Trade should work for all Americans. Our goal is to stop pitting Americans

Senator Whitehouse and Ambassador Tai Talk About Getting Rid of ISDS

Here's an exchange between Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and U.S. Trade Rep. Katherine Tai at a Senate Finance Committee hearing today (2:32:00): Whitehouse: The other thing I wanted to talk with you about is the loathsome ISDS process. We are not putting ISDS provisions into

Subsidies, Overcapacity, and Domestic Demand/Savings

There has been a lot of discussion recently about how Chinese subsidies and other government support has led to industrial overcapacity, which can have a negative impact on the manufacturing sector of other economies. If domestic supply exceeds domestic demand, the Chinese-made products that won't be sold in

Free Trade and Peace Sells ... but Who's Buying?

I remain puzzled by some recent statements questioning whether free trade promotes peace. When I read another one in the Boston Review, I thought I was going to have to go through all my old rebuttals again. The article starts off this way: To many today, the idea that free

USTR's New Vision for Foreign Trade Barriers

Last week, in the press release for its 2024 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers, USTR said that over the years, the identification of trade barriers in this annual report has strayed from the original purpose of the statute, and that in the 2024 report it was going

Digital Trade Fights: The Case of Korea

In recent years, the U.S. has expressed concerns about digital trade regulation in a number of other countries, with the focus tending to be on the the EU due to its large market and active regulatory efforts (although it sounds like USTR and the European Commission are getting along

Data Flows Obligations and Exceptions in the EU - New Zealand FTA

There's a new FTA digital chapter to analyze, with the EU-New Zealand FTA coming into force soon. Let's take a look at the data flows provisions, with the EU-Japan text in the back of our minds as a comparison. The EU-NZ digital trade chapter is here.