Simon Lester

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 maintain

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

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

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 in

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

From TDM: Call for papers: TDM Special Issue on the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between the European Union and Canada (CETA) http://www.transnational-dispute-management.com/news.asp?key=550 Herfried Wöss, Fabien Gélinas, Andrea Bjorklund, and John Gaffney will be editing a TDM Special Issue on the

From CBC news: The Alberta government is banning the sale of some flavoured tobacco products in a bid to curb youth smoking -- but is still allowing the sale of menthol cigarettes. Health Minister Stephen Mandel defended the exclusion, saying that Alberta needs to "deal with the realities of the

Assuming we get a TPP at some point, do we need to create a Secretariat to administer it?  This is from Politico: A final TPP agreement may be months from conclusion and could take longer to go into force. But supporters are already fretting about how the monstrous trade deal

This was probably inevitable: WESTMINSTER, Mass. (AP) — The cartons of Marlboros, cans of Skoal and packs of Swisher Sweets are hard to miss stacked near the entrance of Vincent's Country Store, but maybe not for much longer: All tobacco products could become contraband if local health officials get