Simon Lester

This is from a new Peterson Institute paper: In a recent book, The Cost Disease: Why Computers Get Cheaper and Health Care Doesn’t, William Baumol reports some arresting numbers to illustrate the spiraling cost of key services which are plagued by slow productivity growth. Since the 1980s, the price

A couple months ago, I mentioned a new proposal for a Multilateral Investment Agreement.  Axel Berger of the Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE) has a skeptical response here.  An excerpt: The shortcomings of the current investment regime can be better dealt with in the context of regional negotiations; these should,

From the EU second written submission: There's a policy issue here which may not have been in the drafters' minds when they wrote the definition of "technical regulation".  When you ban an input product, are you therefore regulating all finished products that use the input?

This is from the second EU written submission in the Seal Products case: The legal standard under Articles I:1 and III:4 of the GATT 1994 and Article 2.1 of the TBT Agreement with respect to their non-discrimination obligations is fundamentally the same In support of this

I always thought of a "local content requirement" as a requirement that a producer ensure that a certain percentage of inputs in the production process come from local sources. But USTR seems to be using the term differently: APEC Breaking Ground on Local Content Requirements Ahead of High-

The Mandela Institute is a leading university Centre concerned with research and capacity building in the area of global economic law. It also runs the programme of continuing legal education of the Wits School of Law. The research and teaching thrusts of the Mandela Institute are dynamic, have an African

This is from a supporter of the UN Arms Trade Treaty: Importantly, the treaty would not force anything new upon the United States or upon American companies, because federal laws and regulations already require United States arms manufacturers to comply with a comprehensive export control system, one designed to keep

This is from the recently completed Iceland-China FTA: Article 122 Private Rights Neither Party may provide for a right of action under its domestic law against the other Party on the ground that a measure of the other Party is inconsistent with this Agreement. The suggestion is that there

I have no idea who the next WTO DG will be.  But if you think you do (and if you're in a place where it's legal to do so), you can bet on it here: http://www.paddypower.com/bet/current-affairs/world-trade-organization?ev_

My Cato colleagues Sallie James and Bill Watson have a new paper on regulatory protectionism.  On Thursday, April 18, there will be a policy forum on the paper here at Cato, with commentary by former AB Member Jim Bacchus and economist Don Boudreaux. There's a lot going on