Simon Lester

For those in the DC area, Cato will be holding a policy forum on subsidies, on Oct. 9.  Here are all the details: Countervailing Calamity: How to Stop the Global Subsidies Race POLICY FORUM Tuesday, October 9, 2012 4:00 PM (Reception To Follow) Featuring Tim Carney, Washington Examiner; Scott

Speaking of IP related issues, as I was in the last post, the FT's Alan Beattie has a good article on international IP rules.  Here's the full paragraph containing the quote in the title: As the global economy shifts online and more of its value-added comes

French wine producers are outraged that American producers might be able to sell "chateau"-type wine in the EU. See here, here and here for all the details.  According to the French producers, the American standards for using the term "chateau" are much lower than the

A press release from the Canadian government: “Today, Canada, along with Norway, asked the World Trade Organization (WTO) to appoint the panellists to hear the challenge to the EU's ban on seal products. “Canada and Norway are ready with their legal case and look forward to moving ahead

This seems important, but I don't quite know what to make of it: In a document marked "secret" sent to members of the World Trade Organisation last week and seen by Reuters, Ukraine says it intends to raise the limit on the tariffs it can legally

Those of you who follow Scott Lincicome's blog have no doubt seen his discussion of the U.S. court appeal relating to the recent U.S. law that retroactively authorizes the U.S. Department of Commerce to apply countervailing duties on imports from "non-market economies" like

From a recent speech by WTO DG Pascal Lamy: This morning I will address the multilateral trading system and regional economic cooperation. The title is well chosen in the sense that the multilateral reference is to trade, while at the regional level the title refers to economic cooperation. What this

My Cato colleague Bill Watson has a new paper in which he argues for the repeal of Section 337.  Here is one part that I found particularly interesting: ... The ITC may soon become a vehicle for challenging extraterritorial conduct that is legal where it occurs but which would violate U.

From Mitt Romney's blog a couple days ago: We're going to open up new markets for our goods and expand our reach into other parts of the world where other nations are now competing. I want to make sure our goods can go throughout the world.

From Rob Howse: We witnessed last week another illustration of how progress in global trade liberalization has shifted from the WTO to other fora:  APEC agreed on a plan for liberalization of trade in environmental goods, by-passing negotiations in the WTO that have been going nowhere for years.  One of