Simon Lester

Have you had enough of U.S. zeroing litigation at the WTO?  For a change of pace, perhaps there is a case related to Canadian zeroing on the horizon.  Trade expert Peter Clark points me to a decision by the Canadian International Trade Tribunal (CITT), relating to the use of

With the new model BIT in place, everyone is talking about investment.  First up, over at the Cato Institute, on May 17 they'll be talking about "investment protectionism and what to do about it": Like international trade, cross-border direct investment drives economic growth. The value of

Lorand Bartels analyzes the issues for ICTSD here.  The abstract: The following questions are addressed in this paper: is it possible to design a carbon trading scheme that is both administratively feasible and justifiable under WTO law? Does the inclusion of aviation in the EU ETS violate the unconditional most-favoured

This article doesn't sound all that hopeful: The revised bilateral free trade agreement between Korea and the US has made favorable the import for the Chevrolet Corvette Coupe into Korea. This will be initiated by General Motors Korea Co., the South Korean unit of General Motors from Friday,

Over at Vox, economist Andrew Rose argues that "maybe protectionism isn't countercyclical after all," that is, protectionism does not correlate with economic downturns.  He looks at a number of factors, but two in particular stood out to me. One factor is whether economic growth (or lack

In the category of "things that will surprise nobody," the FT reports the following: Two of the world’s biggest tobacco companies are providing legal support to member countries at the World Trade Organisation that are threatening to take Australia to international court over the world’s toughest

From Reuters: A top U.S. Republican lawmaker on T hursday called on the Obama administration to negotiate an investment treaty with China and to increase pressure on the world's second-largest economy to make trade and currency reforms. ... Camp's call for the United States to begin

A few years ago, I did two posts on the difference between "interpretations" by WTO Members under WTO Agreement Article IX:2 and "clarifications" by panels and the Appellate Body under DSU Article 3.2.  Based on the statements by the Appellate Body quoted in the

That's the way Global Trade Watch sees the 2012 US Model BIT, which was announced on Friday.  They have a tracked changes comparison of the old one and new one.  As far as I can see, there is not much difference in terms of substantive obligations.  Luke Peterson

Speaking of Todd, he also has a long post in which he discusses the timing of implementation in the Clove Cigarettes case, and various options the U.S. might have for implementing. This is just off the top of my head, and I haven't put too much thought