Simon Lester

This week's Economist has a lot to say about state capitalism.  It made the cover of the magazine, and they have a big report on it, as well an overview here. I'm not sure what to make of it all.  On the one hand, they note

From an article on the WTO Aircraft dispute, by law student Ron Kendler, in the Boston College International and Comparative Law Review (article starts on p. 253): As history shows, this is not the first time that the two parties come to the brink of a trade war over LCA:

From last night's State of the Union speech by President Obama: I will go anywhere in the world to open new markets for American products.  And I will not stand by when our competitors don’t play by the rules.  We’ve brought trade cases against China at

Recalling some long ago discussions of prizes here on this blog, here is more from last night's GOP debate: MODERATOR Speaker Gingrich, would you put more tax dollars into the space race and commit to putting an American on Mars, instead of relying on the private sector? Well,

From last night's Republican debate: MODERATOR Speaker Gingrich, in Iowa you were a big supporter of ethanol subsidies. Here in Florida, sugar is a very important industry, and it's subsidized, as well, with import restrictions, quotas. There's a conservative movement to do away with

From The Economist: LIKE champagne, tequila may be called tequila only if it comes from a specific region. Distillers in five of Mexico’s 31 states have the exclusive right to produce the famous firewater. Bottlers elsewhere must use alternative names, though their product is distilled in the same way

From our Dispute Settlement Commentary (subscribers only) for the Tuna panel report (DS381), recall the panel's key findings: • Panel majority concluded that "the measures at issue establish labelling requirements, compliance with which is mandatory," and thus constitute "technical regulations" under TBT Agreement Annex 1.

Recall that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently decided that the Department of Commerce (DOC) may not apply countervailing duties to non-market economy countries.  The FT reports that the effort to amend U.S. law so as to overrule this decision has begun: This week,

In a recent Harvard International Law Journal article, law prof Mark Wu argues that now is the time for the U.S. and EU to start reining in anti-dumping: For the United States and EU, if the current rules remain unchanged, then one day in the not-too-distant future, the net

My local paper reports that there may be an SPS case originating not too far from me: Florida's war against canker ended in 2006, but six years later a battle is still being waged on the international front. Florida, specifically the Indian River region, is the world'