Simon Lester

Via Sallie James of Cato, I see that blogger Matt Yglesias points out the following in President Obama's State of the Union speech: ... After lambasting companies that “ship jobs overseas,” Obama launched into a feel-good anecdote about how “Siemens opened a gas turbine factory in Charlotte and formed

I've been saying this over and over, so I won't say it anymore.  Instead, I'll quote Hunter Nottage and Alejandro Sánchez of the ACWL, from a new Global Trade and Customs Journal article: The US-Tuna II report tackled a range of novel interpretative questions

Recalling the discussion in two previous posts (here and here), I'm still trying to sort out what I think of the issue of whether the labelling measure in U.S. - Tuna II is a "technical regulation." The TBT Agreement defines "technical regulation" and

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.