Simon Lester

In the latest issue of Trade, Law & Development, Claus Zimmerman argues that WTO dispute settlement gets things just right in terms of the level of enforceability: It emerges from the analysis provided in this article, that although the WTO’s dispute settlement mechanism has not been designed to encourage

From a recent CEPR paper by Richard Baldwin: The rise of 21st century regionalism is not yet a disaster for the world trade system. It has kept trade liberalisation and trade booming despite the WTO’s slow progress. But the present course of events seems certain to undermine the WTO’

When I first started in the trade law world, Japan was still the big threat everyone was worried about.  Things have definitely changed since then.  From a recent NY Times opinion piece, here's a theory as to why: Japanese trade negotiators noticed an almost magical sweetening in the

As mentioned here, the recent Appellate Body findings on likeness in the Philippines - Spirits decision seem to mean that competitiveness is the key to the "likeness" analysis, even under GATT Article III:2, first sentence.  Here's what we said about this issue in our DSC

The U.S. appellant's submission is here:  http://www.ustr.gov/webfm_send/3225  Here's one issue I'll be watching during the appeal: 73. In reaching its conclusion that Section 907(a)(1)(A) accords less favorable treatment to imported clove cigarettes than to

From the editors of the Yale Journal of International Law: For over 40 years, the World Bank’s International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) has offered investors and states a unique arbitration mechanism, which trades off diplomatic protection on behalf of investors in return for commitments by

Blogger Matt Yglesias is shocked by the different U.S. tariff rates for toys and dolls: You probably did not realize that the official legal position of Marvel is that contrary to the general thematic content of the Marvel Universe, mutants are not people. A recent Radiolab podcast brings the

From a recent opinion piece by Jagdish Bhagwati: The US has been establishing a template for its PTAs that includes several items unrelated to trade. So it is no surprise that the TPP template includes numerous agendas unrelated to trade, such as labor standards and restraints on the use of

The Antigua Observer reports on the reaction of Mark Mendel, one of Antigua's lawyers in the WTO gambling dispute, to the Justice Department opinon on online gambling noted the other day: Reacting yesterday to the US assistant attorney general’s view on the matter, Antigua’s counsel Mark

The Australian government has posted a response to the Philip Morris notice of arbitration in the Plain Packaging BIT claim.  In addition to a brief discussion of substantive issues, Australia has offered some jurisdictional arguments: 29. The Australian Government objects to the jurisdiction of the arbitral tribunal (by way of