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Simon Lester

Currency Undervaluation at the CIT

Here's more on China currency issues, from Mark Drajem of Bloomberg: Aluminum-product makers filed a lawsuit to force the U.S. Commerce Department to levy tariffs on Chinese imports, countering the effect of a currency the companies deem to be undervalued. In a case at the Court of

The GOP Candidates on China's Currency

Here are a few quotes from some of the GOP Presidential candidates about the Chinese currency issue and trade with China generally. Romney and Pawlenty seem to be the China hawks, with Huntsman more dovish (in particular, see the last part of the Huntsman quote below). Mitt Romney: VAN SUSTEREN:

Two Mitchell/Voon Papers

From Andrew Mitchell: Readers may be interested to read the following draft papers that I have recently co-authored with Tania Voon on the impact of WTO law on two ambitious new Australian schemes. The first paper focuses on the application of the GATS (and related obligations under Australia’s preferential

More from the CAFC on Inconsistent Zeroing

Following up on this post, here is another decision (JTEKT CORP v. US, released yesterday) from the CAFC that talks about whether the Department of Commerce can take an inconsistent approach to zeroing (no zeroing in investigations, but zeroing in administrative reviews): V. Commerce’s Use of Zeroing We have

Book Review of Dani Rodrik's "The Globalization Paradox"

Sometimes I write things longer than a blog post. I've talked about Dani Rodrik's views on trade a number of times (see, e.g., here, here, here and here). Now I've gone a little further, and written a book review of his latest book,

Another Tobacco Investment Treaty Claim

Via a John Boscariol tweet, I see that there is a new tobacco regulation investment treaty claim in the works: INTERNATIONAL tobacco giant Philip Morris will launch legal action today aimed at forcing the Gillard government to back down on its plain-packaging legislation or face a compensation bill of "

What Aspect of a Measure Should be Considered under the GATT Article XX Sub-Paragraphs? Some Criticism

In three comments on the last post, the Appellate Body's new approach to what aspect of a measure should be considered under the GATT Article XX sub-paragraphs is getting heavily criticized. In this post, I'm going to support some of that criticism, but then come to

What Aspect of a Measure Should be Considered under the GATT Article XX Sub-Paragraphs? (Follow-up)

Back in 2007, I posted the following: In its first decision, U.S. - Gasoline, the Appellate Body famously (relatively speaking) said: One problem with the [panel's] reasoning ... is that the Panel asked itself whether the "less favourable treatment" of imported gasoline was "primarily aimed

Cigarette Package Labelling, in Australia and the U.S.

If you'll be in London on June 29, Andrew Mitchell will be talking about Australia's plain packaging for cigarette legislation at the UCL's WTO Scholars' Forum: Next month the Australian Government will introduce legislation to require the plain packaging of tobacco products by

Combating Climate Change through Investment Arbitration

Can investment treaties be used to force governments to follow through on their climate change plans? From a new paper: In addition to the general non-commercial risks that may affect any foreign direct investment, low-carbon investments face specific risks related to the mechanisms of public support that states develop to