International Economic Law and Policy Blog

Sign in Subscribe

Simon Lester

The Tuna-Dolphin Interim Panel Report

The interim panel report in the Tuna-Dolphin case (DS381) is out. Here's Washington Trade Daily: A World Trade Organization dispute settlement panel on Friday issued a mixed ruling concurring with Mexico that US “dolphin-safe” labeling rules cause more restrictions than necessary under global trade rules, WTD has learned

Which "Developing" Countries Should Benefit from Tariff Preferences?

The EU is rethinking things: The European Union intends to increase tariffs on developing countries including China, India and Brazil under a plan to give only the neediest nations preferential access to the world’s biggest market. The European Commission proposed to deny faster-growing emerging economies tariff reductions granted through

USCIB on Investor-State in the TPP

I've always had doubts about certain aspects of substantive international investment law and the investor-state dispute mechanism. I know it has strong support in the business community, but in terms of free market/trade liberalization type policies, I'm not sure how it fits in. Via Luke

More from Todd Tucker on Prudential Regulation

Todd Tucker has more to say on prudential regulation: Say a policy is non-prudential, like banning Internet gambling. In a WTO challenge of that ban, the first part of the dispute settlement hearing would be dedicated to figuring whether a country violated its GATS Article XVI commitments. (This article sets

More Jobs: Assistant USTR for Trade Policy & Economics

Job Title: ASSISTANT U.S. TRADE REPRESENTATIVE FOR TRADE POLICY AND ECONOMICS The incumbent serves as the Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Trade Policy and Economics. The Office is responsible for managing a staff of professionals engaged in the intra-agency and interagency trade policy coordination. The Office also provides

Barriers to Trade in Legal Services

From today's Federal Register, here is a recent Section 302 petition to USTR: On March 14, 2011, Mr. Peter M. Haver filed a petition on his own behalf pursuant to Section 302 of the Trade Act addressed to acts, policies, and practices of the Government of Germany regarding

Appellate Body Legal Officer Job

The Appellate Body is quite busy these days, with the Aircraft cases and various others. Perhaps that explains why they are looking for some help: Vacancy Notice No.: EXT/F/11-15 Title: Legal Officer Grade: 7 Contract Type: Fixed-term Starting Salary: CHF 94,400 net per annum (approximate) Issued On:

Todd Tucker on Prudential Measures

Todd has a long and detailed post on the negotiating history of the GATS prudential measures provision, which is in Article 2(a) of the GATS Annex on Financial Services. He really dug deep on this one. I'm not sure there's anything left to uncover. Here&

Trade Agreements and Regulations on Plain Packaging of Tobacco Products

Australia and Korea seem to be working hard towards a free trade agreement: Australia and South Korea should seal a free trade agreement by the end of the year, after Julia Gillard and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak agreed yesterday to fast-track talks. ... Mr Lee hosted the Prime Minister in

The Scope of the MFN Standard

When it comes to non-discrimination, National Treatment gets most of the attention. But MFN can be interesting, too. Here's a passage from the U.S. third participant submission in the EC - Fasteners appeal: 24. A number of WTO rules explicitly recognize that, in the context of AD