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Simon Lester

The Appellate Body on the "Essence of Government"

In the U.S. - AD/CVD on Products from China (DS379) report, the Appellate Body dabbled in a bit of political philosophy: 290. ... In this vein, the Appellate Body found, in Canada – Dairy, that the essence of government is that it enjoys the effective power to regulate, control, or

Trade in Everything: War-time Medical Care

Via the IPEZone, I came across this: At least 2,300 Filipino nurses have refused to be evacuated even after the United Nations approved military strikes against Libya. Acting [Filipino] Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario said the nurses, 2,000 of whom are based in capital Tripoli and 383

Trade and Public Health: Quinoa

From the NY Times: When NASA scientists were searching decades ago for an ideal food for long-term human space missions, they came across an Andean plant called quinoa. With an exceptional balance of amino acids, quinoa, they declared, is virtually unrivaled in the plant or animal kingdom for its life-sustaining

The Appellate Body and the Meaning of "Public Body"

Every now and then, there is a fairly straightforward interpretive disagreement among the various participants and third participants in a dispute. In this situation, panels and the Appellate Body generally have to pick a side. They can't make everyone happy. Unless, of course, they exercise judicial economy, but

(No) Trade in Everything: Violent Video Games

Via a customslawblog tweet, I came across this: The Australian Customs and Border Protection Service has notified Gamespot that gamers in Australia are not even allowed to import the game. Usually Australian gamers would import a copy of a banned game overseas but in this case, it’s illegal and

More on Menthol Cigarettes

Recall that one of the issues in the WTO Clove Cigarettes case is whether clove cigarettes and/or menthol cigarettes act as "starter" cigarettes. The advisory panel report to the FDA on menthol cigarettes, mentioned in the last post, may be relevant to this issue: Adolescents 12 to

The Health Risks of Menthol Cigarettes

For those of you following the WTO Clove Cigarettes dispute, this will no doubt be of interest and could be discussed in the panel proceedings: Removing menthol cigarettes from sale in the U.S. would benefit public health, members of an advisory panel said in a report that urged more

Norway's EC - Seal Products Panel Request

Norway's panel request in the EC - Seal products case is here. From the request: The EU seal regime imposes a general prohibition on the importation and sale of processed and unprocessed seal products in the EU, thereby depriving Norway of access to a significant market for its

Multilateralizing Bilateral and Regional FTAs

Here's a tweet from Reuters reporter Doug Palmer, who was covering a speech by WTO DDG Rufus Yerxa: Yerxa says post-Doha the WTO focus should be on multilateralizing the large number of bilateral FTAs I think there are a lot of people (myself included) who would like to

Scott Lincicome on the U.S. - AD/CVD China Case

Scott has a lot to say about the U.S. - AD/CVD (China) Appellate Body report. I'll just give some excerpts, but check out both of his posts. From the first post: the AB's ruling did not rule that DOC was absolutely prohibited from conducting