International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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Simon Lester

Simon Lester

Co-founder of WorldTradeLaw.net and China Trade Monitor. Non-resident fellow at the Baker Institute.

http://simonlester.com

Is Chinese Investment in Africa Neo-Colonialism?

From an interview with Hillary Clinton on an African TV show, here was a question asked by the host: MR. MAROLENG: Madam Secretary, one of the things around the African Growth and Opportunity Act is that it’s also based on the notion that conditionality around good governance will lead

TRIPS and Australia's Draft Law on Plain Packaging of Cigarettes

From yesterday's TRIPS Council meeting: ... the Dominican Republic objected to a draft Australian law requiring cigarettes to be sold in plain packaging without logos or trademarks. The brands would be identified simply in a standard typeface with large graphic health warnings. Australia originally notified the draft and the

Is Investment Treaty Arbitration Biased Against Developing Countries?

In a short paper, Kevin Gallagher and Elen Shrestha discuss the issue of whether investment treaty arbitration is biased against developing countries. They first note the argument of those who say there is no bias: Defenders claim that the system does not unfairly subject developing countries to arbitral panels. When

Is the TPP a Model for Future Trade Agreements?

Claude Barfield wonders whether the Trans-Pacific Partnership is "a model for twenty-first-century trade agreements." In this regard, he notes that: At the first meeting in Melbourne in March 2010, the negotiators established ten negotiating groups, including industrial goods, agriculture, sanitary and phytosanitary standards, telecommunications, financial

Zeroing at the Supreme Court?

Following-up on this post, here's the question presented to the U.S. Supreme Court in a cert. petition filed by steel company Nucor last week: Whether the Tariff Act of 1930—which defines “dumping” as “the sale or likely sale of goods at less than fair value”

A WTO Moot Court Dynasty?

Melbourne Law School has won again: Melbourne Law School has won the prestigious 2011 European Law Students’ Association Moot Court Competition on the law of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva. Melbourne’s team comprised law students Philip Aitken (Juris Doctor), Glyn Ayres (Juris Doctor), Daniel Ari Baker (Bachelor

Intent, Export Contingency, and National Treatment

Do the Appellate Body's statements in EC - Aircraft on de facto export contingency tell us anything about the National Treatment standard? The Panel's findings had seemed to place a lot of emphasis on the reasons for the measure as the basis for determining whether export contingency

John Magnus on the Appellate Body's Double Remedies Ruling

He doesn't like it. Here's one part of why: The following is a fair summary of the AB decision. Domestic subsidies when used to reduce export price will, unless they also produce a lower normal value calculation, increase the recipient’s dumping margin and be offset

Extinguishment of Subsidies: Three Members, Three Opinions

In case there was any doubt that the issue of whether subsidies can be "extinguished" through privatizations or other sales of a company, the three members of the Appellate Body Division in EC - Aircraft set out three separate opinions on the issue: 726. Although the Members of this

The EC - Aircraft Appellate Body Report: The New Export Subsidy Standard

From the report: 1044. Because anticipated exportation "alone is not proof that the granting of the subsidy is tied tothe anticipation of exportation"2342, the legal standard for de facto export contingency under Article 3.1(a) and footnote 4 of the SCM Agreement further requires that there