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

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

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

The Latest on the Seals Dispute

From last week's DSB meeting, where the panel for Norway's complaint was established: Norway said it was of the firm view that the EU seal regime was inconsistent with WTO rules. The EU believed that the WTO was not an appropriate forum to discuss Norway’s

New Appellate Body Members Needed

From last week's DSB meeting: The DSB chair, Ambassador Johansen (Norway), announced that the first term of two Appellate Body members, Ms Jennifer Hillman and Ms Lilia Bautista will expire on 10 December 2011. Under article 17.2 of the DSU, Appellate Body members are appointed by the

What Remand Might Look Like in WTO Dispute Settlement

From the draft negotiating text on dispute settlement (Word doc), released last Thursday by the WTO, here's the section on remand: 17.12(b) Where the Appellate Body finds that there is not a sufficient factual basis to complete the analysis with respect to certain issues, it shall

The Impact of Exchange Rates on Trade

From Canada's Financial Post: ... The data is clear that Canadian consumers can save major bucks if they head south of the border to buy their goods. A Bank of Montreal study released this month looked at a basket of goods and found on average Canadians were spending 20%

Is the WTO Gambling Dispute Back?

For selfish reasons, I kind of hope so. It was a lot of fun to watch, and I've missed it the past couple years. This Reuters article suggests it may be on its way back: The United States violated global trade law by shutting down Internet gambling sites

More on Donald Trump's Trade Policy

I'm not sure it's worth the effort to talk much more about Donald Trump's trade policy, but some of his recent statements raise an issue that applies beyond just his particular trade views. The Wall Street Journal article noted in the last post says

Donald Trump as U.S. Trade Rep

Dan Drezner critiques Donald Trump's views on trade policy and Iraq: From the Wall Street Journal: As for foreign policy, Mr. Trump said he is "only interested in Libya if we take the oil," and that if he were President, "I would not leave Iraq