International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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Simon Lester

Guest Post: Trade Remedies and the GASSA

This is a guest post from law professors Timothy Meyer & J. Benton Heath Much of the commentary on the ongoing negotiations over the Global Arrangement on Sustainable Steel and Aluminum (GASSA) have focused on legal issues, especially WTO compatibility. In large part, this focus has been driven by the

Questions about IPEF Enforceability

At a Wilson Center event on the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) last week, when asked about the enforceability of the IPEF, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said the following: There is something to the fact that this is not a trade agreement. It's more flexible. It's responsive

Nikki Haley on China/China Trade

As I cover what the Republican candidates say about trade policy, I keep hoping for some general statements on these issues, but what we mostly see is talk about China trade. Nikki Haley was interviewed recently by a couple CNBC people -- in the transcript below, I didn't

The Effectiveness of the GASSA in Reducing Carbon Emissions

Over at the Roosevelt Institute blog, there are some new pieces on the Global Arrangement on Sustainable Steel and Aluminum (GASSA). Todd Tucker and Tim Meyer have a piece that responds to a paper by Bruegel. Maha Rafi Atal has a piece on development aspects. And Ben Heath and Tim

Guest Post: The EU’s CBAM-Regulation stands in contrast to fundamental EU-obligations under the Paris Agreement

This is a guest post from Reinhard Quick, Saarland University and Isha Das, University of Passau.[1] Summary By not accepting differentiation and by insisting on a uniform European carbon price the CBAM-Regulation elevates the avoidance of carbon leakage to an overarching principle to which all other obligations are subordinate.

Was There a Free Trade Era, and Is It Over?

This is something I posted on the Baker Institute site last week: Was There a Free Trade Era, and Is It Over? In recent months, there have been excited proclamations from both traditional media voices and Substack upstarts about the end of “neoliberalism” and free trade, and a search for

Some Responses to Lighthizer's Recommendations for the WTO

Former U.S. Trade Rep. Robert Lighthizer has a new book on trade policy. I haven't read the whole book, and I'll leave a full review to others. However, I did come across an excerpt of his seven specific recommendations for the WTO, and I had

More Ron DeSantis on China Trade

As I track U.S. presidential candidates' statements on trade policy, I'm not always going to offer commentary. Sometimes I'll just post the full text, as part of an effort to document everything being said. Here is Ron DeSantis talking to Maria Bartiromo on Fox

A WTO DS Workaround for Appeals Into the Void

Where the party complained against in a WTO dispute appeals into the void and thereby blocks an adverse panel report from having legal effect, can the complaining party just treat the panel report as the final word and move forward with retaliation? The EU has set up a process for

Is Everything We Thought about the World Economy Wrong?

This post is a response to a NY Times piece from a couple weeks ago called "Why It Seems Everything We Knew About the Global Economy Is No Longer True," by the Times' global economics correspondent Patricia Cohen. In my view, there are a number of overstatements