International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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Simon Lester

Pascal Lamy and Designations of Origin

From a recent speech: In the 19th Century, when Ricardo developed what was to become the foundations of international trade theory, countries exported what they produced. In fact, the industrial revolution took root in countries that had coal mines and iron ore. A Portuguese entrepreneur importing a steam engine from

Mobil v. Canada: The Scope of Fair and Equitable Treatment

Via a Luke Peterson tweet, I see that the Mobil v. Canada ICSID hearing will be going on this week, starting tomorrow (Tuesday), and is open to the public. No webcasting as far as I can tell, unfortunately. You have to make your way down there. One issue that is

Krugman on Quantitative Easing and Currencies

He seems to take the same "aim and effect" (as Julia referred to it) approach to the issue that I do: In various comments and other places I keep seeing people compare European complaints about the weak dollar to American complaints about the undervalued renminbi. It’s a

The U.S. Investigation of China's Clean Energy Subsidies

Reuters reports: China on Saturday hit back at U.S. government action to investigate a labour union's charges that it subsidises its green technology producers, saying the move sends a wrong signal on trade protectionism. The U.S. probe will look into whether Chinese support for its clean

Fiscal Policy, Monetary Policy and Currency Values

I've thought a bit more about the previous post where I suggested that not all measures affecting currencies should lead to fears of a "currency war". I'm not much of an expert in this area, and I'm happy to have someone explain

Alternative Approaches to Causation

In the Journal of World Trade (and free on SSRN), Dukgeun Ahn and William J. Moon argue for a new approach to the causation standard in trade remedy investigations, which they call the "Cost of Production" test. Here's an excerpt: We argue that correlation, in a

Dan Griswold on Trade Negotiations versus Trade Enforcement

Which is more important: Trade negotiations or trade enforcement? Writing in the Washington Times, Dan Griswold argues: The Obama administration has vowed to ramp up enforcement of existing trade agreements in an effort to open markets further to U.S. exports. The pledge is popular with members of Congress who

Unilateral Free Trade in Cabbage

Every now and then, a unique set of circumstances arises that leads a government to embrace free trade unilaterally, if only for a particular product. The Economist reports on the impact of a dramatic rise in cabbage prices: Normally, Koreans serve home-grown kimchi as a matter of honour. But people

The Export Contingency Standard

I've got a hypothetical related to the export contingency standard, and I'm curious to hear what people think of it. Let's say you have a subsidy measure under which the subsidy is available to producers on the following basis. You get the subsidy if

Mitchell and Voon on WTO Law and Tobacco Regulation

Two papers to mention here. First up, Andrew Mitchell and Tania Voon have posted "Regulating Tobacco Flavours: Implications of WTO Law" on SSRN. Here's the abstract: Within the World Trade Organization (‘WTO’), regulatory measures of Canada and the United States restricting ‘flavouring’ of tobacco products including