Simon Lester

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

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

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

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

Writing in The American, Marc Busch and Phil Levy are are skeptical of a WTO complaint against China's currency policies: ... the legal merits of the case are dubious. China’s exchange rate regime could be attacked as a subsidy scheme or as a way of frustrating market opening

Over at vox, Simon Evenett writes: The failure to conclude the Doha Round isn't the only drain on the credibility of the WTO and the rules-based trading system. Poor choices of dispute settlement cases are too. It appears that some are so besotted with the "power"

From Global Trade Watch: The Trade Data Center that we launched last week contains so many data products that they can almost be lost in a blur. Right now I’d like to take some time to zoom in and profile the most exciting new data product – the overhauled Trade

I have found the recent discussions of "currency wars" hard to follow.  There seems to be a fear that many governments are taking actions which cause their currency to decline in value, in the interest of pursuing competitive devaluations.  I'm not convinced.  It seems to me

This takes me back to the Japan  - Film case: South Korean lawmakers are finalising legislation that would restrict the opening and operation of large urban supermarkets – a potential blow to Tesco, which counts the country as its biggest overseas market. ... Leftwing South Korean politicians began targeting Tesco early this