International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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Simon Lester

Protecting Citizens Who Work Abroad

When a country exports goods, it doesn't generally care what happens to those goods once they are sent abroad. There may be some exceptions: treatment of animals; nuclear materials; perhaps the use of guns and other weapons. But for the most part, this is not a big concern.

The EC - IT Products Panel Sees Through the Parties

This is from the EC - IT Products panel: 7.421 Both the complainants and the European Communities have put forward competing interpretations of the motivations and effects of these modifications which, not surprisingly, support their respective positions regarding the key interpretative issue described above.

Global Trade Watch Calls for Trade Concessions!

Well, sort of. Here's what Lori Wallach of Global Trade Watch says in relation to the Mexico Trucking dispute: until the safety situation improves, Congress must not allow Mexico-domiciled trucks onto American roads. At the same time, Mexico is far from being able to meet key truck and

The U.S. Appeal in EC - Aircraft

At long last, here is the U.S. "other appeal" in EC - Aircraft. It has two potentially interesting issues. First up, the issue of whether certain subsidies constitute an "export subsidy": 1. The United States seeks review by the Appellate Body of the Panel’s

The Role of Academics in International Courts

I said I wouldn't comment on the Vivendi separate opinion relating to the role of the ICSID Secretariat, and I won't, but I was struck by this part of the opinion, which makes a somewhat different point: 16. Another idea seems to be that the Secretariat

The Role of International Court Secretariats

Here is a long excerpt from the recent annulment decision in the Vivendi case before an ICSID ad hoc committee, in which the role of the ICSID Secretariat is called into question: Additional Opinion of Professor JH Dalhuisen under Article 48(4) of the ICSID Convention 1. Before ending the

Export Quotas and Production Quotas

The WTO's World Trade Report 2010 is full of interesting trade tidbits. To the extent I have time, I'll pull some out over the next few months. This is from Chapter E of the report: in the absence of domestic consumption, a domestic production quota is

Privatizing General Motors

From the AP: General Motors has filed the first batch of paperwork needed to sell stock to the public. GM filed the paperwork for its initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday. The company says the U.S. government and other stakeholders will sell common shares

Trade in Everything: Really Old Guns

This is from David Kopel at the Volokh Conspiracy: According to The Korea Times, the Obama administration has blocked efforts by the South Korean government to sell over a hundred thousand surplus M1 Garand and Carbine rifles into the United States market. These self-loading were rifles introduced in 1926 and

"French Industrial Patriotism"

Not very subtle: Embattled President Nicolas Sarkozy's industry minister, Christian Estrosi, said he's taking action next month because major companies are "not behaving very well" in the face of chronically high unemployment. "I will set up a new monitoring agency for French products