International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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Simon Lester

Is the U.S. Manipulating its Currency?

Scott Lincicome writes: the Canadians ... announced an amazingly sane response to rapid currency devaluation by... wait for it... the United States. Here's BNA (subscription) with the embarrassing details: The government will not intervene in the Canadian dollar's continued increase in value compared to the United States

WTO Rules and the Chinese Currency Issue

VoxEU has a new e-book entitled The US-Sino Currency Dispute: New Insights from Economics, Politics, and Law. Here's the abstract: Thanks to deft diplomatic footwork, a US-China confrontation over the renminbi has been avoided. But the US Treasury has merely postponed the publication of its

Does Zeroing Violate U.S. Law?

A NAFTA Chapter 19 panel (well, the majority, anyway) says yes. An excerpt: A plain reading of the statute requires that all sales be analyzed in the dumping analysis as dumping refers to an aggregate concept. In directing the DOC to analyze aggregate amounts and compare average sales, the statute

WTO Complaint on the Clove Cigarette Ban

As some may have seen in the news, Indonesia is going forward with its WTO challenge to the U.S. clove cigarette ban. Here is the key part of the WTO consultations request: The Government of Indonesia maintains that the ban on the sale of clove cigarettes in the United

Which Side Takes the Seal Products Dispute More Seriously?

The Economist says it's Canada: Last July the European Parliament voted to ban the importation of seal products. ... Canada and Norway believe that the European ban breaks international trade rules, and have both lodged complaints with the World Trade Organisation. ... The Canadian government clearly takes the issue seriously.

More on Australia - Apples

Following up on Meredith's post, there has been a lot of reporting in the Australia/New Zealand press about the decision. Here is a sampling: » Fruit decision a victory - opinion - blogs | Stuff.co.nz Citing "informed sources", it said the World Trade Organisation had found in

Merrill & Ring v. Canada: More About NAFTA Ch. 11 Non-Discrimination Standards

Continuing with my occasional (although becoming somewhat frequent) posts on NAFTA Chapter 11 non-discrimination standards, there is a new decision to talk about: Merrill & Ring v. Canada. The basic facts, from the Tribunal: 26. This case concerns a claim by the Investor in respect of the implementation of

Causes of the China Currency Detente

Assuming we are on our way to a resolution of the China currency dispute, what caused the situation to improve so rapidly, when not long ago the rhetoric was getting quite heated? Dan Drezner sets out some possibilities, along with his view: If China's shift is a real

Settlements in Cotton and the Chinese Currency Disputes?

There has been some talk of settling two big disputes, the U.S. - Cotton WTO dispute and the Chinese currency dispute. Cotton has progressed a bit further. USTR provides the following details: ... the United States agreed to work with Brazil to establish a fund of approximately $147.3 million per

A Possible WTO Complaint on Credit Card Services

I had seen brief references to a WTO complaint against China related to the credit card industry, but didn't know the details. Here's the argument, as set out by Eric Grover in the Washington Times: Chinese banks have 1.88 billion debit cards and 190 million