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Simon Lester

Simon Lester

Co-founder of WorldTradeLaw.net and China Trade Monitor. Non-resident fellow at the Baker Institute.

http://simonlester.com

Thank You for Smoking (Domestic Cigarettes)

From a book review in the Economist: the Chinese Communist Party ordered local officials in Hubei province to smoke nearly a quarter of a million packs of Hubei-branded cigarettes in order to boost the local economy and stave off lay-offs. Official cigarette monitors roamed the province making sure

Debating NAFTA

With Dan Griswold of Cato and Todd Tucker of Global Trade Watch. If you go to the C-Span page, you can search the transcript.

A Debate on WTO Dissents

I'm pleased to introduce a debate on the issue of dissents in WTO dispute settlement decisions. Those of you who read the JIEL regularly may have seen two articles setting forth different views on the proper role of dissents. In 2006, Meredith Kolsky Lewis of Victoria University of

Origin Labeling for Help Lines?

And a tax, too. Reuters reports: In a bid to reduce outsourcing of U.S. jobs, a Democratic senator said on Sunday he will push legislation to make companies inform customers when their calls were being transferred outside the United States and charge companies for those transferred calls. "This

From Seal Products to Shark Fins

Hawaii is going to ban "the sale, possession and distribution of" shark fins: Shark conservation groups are celebrating a small but important triumph after Hawaii on Friday became the first state in the nation to ban the sale, possession and distribution of shark fins. Gov. Linda Lingle signed

Australia's AD/CVD System

Australia has just done a report on its anti-dumping and countervailing duty system. Some snippets: Should Australia retain an antidumping system? Key points • The price raising effects of anti-dumping measures give rise to a range of benefits and costs for applicant industries and their suppliers, importers, downstream user

Webcasting an Investment Arbitration Hearing

Via Luke Peterson, I see that ICSID is webcasting a hearing in the Pac Rim CAFTA-DR investment arbitration: A hearing on preliminary objections in the above case will be transmitted live via internet feed on Monday, May 31, 2010 and Tuesday, June 1, 2010, starting at 9:30 a.

Global Trade Watch on the Prudential Carve Out

In this recent memo, Global Trade Watch expresses concern about the GATS "prudential carve out" in the area of financial services regulation. The carve out is in Article 2(a) of the GATS Annex on Financial Services and reads as follows: 2. Domestic Regulation (a) Notwithstanding any other

More on National Treatment and Investment Arbitration

Last week I talked about National Treatment in the context of the hearing in the Grand River Enterprises NAFTA Chapter 11 case. Stimulated by re-reading an article by Nicholas DiMascio & Joost Pauwelyn, "Nondiscrimination in Trade and Investment Treaties: Worlds Apart or Two Sides of the Same Coin?

WTO Dispute Decisions: Coming Soon

People may have noticed a lull in WTO dispute decisions recently. Since the Cotton Subsidies arbitration decisions last August, we have had a grand total of 3 decisions. And two of those were fairly minor: An Article 21.3(c) arbitration and a decision on zeroing where the U.S.