International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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Simon Lester

The WTO Secretariat Versus Joe Stiglitz on WTO Financial Services Rules and the Financial Crisis

From a background note by the WTO Secretariat on financial services (not public as far as I can tell, so I'm not going to post the whole thing here): Measures that do not constitute a limitation on market access as defined by the Agreement, nor a limitation to

The Seal Products Case: The Impact of an International Seal Harvesting Agreement

Some in Canada hope that an international declaration on ethical seal hunting will solve the seal products dispute: In an effort to challenge the European Union’s trade ban on Canadian seal products, a Quebec senator is proposing that provinces and countries involved in the seal hunt sign on to

A Peaceful Expropriation?

From the WSJ: Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez is seeking to purchase a local unit of France's Casino Guichard-Perrachon SA, a few weeks after he first ordered the expropriation of one of the retail chains controlled by the French company. Venezuela has started negotiations with Casino to buy an

Exclusive Rights, Monopoly Profits and Price Controls

Joel had a post a while back where he wondered if there is "anything in TRIPS that would restrict the ability of a state to set price controls on patented pharmaceutical products." He doubted there was. I was thinking about this issue recently, and while he is probably

In Defense of Child Labor

From economist Steven Landsburg: As any historian could tell you, no society has every pulled itself out of poverty without putting its children to work. Back in the early 19th century, when Americans were as poor as Bangladeshis are now, we were sending out children to work at about the

The Seal Protests Begin

Not sure why I'm on this email list, but here's a message I just received from "Free Trade Kills Animals": ANIMAL CRUELTY OLYMPICS: As Winter Games Begin in Vancouver, Activists Dressed as Canadian & Norwegian Prime Ministers, WTO General Secretary Club "Baby Seals&

More on Gender Discrimination Through Tariffs

Following up on this post, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has upheld the decision of the Court of International Trade rejecting a claim that imposing different tariffs on men's and women's gloves violates the Equal Protection Clause. Lawrence Friedman of the Customs Law

"Procedural Fairness" as a WTO Principle

From a speech by Pascal Lamy on the Government Procurement Agreement: The GPA is a paradigm example of a trade opening instrument that also recognizes the need for governance mechanisms — in this case, the procedural rules that Parties to the Agreement must follow to ensure fair and transparent contracting practices

Who Is Most Hurt by the Yuan's Value?

According to Arvind Subramanian, the biggest harm from the undervalued yuan is to developing countries: .. an undervalued exchange rate is above all a protectionist trade policy, because it is the combination of an import tariff and an export subsidy. It follows therefore that the real victims of this policy are

The Conflicts Inherent in State-Ownership of Industry

From an op-ed by Dan Ikenson of the Cato Institute: When he urged Americans to "stop driving" their Toyotas last week, was Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood speaking as the head of a federal agency concerned with highway safety or as a sales advocate for a nationalized General Motors?