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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

"Clarifying" WTO Provisions Through the DSU

I wanted to follow-up on my postabout a NAFTA Chapter 19 panel's consideration of zeroing under U.S. law. I realize that I put a lot of emphasis on DSU Article 3.2 as the basis for arguing that WTO panel and Appellate Body clarifications of WTO

Choosing Panelists in the Philippines - Alcohol Taxes Case

The selection of WTO panelists is one of the least transparent parts of the WTO dispute process, and is rarely discussed publicly. So, I thought these statements by a trade official might be of interest to readers who would like some insights into the process: THE PHILIPPINES has proposed criteria

Human Rights in Trade Agreements

A proposal by a Canadian politician: Canadian opposition lawmaker Scott Brison, whose proposal to include human rights reviews in a free trade accord with Colombia may win its passage, said the idea could jumpstart a similar agreement stalled in the U.S. Congress. Critics of trade with Colombia say President

Free Speech and Free Trade

Columbia University President Lee Bollinger wants the WTO to help promote free speech: On Google’s recent development with China, Bollinger said, “I have the sense that the lines have been drawn in the sand and Google is withdrawing to Hong Kong and maybe beyond. … What's going to

NAFTA Chapter 19 Zeroing Decision

As mentioned a little while ago, a NAFTA Chapter 19 panel recently found that zeroing violates U.S. law. Here's a brief rundown of the majority opinion, and a little bit about the dissent. The issue addressed by the panel majority was: "Whether Commerce’s Application of

Fixed vs. Floating Exchange Rates (and Conservative vs. Conservative)

Scott Lincicome reports on recent remarks of Nobel Prize-winning economist Prof. Robert Mundell (who is described by the Heritage Foundation as "the academic founder of supply side economics"). Here's a summary of the key point for my purposes, from Sean Rushton of NRO:[Mundell] says

Tobacco Trademarks and BITs, TRIPS and NAFTA

Following up on the "plain packaging of tobacco products under TRIPS" post, which generated a good deal of discussion, there's a related issue in a BIT challenge to Uruguayan measures that affect the use of trademarks. As Luke Peterson of the Investment Arbitration Reporter explained a

Pascal Lamy on Trade Fallacies

In a recent speech (well, not that recent at this point -- I got distracted by other things), WTO DG Pascal Lamy addressed six "trade fallacies": Fallacy #1: Comparative advantage does not work anymore Fallacy #2: It is unhealthy for trade to grow faster and faster compared to output

Manufacturing Comes Back to America

From the Daily Show: The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c Wham-O Moves to America www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Drafting the WTO's "General Exceptions"

Over at Opinio Juris, Roger Alford discusses the different policy exceptions included in the GATT and GATS "General Exceptions," and then says: " I have yet to discover a satisfactory explanation for the disparate treatment that the WTO drafters have given to the general exceptions in GATT versus