International Economic Law and Policy Blog

Sign in Subscribe

Simon Lester

Attracting Investment: Subsidies versus Weak Labor Laws

There's some disagreement as to whether weak labor laws are used by certain countries to attract foreign investment (or at least, they have that effect, even if it is not their goal). Some critics of trade agreements say that weak labor laws in some countries leads to unfair

The "Human Right" of Free Trade

From Jeff Jacoby of the Boston Globe: Free trade isn’t a battle that countries (or states) win or lose. It is a human right - the liberty to engage in voluntary transactions that leave both participants better off. If John wants to sell something that Mary wants to buy,

Non-Violation Complaints and the Enforcement of Domestic Labor Laws

In the comments, Susan Aaronson says: The WTO does not cover labor standards explicitly, but policymakers who are concerned about the trade spillovers of China’s labor laws have leverage on China. China recently reformed its labor laws, and it did so in a transparent accountable manner at the national

Subsidies and Clean Energy Competition

Sometimes there's a fine line between protectionism and promoting the domestic economy. From Bloomberg: The Obama administration today announced that 183 companies, including PPG Industries Inc. and Itron Inc., will get a total of $2.3 billion worth of tax credits for clean-energy manufacturing projects in 43 states.

Import Safety and Global Trade

I've always thought that, in theory, import safety and global trade rules shouldn't come into conflict, and that many of the suggestions to the effect that WTO rules restrict what governments can do are exaggerated. On the other hand, in practice, things can be more complicated,

The Single Entity Theory of Sports Leagues

From the NY Times: Is the National Football League a single entity, or a collection of 32 teams that compete against one another every week? The question forms the core of an antitrust case that will be heard by the United States Supreme Court next week. How the court rules

Don Boudreaux on the Chinese Currency Issue

Don Boudreaux is the anti-Krugman on Chinese currency issues. In this piece, he first explains that "a lower-priced yuan causes Americans to buy fewer U.S. products and more Chinese products." Then, assuming arguendo -- more on arguendo assumptions soon in relation to the China - Publications AB

Trade Predictions for 2010

Not by me. I've tried predicting things before on this blog, without much success. But trade lawyer Scott Lincicome is willing to give it a shot. Here are his predictions (for his rationale for each one, check his blog here): Low Hanging Fruit (1) The WTO's

Carbon Tariffs on Out-of-State Coal Energy

Via Sallie James of Cato, I came across this story: Minnesota recently enacted a plan to tax electricity generated by carbon-intensive methods in North Dakota--specifically, a carbon fee of $4 to $34 per ton of CO2 emissions in addition to the normal cost of coal power. Naturally, North Dakota'

Mexico To Restrict Used Car Imports

This reminds me a bit of the Brazil - Retreaded Tyres case: Mexico will limit imports of inefficient used cars ... the energy ministry said on Tuesday. ... Stakeholders in the domestic auto market have long lobbied for limits to be placed on the import of older used cars from the United