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Simon Lester

Reducing Carbon Emissions from Steel and Aluminum: A Follow-Up Rebuttal

Thanks to Tim Meyer and Ben Heath for responding to my "The Effectiveness of the GASSA in Reducing Carbon Emissions" post, in which I argued that trade remedies could undermine their argument for tariffs designed to encourage decarbonization of the steel and aluminum sectors. Let me first say

Guest Post: EU’s CBAM vs. the Paris Agreement: A response to Quick and Das

This is a guest post from Aaron Cosbey of IISD I am an unlikely defender of the EU’s CBAM, knowing full well its weaknesses and limitations. But in my opinion those faults do not include any of the arguments mustered against it by Reinhard Quick and Isha Das in

DeSantis on Trade Policy: More China Comments

As part of a speech yesterday called "A Declaration of Economic Independence," Ron DeSantis had the following comments on China trade issues: So the elites in this country have failed. Time and again, they've imposed policies that have proven short sighted and have proven counterproductive. And

Guest Post: Trade Remedies and the GASSA

This is a guest post from law professors Timothy Meyer & J. Benton Heath Much of the commentary on the ongoing negotiations over the Global Arrangement on Sustainable Steel and Aluminum (GASSA) have focused on legal issues, especially WTO compatibility. In large part, this focus has been driven by the

Questions about IPEF Enforceability

At a Wilson Center event on the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) last week, when asked about the enforceability of the IPEF, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said the following: There is something to the fact that this is not a trade agreement. It's more flexible. It's responsive

Nikki Haley on China/China Trade

As I cover what the Republican candidates say about trade policy, I keep hoping for some general statements on these issues, but what we mostly see is talk about China trade. Nikki Haley was interviewed recently by a couple CNBC people -- in the transcript below, I didn't

The Effectiveness of the GASSA in Reducing Carbon Emissions

Over at the Roosevelt Institute blog, there are some new pieces on the Global Arrangement on Sustainable Steel and Aluminum (GASSA). Todd Tucker and Tim Meyer have a piece that responds to a paper by Bruegel. Maha Rafi Atal has a piece on development aspects. And Ben Heath and Tim

Guest Post: The EU’s CBAM-Regulation stands in contrast to fundamental EU-obligations under the Paris Agreement

This is a guest post from Reinhard Quick, Saarland University and Isha Das, University of Passau.[1] Summary By not accepting differentiation and by insisting on a uniform European carbon price the CBAM-Regulation elevates the avoidance of carbon leakage to an overarching principle to which all other obligations are subordinate.

Was There a Free Trade Era, and Is It Over?

This is something I posted on the Baker Institute site last week: Was There a Free Trade Era, and Is It Over? In recent months, there have been excited proclamations from both traditional media voices and Substack upstarts about the end of “neoliberalism” and free trade, and a search for

Some Responses to Lighthizer's Recommendations for the WTO

Former U.S. Trade Rep. Robert Lighthizer has a new book on trade policy. I haven't read the whole book, and I'll leave a full review to others. However, I did come across an excerpt of his seven specific recommendations for the WTO, and I had