International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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Simon Lester

Clean Energy Competition

When I read about proposals to reduce tariffs on environmental goods and services, my sense is that, assuming trade negotiators can agree on anything these days, this should be a goal that is achievable. On the other hand, subsidies and discriminatory government procurement in the area of clean energy seem

Are Exchange Rate Rules Coming to the WTO?

Economist Simon Johnson writes the following at the NY Times Economix blog: But the mainstream consensus is starting to shift toward the idea that the World Trade Organization (W.T.O.), not the I.M.F., should have jurisdiction over exchange rates. The W.T.O. has much more legitimacy,

More on Trade and Internet Censorship

Brian Hindley and Hosuk Lee-Makiyama have published a working paper on "Protectionism Online: Internet Censorship and International Trade Law." From the abstract: This paper suggests that many WTO member states are legally obliged to permit an unrestricted supply of cross- border Internet services. And as the option to

The Seal Products WTO Consultations Request

... is here. It doesn't do much except identify the measure and the legal provisions. The provisions at issue are: TBT Agreement Articles 2.1 and 2.2; GATT Articles I:1, III:4 and XI:1; and Agriculture Agreement Article 4.2. For DSC subscribers, we have some

Beyond the ACWL: Trade Law Enforcement for Developing Countries

I've been skimming through Chad Bown's new book "Self-Enforcing Trade: Developing Countries and WTO Dispute Settlement." One of his key points is that the Advisory Centre on WTO Law (ACWL) is great at its core mission of offering legal advice to developing countries on

UNCTAD Trade Division Director

Yet another interesting trade job: Director, Division on International Trade in Goods and Services, and Commodities, D-2 DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS: 29 Dec 2009 DATE OF ISSUANCE: 30 Oct 2009 ORGANIZATIONAL UNIT: United Nations Conference on Trade and Development DUTY STATION: Geneva VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT NUMBER: 09-ECO-UNCTAD-422453-R-GENEVA (G) ... Responsibilities This position is

More on the AD/CVD Overlap

I promised a litte while ago that I would offer a bit of substance on the issue of concurrent AD/CVD investigations and "double remedies." It's a complicated issue, so anyone working on these cases who knows more than I do should feel free to point

IEL Teaching Fellow Position at Stanford

Lots of good jobs to post about these days. Here's another: The Teaching Fellow in international economic law, business and policy will work with candidates in the LLM specialization in IELBP. The fellow will assume significant academic, advising and administrative responsibilities. He or she will be responsible for

Will USTR Go To Bat For Big Tobacco?

From the AP: Tobacco advocates are seething over a new Canadian law they claim will snuff out sales of cigarettes packed with U.S. burley, and they are fighting back to protect their export sales. They are asking U.S. trade officials to take their complaints to the World Trade

Exchange Rate Accusations

It's not just about China. From the Washington Post: This week, a top aide to French President Nicolas Sarkozy called the value of the dollar "a disaster" for Europe, warning of dire consequences to the global economy if it remains at its current levels. In some