International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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Simon Lester

Subsidies, CVD Complaints and the Auto Industry

A recent Economist article notes: Across the world governments have lavished their ailing car firms with subsidies. Although General Motors (supported with over $50 billion of taxpayers’ money) has shed some brands and factories in America, so far not a single carmaker of any size has disappeared. One of the

The L Prize and WTO Rules

A while back, we talked about whether prizes offered by the government could be challenged at the WTO as subsidies. This discussion was somewhat in the abstract. Now, though, we have an actual prize program to talk about: The "L Prize." The New York Times describes it as

IEL in Bosnian Law

Following-up on item 2 in this post, here's a news report on a Bosnian court decision: Bosnia's top court has annulled an import tax law which it said violated a regional free trade treaty and commitments to the EU, while about 1,000 farmers and food

Were the Tires Tariffs Really About China's Currency?

From Steven R. Weisman of the Peterson Institute for International Economics:2) Speaking of China, trade will be a big and perhaps contentious issue, because the Chinese are still furious over Obama's recent imposition of tariffs on Chinese tires—and the implicit threat that such tariffs could be

The WTO Boeing Ruling and State Subsidies

A Rhode Island state representative explains that a WTO ruling which finds that state subsidies to Boeing violate WTO obligations would be a good way to rein in state and local subsidies: a forthcoming decision will determine whether billions of dollars in government aid to Boeing is also illegal. We

Is Dumping "Against International Trade Rules"?

I'm feeling nit-picky again today. In an article criticizing the U.S. tariffs on Chinese tires, the Economist writes: Even now Mr Obama insists he is “committed to pursuing expanded trade and new trade agreements”, and this week he defended his action as nothing more than the enforcement

More on WTO Law and Global Administrative Law

Following-up on my recent post, Andrew Mitchell and Elizabeth Sheargold have more to say on WTO law and global administrative law in their paper "Global Governance: The World Trade Organization's Contribution". Here's the abstract: Democracy and administrative law concern ideas of governance, legitimacy, and

The China - Publications Notice of Appeal

is here. China did not appeal everything, as parties sometimes do. But it did appeal a decent number of issues. One of particular interest is the public morals defense under GATT Article XX(a). There is the potential for the AB to say a lot of interesting things about this

From Seals to Cats and Dogs

From the Canadian Press: Blame the seal hunt if you find out you're wearing Fluffy or Rover. The federal government won't ban imports of cat and dog fur because doing so might undermine Canada's support for the seal hunt, a newly released document shows.

Daniel Sokol on Trade, Competiton and the WTO

Daniel Sokol has posted "Limiting Anti-Competitive Government Interventions that Benefit Special Interests" on SSRN. From the abstract: When government regulates, it may either intentionally or unintentionally generate restraints that reduce competition (“public restraints”). Public restraints allow a business to cloak its action in government authority and to immunize