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Simon Lester

What Economists Think of Trade Issues

From a 2007 survey of a random sample of members of the American Economic Association, in which economists were asked to respond to the following statement:The U.S. should eliminate remaining tariffs and other barriers to trade.STRONGLY DISAGREEDISAGREENEUTRALAGREESTRONGLYAGREEMEAN 12345 1.5%8.3%6.8%46.2%37.

Counsel Position at the ACWL

The Advisory Centre on WTO Law is looking to hire a lawyer: The Advisory Centre on WTO Law (ACWL) is a public international organisation, independent of the WTO, which was established in 2001 to provide legal advice on WTO law, support in WTO dispute settlement proceedings and training in WTO

Tom Friedman on Solar Panels

He's concerned that the U.S. doesn't produce enough and will have to import them from China: ... although consumer demand for solar power has incrementally increased here, it has not been enough for anyone to have Applied Materials — the world’s biggest solar equipment manufacturer — build

Jake Colvin (NFTC) Responds to Paul Krugman on Carbon Tariffs

Here are two of the points he makes, from the Huffington Post: 2. Carbon tariffs could ignite a green trade war and harm the U.S. economy. China and India have called U.S. proposals for a carbon tariff unacceptable and protectionist and have hinted at retaliation. Developing countries have

Buy America vs. Buy Japan vs. Buy Korea

Senator Debbie Stabenow sent the following letter to President Obama: President Barack Obama The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20502 Dear President Obama, When we put together the CARS Program (more commonly known as “Cash for Clunkers”), we followed international law and made it apply to all

China's WTO Complaint on the Tires Tariffs

China's complaint is here. There's a challenge to the statute itself, as well as its application in the case at hand. It's difficult to imagine that this one will get settled, so in all likelihood this is just step 1 on the way to

Putting a Positive Spin on the Tires Tariffs

USTR Kirk had the following to say about the tires decisions: A spat over US tariffs on Chinese tires need not trigger a trade war between Washington and Beijing, US Trade Representative Ron Kirk said Wednesday. "I don't believe it should or need spark any trade war,

How Much Does a Section 421 Complaint Cost?

For those wondering about the likelihood of future Section 421 (China specific safeguard) determinations, here's an interesting tidbit about the cost of filing such complaints, from The Hill: The cost of preparing, filing and arguing the complaint the United Steelworkers union filed against China is relatively inexpensive, according

New Blog: Adjudicating Europe

Taking a break from our 24/7 China tires safeguard coverage, there's a new EU law blog that just started up called Adjudicating Europe: http://adjudicatingeurope.eu/ Here's how they introduce themselves: EU Law has come of age. Periodicals, text-books, conferences, professorships, institutes, research groups,

More China Specific Safeguard Background

Chad Bown writes with some more useful background on the China specific safeguard: For context on previous usage, you might point your readers to the (now misnamed!) Global Antidumping Database's on-line compiled data on all of the instances in which WTO members have notified use of the