Sign in Subscribe

Simon Lester

Simon Lester

Co-founder of WorldTradeLaw.net and China Trade Monitor. Non-resident fellow at the Baker Institute.

http://simonlester.com

How Do You Like Your Chicken: With or Without Chemicals?

Roughly speaking, that's the issue in the EC - Measures Affecting Poultry Meat WTO dispute (DS389), for which the U.S. recently announced it will request a panel. The panel request describes the issue as follows: The EC prohibits the import of poultry treated with any substance other than

Dani Rodrik: The Trade Regime Has Passed The Test Of This Recession

Dani Rodrik is skeptical of claims that there has been a big increase in protectionism recently: The reality is that the international trade regime has passed its greatest test since the Great Depression with flying colours. Trade economists who complain about minor instances of protectionism sound like a child whining

Trade in Everything: Sand

From the Economist: Malaysia banned sand exports as long ago as 1997. Indonesia followed suit in 2007 on environmental and, some say, political grounds. Ever since, it has become harder for Singapore to secure supplies for its booming construction industry and sea-fill plans.... So Singaporean contractors turned to Cambodia,

Glaeser on Economic Development in Argentina

At the NY Times Economix blog, economist Edward Glaeser asks, "What Happened to Argentina?": A century ago, there were only seven countries in the world that were more prosperous than Argentina (Belgium, Switzerland, Britain and four former English colonies including the United States), according to Angus Maddison’s

Canada's Flavored Tobacco Ban

Reuters reports that Canada's ban on flavored tobacco is now in effect: Canada has banned the manufacture, importation and sale of most flavored cigarettes and small cigars, which have been slammed as little more than an enticement to get children to start smoking. There are two trade issues

Technological Change and the Timing of GATS Schedules

One interesting part of the recent China - Publications panel report was the discussion of technological change and the timing of GATS commitments. The specific interpretive question where this arose was the following: whether China's GATS commitment on "sound recording distribution services" in Sector 2.D, covering

More on the "Right to Regulate Trade"

Following-up on yesterday's post, here's something from Tania Voon: The Panel did little to clarify the meaning of regulating trade in a WTO-consistent manner pursuant to the ‘[w]ithout prejudice’ clause. It concluded that this clause permits China to regulate goods imported into China

The "Right to Regulate Trade in a Manner Consistent with the WTO Agreement"

One of the obligations dealt with in the China - Publications report was paragraph 5.1 of China's Accession Protocol, which provides in part: 1. Without prejudice to China's right to regulate trade in a manner consistent with the WTO Agreement, China shall progressively liberalize the availability

One Side of the "Necessity" Debate

Via Todd Tucker at Eyes on Trade, I came across this discussion of "necessity" in the context of the GATS negotiations (Word doc) on Domestic Regulation (Article VI): 10. The representative of Switzerland wished to address two issues in his intervention, namely the significance of the revised text

A Change in Tariff Classification (and Rates) for Solar Panels

From the NY Times: The issue began with a short letter to United States customs officials last December from the small American subsidiary of a Spanish energy company. The subsidiary, GES USA, wanted to know what the tariff would be to import certain solar panels from China. On Jan. 9,