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Simon Lester

Simon Lester

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

http://simonlester.com

Alice Amsden on the WTO and Development

I've said before on this blog (although I can't seem to track down where) that I think WTO rules allow developing countries a lot of flexibility to use protectionism (whether they should use it is a harder question). Here's Alice Amsden of MIT making

The WTO Airbus Ruling: Some Details

From the WSJ: The Journal reported that the WTO in its interim ruling classified every launch aid package given for the A380 passenger jet as an illegal subsidy.ADDED: Let the debate over what the ruling actually says commence. From Reuters: Comments that the World Trade Organization on Friday backed

The WTO Airbus Ruling: No Leaks Yet

So far, the details of the Airbus ruling have not been leaked, so nothing to comment on in that regard. However, I did have a quibble with this statement by the Economist: Theoretically the WTO ruling, if confirmed and not over-turned on appeal, could cause a trade war between

Trade Versus the Environment: Imported Toyota Hybrids

From Bloomberg: Toyota Motor Corp., the world’s biggest seller of autos powered by a combination of gasoline and electricity, faces a patent-infringement claim that may result in a U.S. import ban on its Prius and other hybrid models. Closely held Paice LLC filed a complaint yesterday with

The WTO Cotton Dispute: Another Compliance Panel?

Not too many years ago, it was a bit unclear whether a respondent in a WTO dispute could go to DSU Article 21.5 and ask a panel to declare that it was in compliance, so as to put an end to the trade sanctions it was facing. However, the

Trade Preferences and Human Rights: The Case of Sri Lanka

As a quick update on these two posts, the Economist reports that Sri Lanka is not likely to continue to benefit from the EU's GSP Plus tariff preference program: The confidential 130-page report, which has been obtained by The Economist, concludes that Sri Lanka has failed to

The WTO Airbus Ruling: Some Non-Substantive Details

The WSJ says it's 1,000 pages: Trade-law specialists say the 1,000-page document's wording will be ambiguous enough to allow the EU to appeal unfavorable findings Here's another non-substantive question: Will the document be leaked? No doubt it will be

"Can a New Cast Save Global Trade Talks?"

From the headline of a NY Times article. They say that India is now ready to move ahead, but they are less sure about the U.S.: While there are signs that the host of this week’s session, India, has become more willing to bargain, negotiators are still trying

Obama Trade Policy Speech Coming Soon?

Washington Trade Daily just tweeted: USTR Kirk just told reporters President Obama will deliver his long-awaited trade policy speech sometime before the G-20 meeting Sept 24. "Long-awaited" is right. I had been expecting to spend much of the past few months blogging about the new

The Cotton 22.6 Decision(s): A Chance to Test TRIPS Retaliation?

The Article 22.6 Arbitration decision in the U.S. - Cotton case was issued today. Or rather, the decisions, plural. There is one decision related to actionable subsidies and one decision related to prohibited subsidies. So what do they say? Well, I'm still trying to finish up the