International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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Simon Lester

Subsidy Wars

Moving away from cars, over to agriculture: Twenty-nine countries at the World Trade Organization criticized the United States on Wednesday for reintroducing export subsidies on U.S. dairy products, calling the handouts a dangerous retreat into protectionism and warning of "subsidy wars." ... The U.S. view was that

Using Free Trade to Promote Development

Over at vox, Kimberly Elliott says the U.S. should lower tariffs on imports from poor countries: ... the Doha Round, under the best of circumstances, will take some time to conclude, and the US and other rich countries should move as quickly as possible to further open their markets to

Lowering the Costs of Cap and Trade

The Economist reports the following on the latest "cap and trade" proposals in the U.S.: On May 15th Henry Waxman and Edward Markey, the Democratic point-men on climate change in the House of Representatives, unveiled a bill that would give away 85% of carbon permits for nothing,

Congrats to the ELSA WTO Moot Court Winners!

Andrew Mitchell of Melbourne Law School writes with the following: Melbourne Law School has won the 2008-2009 European Law Students’ Association WTO Moot Court Competition in Taipei! The Melbourne team, comprising Laura Bellamy (LLB), Rudi Kruse (JD), Erica Leaney (LLB) and Christopher Tran (LLB) and coached by Associate Professors Andrew

Beef Hormones: A Few More Details Emerge

In two recent posts, we had been talking about the U.S.-EU beef agreement. The agreement seemed to be mostly about market access for non-hormone treated beef, which led me to wonder what everyone involved had in mind in relation to market access for hormone-treated beef. USTR Ron Kirk&

U.S. Beverages Taxes

Taxes on beverages have a long and interesting history in GATT/WTO dispute settlement. I hope Congress keeps this in mind as they consider taxing soda and alcoholic beverages to help pay for health care reform. See here, here and here for details. The last article notes that the soda

Trade Liberalization that Dani Rodrik Can Get Behind

I am often left wondering what Dani Rodrik thinks of trade. I try to parse his various criticisms of the current trade regime, but I still can't figure out where exactly he stands on core issues such as, "Is protectionism a good policy?" Most likely, his

Metric Labeling as a Trade Barrier

The Commerce Department announces a victory with regard to EU metric labeling: The Commerce Department today announced the successful culmination of its efforts to ensure extension of both non-metric and metric labeling provisions on product packaging for U.S. businesses exporting to the European Union—saving U.S. firms hundreds

It's World Trade Week

Apparently, May 17-23 is "World Trade Week." See the White House press release here, which concludes: NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby

The Seals Dispute: The Economist Offers Some Arguments

In this week's issue, the Economist weighs in on the EU's decision to ban most seal products. They make the point that if the EU wanted to promote animal welfare, they had other avenues, closer to home, to do so: ROUGHLY handled, and incompetently stunned, terrified