Simon Lester

There have been quite a few news articles in the past several days about Canadian concerns that Canadian companies are shut out of many U.S. state and local government procurement conracts, but U.S. companies have access to similar Canadian contracts.  Some have suggested keeping U.S. companies out

Chad Bown on U.S.-China WTO disputes: While many trade policy observers focus on signs of life from the Doha round of negotiations, arguably more important to the long-run relevance of the WTO is how the United States and China politically manage a number of currently ongoing formal

In terms of U.S. domestic politics, health care seems to be trumping trade policy these days.  I'd rather talk about trade policy than health care, so I'm going to try to sneak trade policy into the health care discussion by proposing the following:  If we

Do you have a new instance of protectionism to report?   Here's a place to do it: Global Trade Alert provides real-time information on state measures taken during the current global downturn that are likely to affect foreign commerce. It goes beyond other monitoring initiatives by identifying the

Dan Ikenson of Cato explains: Shake your head and chuckle as you learn that even the “DNA” of the U.S. steel industry, which pushed for adoption of the most restrictive Buy American provisions and which has been the manufacturing sector’s most vocal proponent of trade barriers over the

Prime Minister Harper: Canada is interested in a free trade deal with the United States that would open up local government procurements to both countries. The interest comes as Canadian companies continue to report difficulties in winning government contracts in U.S states and cities because of "Buy American&

From the latest JIEL, here are two articles on the Appellate Body by Alberto Alvarez-Jimenez: The WTO Appellate Body's Decision-Making Process: A Perfect Model For International Adjudication? The functioning of the Appellate Body (AB) is virtually perfect in terms of collegial decision-making. During its first

"Trade 2.0," posted on SSRN by Anupam Chander.  Here is the abstract: Where the last century saw the dismantling of barriers to trade in goods, the new century will see the dismantling of barriers to trade in services. Once theorized as nontradable, services now join goods in

As many have probably heard already, a Chinese company is likely to buy the Hummer brand.  Dan Ikenson of Cato offers the following thoughts on the deal: Not only is the Hummer offer the first bid for a GM asset in bankruptcy, but the bidder is foreign. Not only is