International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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Simon Lester

The Economist on Rising Protectionism

Some nuggets from a recent Economist article, followed by my brief comments. The effectiveness of trade rules on non-tariff issues: Multilateral agreements provide little insurance against domestic subsidies, fiercer use of anti-dumping or the other forms of creeping protection. I'm not sure I agree with this one. Perhaps

Advice for the G-20, from Brookings

The G-20 London Summit 2009: Recommendations for Global Policy Coordination, from Brookings: Leaders of the Group of 20 (G-20), representing 85 percent of the global economy’s output, face a long list of agenda items when they gather on April 2 in London for their second summit. As the world

Food Law and Trade Issues

If you were going to start a program on food law and policy, where would you do it? There are a lot of good choices, but Italy would certainly be at or near the top of the list. Check out the following Summer Academy in Food Law & Policy, in

Rebuilding Global Trade - From ICTSD and GEG

A new publication from the ICTSD and the Global Economic Governance Programme at University College, Oxford (more here): Dear Colleagues, We are pleased to announce the publication of the e-book:Rebuilding Global Trade: Proposals for a Fairer, More Sustainable FutureShort Essays on Trade and Global Economic GovernanceEdited by Carolyn Deere

"Arbitrary" Trade Retaliation

From a letter by Rep. Peter DeFazio to President Obama related to the NAFTA trucks case: Mexico has made it clear that it chose products for retaliatory tariffs that would harm the districts or states of Members of Congress who led the charge to rid this program. For example, Oregon

The Purpose of SCM Agreement Countermeasures - A Do-Over

A little while ago, I did a post on the purpose of SCM Agreement countermeasures. I don't really like how the post came out, though. So, I'm going to take a do-over and try it again. The basic issue is whether "countermeasures" under the

Trade and Climate Change Advice from Jim Bacchus

In Forbes. First, there's this: Those who assume that WTO rulings will be "anti-environment" have evidently not read previous rulings, or not realized their positive implications for global environmental protection. I think that's right. It is no longer a GATT Tuna/Dolphin world (and

Mattoo and Subramanian Propose a "Crisis Round"

From the WSJ: Our suggestion is to launch a Crisis Round of trade talks at the G-20 London summit meeting next month. This round would aim to hold the line on protectionism and prevent the deterioration of current levels of global trade openness. For this round to have timely effect,

Trade in Everything: [See Below]

I didn't want to put the word "condom" in the post title because of all the undesirable search traffic (and resulting spam comments) it might bring in, but apparently USAID will be buying cheaper, foreign condoms: At a time when the federal government is spending billions

The Latest from the Grand River Case

I've been blogging a bit about NAFTA Chapter 11 non-discrimination standards (see here and here) by following the parties' submissions in the Grand River Enterprises case. The claimants' reply memorial is now available here. There's not too much for me to discuss in this