International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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Simon Lester

Would Bringing the WTO Seals Dispute Be Bad for Free Trade?

The Ottawa Citizen makes the case: Using trade-law arguments to force Europe to accept seal-hunt products from Canada, while tempting, could ultimately do more harm than good for trade in general. Opponents of free-trade agreements have long argued that such agreements have the potential to undermine national

More Sports and the Seals Dispute

I had not expected sports to play such a big role in Seals dispute. The other day I mentioned the role of former hockey player Peter Stastny. Now there's this: Canadian MPs have pushed forward a motion urging Canada's 2010 Olympic team to add seal skin

A "New Spirit" of U.S.-EU Trade Relations

From Reuters: Ashton, who took over from Peter Mandelson last October, said a "new spirit" of transatlantic cooperation had been fostered by the U.S. administration under President Barack Obama. So-called "carousel" duties from the United States in the beef dispute were one of then

9th Annual BIICL WTO Conference

BIICL's 9th Annual WTO Conference will be held in London on May 20-21. It has the usual outstanding group of participants: Welcome Professor John H. Jackson, Institute of International Economic Law, Georgetown University Law Center The Rt Honourable Sir Francis G. Jacobs KCMG QC, King's

Progress in The Beef Hormones Dispute

A "provisional" agreement has been reached between the U.S. and EU (I'm not sure what Canada's views on all of this are). Sounds like they still have some hard issues to deal with, though. From the USTR press release: The agreement in principle

Seals Dispute Update

Today's developments (so far) in the WTO seals dispute (DS369), with links: » Canada will challenge seal ban to WTO: Day OTTAWA — The federal government will take the European Union to the World Trade Organization to challenge a pending ban on seal products unless the EU exempts Canada because

The WTO Seals Dispute: He Shoots, He Scores?

Or maybe he puts the biscuit in the basket? Two minutes for roughing? I don't know, there must be some hockey term that is relevant here, but I can't quite find the right one. I had been wondering what famous hockey players thought of the Canadian

Taxing U.S. Multinationals Abroad and at Home

From today's headlines: President Barack Obama vowed on Monday to overhaul tax policies that he said reward companies for shifting U.S. jobs overseas and allow wealthy people to evade taxes using offshore accounts. The White House estimated the plan would save $210 billion over the next decade.

China in WTO Dispute Settlement

Forbes did an interesting two part series (actually, there may be more parts coming, I'm not sure) on China in WTO dispute settlement. From part 1: Facing a distressed export sector and rising protectionism amid the global economic crisis, the Chinese government will get more comfortable and aggressive

The Scope of GATT Article XX

From para. 7.498 of the Colombia - Ports of Entry WTO panel decision, circulated Monday: In any cases where a measure may violate a particular provision of the WTO Agreements, a number of exceptions – notably those included in Article XX of the GATT 1994 – allow WTO Members to justify a