International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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Simon Lester

Enforcing the IPEF: Unilateralism and Incentives vs. Adjudication

This is from an Inside US Trade article from last week: Members of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity agree on a need to pursue binding commitments, ministers told Inside U.S. Trade last week, but those commitments likely will differ from those in other trade arrangements as countries consider

China Trade Monitor Post on Banned Fish Products and USMCA

China Trade Monitor is subscriber-only, but our recent post entitled "China-Mexico Trade in Banned Fish Products under Discussion in USMCA" has a tuna-dolphin/shrimp-turtle feel to it and thus may have broad appeal, so I thought I'd open it up to everyone. Here's the

The Latest Effort To Clarify FET and Indirect Expropriation

Over at Investment Arbitration Reporter, Damien Charlotin has a piece about a draft text developed by Germany and the European Commission to clarify the interpretation of the obligations on fair and equitable treatment and indirect expropriation in CETA. The draft text document is characterized as a "Draft Decision of

Katherine Tai on Policy Space and Sovereignty

This is something U.S. Trade Rep. Katherine Tai said at a Carnegie Endowment for International Peace event last week: There often is a tension between how international trade rules interact with our own domestic policies and regulations. International trade rules tend to discipline what countries can do and there&

Do Appeals Have To Go into the "Void"?

Reading over some DSU provisions again, I wonder if there is an argument that appeals need not go into the "void" in the absence of the Appellate Body, at least not permanently. DSU Article 16.4 says: "If a party has notified its decision to appeal, the

Comments by WTO Members on the First Article 25 Arbitration Appeal (Plus Some U.S. Domestic Politics)

The Turkey - Pharmaceutical Products Article 25 arbitration award, which functioned as an alternative appellate review mechanism while Appellate Body appointments are still blocked, was discussed at the August 29 DSB meeting. Here's how the WTO web site summary of the meeting described comments from WTO Members on

Meet the New Industrial Policy, Same as the Old Industrial Policy

Here is a piece I published last week on the Baker Institute blog: MEET THE NEW INDUSTRIAL POLICY, SAME AS THE OLD INDUSTRIAL POLICY? With the recent enactment of the CHIPS and Science Act, longtime advocates of industrial policy are feeling a sense of triumph, and proclaiming that U.S.

How Will Authors React if Software Can Identify Authorship of WTO Dispute Rulings?

Back in 2019, I wrote about a paper by Joost Pauwelyn and Krzysztof Pelc on the role of the Secretariat in WTO disputes, following up on Joost's own post about the paper. As Joost put it, this is what they did and what they found: We begin by

Electric Vehicle Tax Credits and Non-Discrimination under the Inflation Reduction Act

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that was recently passed by the Senate has a complex set of assembly and content requirements for its electric vehicle (EV) tax credits. This post offers a few thoughts on domestic content requirements as a matter of policy, possible U.S. justifications under WTO law

Can Tariffs Help Bring Down Carbon Emissions? Maybe, But Probably Not Under Current Proposals

Recently, I came across two arguments for the U.S. and EU to use tariffs as penalties designed to bring down carbon emissions: * Senator Sheldon Whitehouse suggested that "laggards and high polluting countries [will be] forced to step up and comply by virtue of the economic pressure on them