International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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Simon Lester

Obama Takes on Farm Subsidies

Well, a portion of them, anyway. From a speech he gave today: We will go through our federal budget -- page by page, line by line -- eliminating those programs we don’t need, and insisting that those we do operate in a sensible cost-effective way. Let me give you

What Kind of USTR Do We Want?

Politico reports on the Obama administration's possible choices for U.S. Trade Rep. The article distinguishes between a "technocrat" choice and a "political" choice, indicating that the business community prefers the latter. The technocrat options mentioned are Dan Tarullo of Georgetown Law Center and

Beggar thy neighbour: automobile industry

From Bryan Mercurio:Following earlier posts on the US auto industry bailout and EU response, it seems appropriate to post on the Chinese response. The South China Morning Post reports (in a password protected article dating from 20 November, ‘Industry seeks government help as sales slump: Chinese carmakers press for

Blog Comments

Typepad has come up with some improved commenting features. One of these is threaded discussions, which is something we've wanted for a long time. It's just a beta version, so it may have some bugs in it, but I installed it anyway. Check it out all

More on Auto Trade Tensions

Bloomberg has a good overview of the issues here. One part that struck me was the following: German Chancellor Angela Merkel said her government will decide on an aid request from GM's Opel unit by Christmas. Opel asked for ``somewhat more than'' 1 billion euros in

Market Access for Small, Developing Countries

Following-up on this old post, apparently the WTO can work for the little guy: Fiji Kava Council chairman, Ratu Josateki Nawalowalo said the removal of the restriction on kava trade in European countries was a result of a 10-day roundtable consultation between Pacific Island ambassadors, European Commission leaders based in

The NAFTA Renegotiation

After all the NAFTA-bashing during the Presidential campaign, I've been very interested in seeing what exactly President-Elect Obama has planned for NAFTA. This may be a first glimpse: After he becomes president in January, Obama will order a study on the world’s largest trade agreement, then seek

Dani Rodrik Rejects Protection (at Least in Today's Economic Climate)

It has never been very clear to me what Dani Rodrik thinks of protection, so I was excited to hear him say this: At a time when the world is digging deeper into recession, exporting your problems through trade protection is the last thing that any responsible country should be

WTO Scholars Forum Event in London

A new WTO Scholars Forum Event: Professor Geert Van Calster (University of Leuven, Institute for Environmental and Energy Law) ‘TLC – Trade and the Low Carbon Economy’ Chair: Mr Angus Johnston (Senior University Lecturer, University of Cambridge) Thursday 20 November 2008, 5-6.30pm, UCL Laws, London, Room SR1 (http://www.ucl.

The G-20 on Protectionism

From the G-20 statement: 13. We underscore the critical importance of rejecting protectionism and not turning inward in times of financial uncertainty. In this regard, within the next 12 months, we will refrain from raising new barriers to investment or to trade in goods and services, imposing new export restrictions,