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Simon Lester

USTR Candidates

From Reuters: Daniel Tarullo, a Georgetown University law professor who has advised Obama on trade issues, is thought by many Washington lobbyists to be to a top candidate for the job. Tarullo worked for former President Bill Clinton in the 1990s -- first as an assistant secretary of state for

Change is coming ...

... to U.S. trade policy. It is not clear exactly what this change will look like, but no doubt we will spend a lot of time on this blog talking about it. Here are some of the issues I'll be watching for: -- What will a NAFTA renegotiation

Lamy Seeks a Second Term as DG

From his letter to the General Council Chair (scroll down to page 3): During the last three years I believe that I have done my best to serve these objectives with dedication and conviction. And although today we are closer to our goal, much remains to be done, not only

Copyrighting International Organization Documents

The WTO has always been great about letting us post official documents on WorldTradeLaw.net. We ask permission and they always grant it. However, I see WTO documents in various other places on the internet as well, and I would guess that at least some of these web sites have

Muse on Congressional Races and Obama's Trade Policy

Ben Muse has been examining the role of trade in a number of Congressional races. The following link shows a numer of his posts in this regard (with a couple other trade politics related posts thrown in): http://benmuse.typepad.com/custom_house/election_2008/ Also via Muse, I came

More on OPEC from Sen. Lautenberg

From his debate with an opponent for his Senate seat: Lautenberg said he hoped to win passage of a bill that says, “If you are part of a monopoly like OPEC you cannot belong to the World Trade Organization, which offers all kinds of commercial benefits.” If the bill is

McCain or Obama?

I'm curious to see which Presidential candidate this blog's readers support (I suspect that many readers are not U.S. citizens, so here's your chance to vote!). The candidates are listed alphabetically -- that seemed like the fairest approach. Which U.S. Presidential candidate

Follow-up on the Asbestos Case

The WTO asbestos dispute seems long over (thank goodness, many people would say), but some issues related to exporting asbestos are still out there. The Economist reports: FOR more than a decade, workers in hazmat suits have been boring into the walls and ceilings of Canada’s parliament buildings to

Tuna III?

I haven't seen much detail about this, but there are two reports of a new WTO complaint by Mexico against U.S. tuna restrictions: The Mexican government says it has formally requested World Trade Organization consultations on U.S. labeling restrictions that it says effectively exclude Mexican tuna

Why Do We Have SPS Agreement Article 5.1?

Every time I think about SPS Agreement Article 5.1, as we have been in relation to the Hormones II AB report, the following question occurs to me: Why is there an international trade rule requiring SPS measures to be based on a risk assessment? Put another way, what is