International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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Simon Lester

COOL is Here

Country of Original Labeling (COOL) for food is finally here: After years of wrangling, so-called “country of origin labeling” is expected to take effect at the end of the month, requiring most food retailers to disclose where many types of meat, produce and other food products come from. The

Byrd Amendment Update

Ben Muse reports on efforts to revive it: http://benmuse.typepad.com/custom_house/2008/09/is-the-byrd-amendment-coming-back.html The post has lots of good links.

An SSM Solution

Robert Baldwin proposes a solution to the SSM stalemate. As I understand it, he suggests that an increase in imports by itself should not be enough to trigger the safeguard. Rather, you should look at the level of import consumption as well, and only impose the safeguard when import consumption

Reviewing "Battle in Seattle"

From the Washington Post review of the movie "Battle in Seattle": Townsend even opens the film with a narrator's summary of the issues involved (as the protesters see them), and it's an ingenious gambit: It relieves him of the expository task of explaining what

The Spread of Bailouts, Part II

The big auto industry loan package I mentioned the other day seems close to passing in Congress: Key members of the U.S. Congress are confident a provision needed to trigger $25 billion in loans to automakers will become law within days ... I haven't seen the full details,

Ha-Joon Chang Argues for Infant Industry Protection

In an interview related to his (somewhat) new book, Ha-Joon Chang makes the case for infant industry protection: When you are trying to get into a more difficult and thereby higher return activity, developing countries have to invest in it. The investment comes in the form of protection, which

The Spread of Openness

In another small victory for transparency, the Appellate Body hearing in the latest Bananas appeals will be open to the public: http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news08_e/hearing_22sept08_e.htm Of note is that one of the parties is Ecuador, which makes this, I believe, the

Battles over Buy American

First John McCain brags about buying American, rather than foreign, cars. Then Barack Obama puts together a TV ad alleging that McCain lied and actually owns several foreign-made cars. You can see the ad, which includes the McCain statement, here: http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/amandascott/gGg9HV

Peter Mandelson on Carbon Taxes

From a speech by Peter Mandelson: The elephant in the room when we talk about trade incentives for the right climate policy is of course the idea of a carbon border tax. This is intended to punish free-riders who don't sign up to a global climate deal

The WTO is "like the Freemasons"

According to Jon Stewart: From an interview with Charlize Theron, star of the movie "Battle in Seattle," about the Seattle WTO protests. It's a couple minutes in before they start talking about the WTO. Which brings me to a related point. This is from an interview