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Simon Lester

Simon Lester

Co-founder of WorldTradeLaw.net and China Trade Monitor. Non-resident fellow at the Baker Institute.

http://simonlester.com

The New House Trade Bill on the Role of Precedent

From a new House bill introduced by Congressmen Rangel and Levin (full text here): SEC. 205. ROLE OF WTO APPELLATE BODY RULINGS IN THE WTO DISPUTE SETTLEMENT SYSTEM. (a) Findings- Congress finds the following: (1) The United States and other members of the World Trade Organization made clear when they

A Ruling in the Kaplan Case: The WTO Gambling Decision is not a Defense

So says a magistrate judge. As you may recall, the defendants invoked the WTO Gambling decision as a defense against their prosecution for various gambling related crimes. Some excerpts from the ruling: As an initial matter, the defendants do not have standing to raise alleged violations of the GATS or

The DLC: More Trade Litigation, Please

In a recent policy report, the Democratic Leadership Committee proposes the following for U.S. trade policy: 3. Revive Trade Enforcement. Many of America’s major trade interests, finally, are already covered by WTO agreements. These include intellectual property rights, subsidies, market access for manufactured goods, and fair treatment for

Mankiw Calls McCain Out on Free Trade

John McCain has been going around declaring himself to be a free trader. ("There's no greater free trader in the Senate than I am," he says). But Greg Mankiw, in the context of raising some election issues that are important to economists, brings up the uncomfortable

Loyola University of Chicago: Wing Tat Lee Chair in International Law

Wing Tat Lee Chair in International Law The Loyola University Chicago School of Law, a well established urban Jesuit law school is currently seeking candidates to fill its recently vacated chair in international law named in honor of Hong Kong businessman Wing Tat Lee. This twelve month position will entail

Schizophrenia on Foreign Investment

The Economist has an interesting article on reactions to foreign investment in the United States. It seems that on the one hand, individual U.S. states are making concerted efforts to lure foreign investors. For example, officials from Alabama fly overseas to convince big manufacturers to set up shop in

Colbert's Take on the Sale of Anheuser-Busch

Light on policy, but heavy on laughs: ADDED: It occurs to me that not everyone will be familiar with Stephen Colbert. Hence, I feel compelled to mention that this was satire. It was probably obvious, but he once had a guest accidentally refer to him as Bill (as in O&

The AB Oral Hearing in the Hormones Sanctions Case

The Appellate Body has just issued instructions for registering for the Hormones Sanctions hearings on July 28-29: http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/public_hearing_july08_e.htm If there are any students (or others) in the Geneva area who want to attend and have a

The Appellate Body Opens Its Doors to the Public

In a big victory for transparency, the Appellate Body has decided, in response to the parties' requests, to open its oral hearing in the Hormones Sanctions cases (DS320 and DS321) to public observation. Here's the EU press release: EU welcomes first opening of WTO Appellate Body hearing

Obama on the Doha Round

Well, one of Obama's advisers, anyway: Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama wants a successful end to long-running world trade talks, but will closely review any deal reached by the Bush administration, an Obama adviser said on Wednesday. "Sen. Obama believes we need to change our trade