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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

Airbus vs. Boeing vs. China

The Economist has an article about how the Chinese are planning to develop aircraft to compete with Airbus and Boeing. The article noties: Although Boeing huffs and puffs about ensuring that China sticks to WTO rules banning market-distorting subsidies, both it and Airbus are studiously polite about the prospect

Judging RTAs in WTO Dispute Settlement

Among the many difficulties with reconciling bilateral/regional trade agreements and the WTO Agreement is which "branch" of the WTO, the Dispute Settlement Body or the Committee on Regional Trade Agreements, should judge the overall consistency of these agreements with WTO rules. A recent article by Youri Devust

Suing USTR

Public Citizen has filed a lawsuit, on behalf of journalist Ed Brayton, alleging that: The Bush administration is illegally withholding the details of its offer accepted by the European Union to bind more sectors of the U.S. economy to World Trade Organization (WTO) jurisdiction as part of a settlement

McCain Goes After the Free Trade Vote

I'm not sure how big that voting bloc is anymore, but in a speech today, Sen. McCain has a lot to say on trade. If this is a sign of things to come, trade is going to be a hot issue in the Presidential campaign. First, he goes

How Would a President Obama Govern on Trade?

Bob Davis of the Wall Street Journal is skeptical of Obama's free trade credentials: Since at least John F. Kennedy, presidential candidates have campaigned as tough on trade and then governed as free traders. Some business leaders are expecting the same if Barack Obama makes it to the

The Farm Bill and the U.S. Trade Policy Review

Reader R.V. Anuradha points me to this Reuters report on the forthcoming U.S. Trade Policy Review done by the WTO: In agriculture, some programs may provide incentives that are inconsistent with market signals and affect trade when supported output reaches world markets, it said. “The expiration of the

The Farm Bill and Food Aid

I mentioned the Bush Administration's food aid proposal a few days ago. So what did the Farm Bill -- passed with a veto-proof majority -- do with the issue? According to Reuters: U.S. lawmakers unveiled a five-year global food aid plan on Thursday, snubbing White House demands

Obama on Prying Open Foreign Markets

At a recent town hall meeting: Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama urged Japan and South Korea on Friday to scrap all their controls on U.S. beef imports and fully open their beef markets. "You can't get beef into Japan and Korea, even though, obviously, we have

Trade in Everything: French Fries

OK, technically speaking it is trade in potatoes, but french fries made for a better title: Anyone who has been to a soccer game in Europe knows that fries and burgers are among the most popular food items on sale at football grounds. So, it must have come as a

Obama and McCain on Farm Subsidies

The U.S. Senate approved the farm bill today. The bill is now off to the President for an expected veto, but there appear to be enough Congressional votes to override the veto. What do the candidates think of it? Well, neither McCain nor Obama was there for today'