International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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Simon Lester

Can Unilateral Carbon Measures Be Consistent with WTO Rules?

My good friends over at the law firm Sidley Austin have done an analysis of whether certain cap-and-trade greenhouse gas legislation under consideration in the U.S. is consistent with WTO rules. They argue that unilateral legislation can be written in a way that complies with WTO rules, and that

Hillary Clinton's "Pro-America Trade Agenda"

Yesterday was Barack Obama day here on this blog. Today is Hillary Clinton day. In her recent Economic Blueprint for the 21st Century, Hillary Clinton sets out a "Pro-America Trade Agenda." (As an aside, do politicians in other countries use similar phrases? For example, do Koreans running for

Peter Gallagher on the New Agriculture Text

Peter Gallagher looks at the latest WTO agriculture text and finds that it comes up short in many ways. I enjoyed his closing part: The zombie vampire award in this catalog of half-way-measures goes to the “Commodities” section of the text. Here we find a proposal that the WTO’s

Obama's Trade Views in the Blogosphere

A number of bloggers and others have been talking about Barack Obama's views on trade recently. Many seem to feel that he is moving towards a "populist" view on trade (some make this point approvingly, others disapprovingly). Examples of those in favor of a populist approach

Trade in Everything: International Basketball

From Sports Illustrated (via CNN): American basketball is planning to create up to five new European franchises who would compete for the NBA Championship, according to a report by Sports Illustrated. The astonishing claims come hard on the heels of plans by the football's English Premier League to

Update on the Gambling GATS XXI Arbitration

I had been hoping that the GATS Article XXI arbitration in the Gambling dispute would be as transparent as regular WTO disputes. I'm not sure that will be the case, though, as the arbitration requests have not yet been made public on the WTO's web site

Trade in Everything: Valentine's Day Edition

From The Economist: IF YOU live in Europe and are lucky enough to be given roses by your Valentine, there is a good chance that they were grown in Kenya—specifically, in one of the colossal greenhouses that blot out the once wild shores of Lake Naivasha, 90km (56 miles)

Thailand - Cigarettes II?

Many of this blog's readers are probably familiar with the old GATT Thailand - Cigarettes dispute. It looks like we might be headed for a (somewhat) similar dispute at the WTO. From an article published just in advance of the WTO complaint: The Philippine government plans to elevate

Obama on Economics and Trade

Barack Obama is following-up his recent primary victories with some new thoughts on economics, to be offered today at a speech at a GM factory. Here is an excerpt of what he will say about trade: It’s also time to look to the future and figure out how to

Does Free Trade Favor Rich Countries?

Tyler Cowen of George Mason interviews Ha-Joon Chang of the University of Cambridge regarding his critical book on free trade: http://chronicle.com/media/audio/v54/i23/chang_cowen/