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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

Trade in Everything: Patriots 19-0 Shirts and Hats

From the AP, what happened to the shirts and hats printed up with the expectation that the Patriots would win the Super Bowl: The New England Patriots won the Super Bowl and ended the season with a perfect 19-0 record - at least it looks that way in Nicaragua. The

Re-negotiating NAFTA: Some Reaction from Canada

In my post yesterday, I asked for some Canadian and Mexican reaction to the Obama/Clinton calls to "re-negotiate" NAFTA. Debra Steger offered some views in a comment. Here are some reactions in the press from Canadian government officals: Trade Minister David Emerson suggested the United States

Is Trade In Food Products Always Bad for the Environment?

From the New Yorker: It is a logical and widely held assumption that the ecological impacts of transporting food—particularly on airplanes over great distances—are far more significant than if that food were grown locally. For example: according to one recent study, factories throughout the world are burning eighteen

How Should I Feel About "Tariff Earmarks"?

I'm not a big fan of earmarks generally. Even if specific projects are defensible, the process just seems fundamentally flawed. But what if the "earmark" is a suspension of a tariff duty? As a free trader, shouldn't I support that? According to this story,

How Important Are Labor/Environmental Standards in Trade Agreements?

As noted many times on this blog, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have been making a big deal of the absence of enforceable labor/environmental standards in certain trade agreements, such as NAFTA. But how important would these really be? Dan Drezner gives the following answer: Repeat after me: attaching

Obama/Clinton: "Opt Out Of" Or "Re-negotiate" NAFTA

I was just watching the Obama-Clinton debate in Ohio. Most of the trade stuff was boilerplate, but one point jumped out at me. Both Obama and Clinton stated explicitly that they will "opt out" of NAFTA unless the governments of Canada and Mexico agree to re-negotiate

The Patriot Employers Act under WTO Rules

There has been a lot of criticism of the Patriot Employers Act proposed by Barack Obama and several others (see, e.g., here). A few days ago, I was asked in a comment whether the Act would be consistent with the SCM Agreement. My short answer was that there was

What the Candidates Should Be Talking About in Ohio

Much of the political debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in Ohio has been about which of them dislikes NAFTA more. But perhaps when addressing trade issues in their debate in Cleveland on Tuesday, they should be talking a bit more about stories like this: The Cleveland Clinic has

Obama's Economics Adviser on Obama on Trade

Here's how Austan Goolsbee, a University of Chicago economics professor who is Obama's leading economic adviser, describes Obama's views on trade: "I don't think he views himself as a protectionist," Goolsbee said. He said Obama favored expanding access to global

BYOM: Bring Your Own Meat

From Reuters: China expressed regret on Thursday at reports the U.S. Olympic team would bring its own meat for the Beijing Games over concerns of drugs tainted food, and said it could guarantee safe supplies. The New York Times has reported that the U.S. Olympic Committee has arranged