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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: 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 the

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

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/

Beyond "Trade Policy," Towards "Integration Policy"

In the Financial Post, some well known trade experts argue for deeper Canada - U.S. integration: That a big idea on Canada-U.S. trade is needed there is little doubt. ... "We reached the high point in the year 2000 in volume in terms of trucks and human traffic,

Trade in Everything: Swiss Army Knives

The title of the post is a bit mis-leading, as it appears there are some things that are not to be traded: Swiss soldiers will continue to pack knives made in Switzerland, after the defence ministry decided not to have them produced them abroad. The NZZ am Sonntag and

Job Losses from Trade vs. Non-Trade

We've talked before on this blog about whether job losses from trade deserve greater compensation than job losses from other things. Here is a real world example of the latter that I came across: Polaroid Corp. is dropping the technology it pioneered long before digital photography rendered instant

Anti-Dumping Reform

From a post about anti-dumping over at VoxEU: Even leaving aside legal details, our recent work and other studies suggest some obvious starting points for any reform of the EU antidumping system. Antidumping instruments that are simply another form of protection leave too much discretion in the hands of

Romney Goes Out on a Populist Note

In pulling out of the Presidential race, Mitt Romney said the following in his withdrawal speech: The attack on our culture is not our sole challenge. We face economic competition unlike anything we have ever known before. China and Asia are emerging from centuries of poverty. Their people are plentiful,

Another Argument Against Ethanol Subsidies

Putting the trade issues aside, there is an environmental argument against corn ethanol subsidies: The widespread use of ethanol from corn could result in nearly twice the greenhouse gas emissions as the gasoline it would replace because of expected land-use changes, researchers concluded Thursday. The study challenges the rush