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Simon Lester

Paul Krugman on The "Trouble With Trade"

Paul Krugman has not had much to say about trade (that I've seen) in his op-ed columns, but today he writes: For the world economy as a whole — and especially for poorer nations — growing trade between high-wage and low-wage countries is a very good thing.

Some Support for a WTO Agreement on Currency Manipulation

I've said before on this blog (see, e.g. here) that WTO rules on exchange rate manipulation would be useful. I didn't have any detailed proposal in mind; it was my gut instinct plus some very basic arguments. Well, now I can cite to some top-

The Chinese Film Ban (If It Existed) No Longer Exists

The Chinese film ban, if there was one, is apparently over: China's blackout of Hollywood films has been broken by the Will Smith starrer "The Pursuit of Happyness," which Chinese film import officials now say will be released here in January. ... 'Happiness Knocks at the

Some Exchange Rate Items of Interest

Here are two unrelated items about exchange rates: 1. From Marginal Revolution: Canadian shoppers taking advantage of the parity between the U.S. and Canadian dollars are leaving behind more than cash when the head home. They're leaving behind their old clothes. Some Canadian shoppers wear their new

Trade in Everything: Christmas Trees

Typepad has a nice feature that lets you schedule a post for publication at a later date, so I'm scheduling this for Christmas day. Two items to note: From the FT, "Fir flies as Danish Xmas tree growers charged": Denmark’s Christmas tree growers, the biggest

The Gambling Arbitration: US$21 Million Per Year

From the Award: 6.1 For the reasons set out above, the Arbitrator determines that the annual level of nullification or impairment of benefits accuing to Antigua in this case is US$21 million and that Antigua has followed the principles and procedures of Article 22.3 of the DSU

The Light Bulb Ban

I was a bit surprised by the ban on incandescent light bulbs in the U.S. energy bill (probably because I hadn't been following the legislation very closely). Usually regulation of this sort consists of higher standards, or maybe occasionally additional taxes, but here we have an outright

The US-EU Gambling Settlement Is Not So Settled

So the EU is now out of the picture in the gambling dispute because they settled on compensation ... Wait, hold on a minute: European online gaming firms are filing a formal complaint against the United States for discrimination after their controversial exit from the US market. The companies say that

Why Does the WTO Have So Much Power?

Dani Rodrik asks: Whether you like it or not, the WTO is the only international organization in existence that actually makes the U.S. do what it would not otherwise have done on its own. No other organization has such power. I would love it if somebody would come up

The Zeroing Battle in the Courts

In a decision circulated today, a WTO panel says it disagrees with the Appellate Body's views on zeroing under AD Agreement Article 9.3, and decides not to follow the Appellate Body's approach. Here's an excerpt: 7.115 We respectfully disagree with the Appellate