International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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Simon Lester

Discussing Trade Policy on the Internet

Shifting the IELP blog to a new platform has led me to do a bit of reflection on the past, present, and future of discussing trade policy online. I am vaguely aware that there were Usenet forum discussions in the 1990s, and there may have been good trade policy conversations

Beware the "Securitization" of Trade Policy

In recent years, U.S. trade policy has seen a creeping takeover by "security" concerns. The precise scope of these concerns is unclear, but they appear to cover both the traditional aspects of military-related security as well as the vague and amorphous concept of "economic security."

Call for Candidates (Co-)Editor(s)-in-Chief Journal of International Economic Law (JIEL)

This is from the JIEL: The 5-year term of the current Co-Editors-in-Chief of JIEL is ending. We have been charged to facilitate the process of electing the next Editor or Co-Editors-in-Chief. JIEL is the pre-eminent journal in the field of international economic law, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). We

CPTPP Roster of Panel Chairs

Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is looking for candidates for the roster of CPTPP panel chairs: Expressions of Interest: Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) Roster of Panel Chairs The Australian Government is seeking expressions of interest from suitably qualified individuals to be considered

Guest Post: Putting the “harm” in Pharmaceuticals – evaluating President Trump’s proposal of 100% tariffs

This is a guest post from Simon Schropp (BRG and George Washington University) On Friday, September 25, 2025, President Trump – characteristically in a post on Truth Social – announced his intention to impose a 100% tariff on any branded/patented pharmaceutical products imported into the United States, unless the manufacturer “is

Stephen Miran on Tariffs and National Savings

In a speech earlier this week, Stephen Miran, who had been the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers and is now a member of the Federal Reserve Board, made his case for a looser monetary policy. One aspect of his argument was that he thinks national savings will be

A GOP Tariff Working Group and Post-Trump U.S. Trade Politics

The Hill reported last week that a handful of pro-trade Republicans in Congress used some leverage during a vote about voting on tariffs – it's complicated, check out the details at the link for more! – to get a Republican working group on tariffs established: And [Tom] McClintock [R-CA] said

Guest Post: China – Enforcement of IP Rights: Navigating Different Conceptions of Territoriality in International Intellectual Property Law

This is a guest post from Emmanuel Kolawole Oke, Senior Lecturer at Edinburgh Law School What does it mean to ‘give effect to’ the provisions of the TRIPS Agreement? That is the key question at the centre of the dispute between the EU and China at the WTO regarding anti-suit

Some MPIA Updates

This post is a brief one just to provide a few updates on disputes in which an appeal has been or might be heard by the MPIA arbitrators.

The Japan-U.S. Investment MOU: Centrally Planned Foreign Investment?

In the last post, Mona set out the basics of the Japan-U.S. MOU on "Strategic Investments" in the U.S. – or at least, a version of the MOU that was posted by the Japanese government online, although we don't know for sure if this is