International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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Simon Lester

The Costa Rican CAFTA Vote: Yes!

I think the Costa Rican vote on CAFTA is pretty close to decided. Reuters reports that with "ballots from nearly 74 percent of polling stations" counted, "[a]lmost 52 percent of voters backed the Central American Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA, while 48 percent voted against it.

Professor Don McRae to Serve as Interim President of SIEL

For those who have not already seen it, here is a posting from the new Society of International Economic Law, with which a number of this blog's contributors (including myself) are involved: SIEL is pleased to announce that Don McRae has agreed to serve as the Interim President

"the United States has never before confronted the question of extending unilateral trade preferences to a country that has rejected a reciprocal trade agreement"

Is the quote in the title to this post a threat to Costa Ricans voting tomorrow on approval of CAFTA? It does sound a bit like one, with the suggestion that if CAFTA is not approved, unilateral trade preferences to Costa Rica might not be renewed. Is such a threat

TRIPS Agreement in the Domestic Law of EC Member States

This sounds like a big deal to me, but it has been a while since my one EC law course, so perhaps this ruling by the European Court of Justice is not as important as it seems: it is not contrary to Community law for Article 33 of the TRIPs

Sealed with a Complaint

As Bryan mentioned here, Canada's complaint about Belgian and Dutch bans on seal products is now official. The consultations request is here. It might be better for the system if the complaint did not go forward, but if it does there could be some very interesting issues explored.

Call for Papers - Regional Trade Agreements

The Public Law Review, one of the student-edited journals at Saint Louis University Law School, is organizing a symposium in Spring 2008 on regional trade agreements and their social, political, and environmental implications. The title is: The Changing Tide of Trade: Social, Political, and Environmental Implications of Regional Trade

More on Trade Measures and the Environment

Past blog discussions on trade measures designed to promote environmental protection have focused on proposals by Joseph Stiglitz and various EU officials (see here, here, here and here). Now it seems that the U.S. is getting into the act. Retaliatory steps that comply with world trade rules could be

The Gambling Case: Both Tracks Moving Forward

Both tracks of the Gambling case continue to move ahead, with the parties still trying to reach agreement (and not getting that close, it seems). With regard to the U.S. withdrawal of its Gambling services commitments, the Financial Times reports that the U.S. compensation proposal to the EU

From Dubai Ports to Dubai Stocks

One of the earliest topics on this blog was the Dubai Ports controversy (see here, here and here). Now another Dubai company's purchase of U.S. assets is in the news: "Nasdaq Stock Market Inc. struck a complex deal to sell a 20 percent stake to the

New WTO Docs

For those who are interested, here is China's WTO consultations request related to U.S. AD/CVDs on coated paper: http://www.worldtradelaw.net/cr/ds368-1(cr).pdf Also of interest is Korea's notification of an other appeal in the Japan - DRAMS CVDs case. A