Simon Lester

A few weeks ago, I quoted Ha-Joon Chang of the University of Cambridge writing the following in the Independent: Both the history of rich countries and the recent records of developing countries point to the same conclusion. Economic development requires tariffs, regulation of foreign investment, permissive intellectual property laws,

Ben Muse asks, "How is the U.S. doing in WTO litigation?", and concludes: "On balance, the U.S. seems to be doing fairly well."

Why is it that so many of the good discrimination cases are about products like alcohol and cigarettes?  Here's another one that is in its early stages but might lead to a formal complaint at some point: The [Indonesian] government has warned the United States Trade Representative against

This seems like a sensible approach to me: US and EU pressure on China to revalue the renminbi create the mistaken impression that there is an unavoidable conflict of interests. A switch by China to a more flexible exchange rate regime, accompanied by a shift to a new nominal anchor,

Over at the Conglomerate, David Zaring identifies "which American arbitrators are most likely to handle ICSID disputes": Charles Brower is our iron man, with 6 concluded and 6  pending arbitrations under his belt. He is an emeritus White & Case partner. Michael Reisman (Yale, 4 pending)), and Andreas

Writing in Foreign Policy (subscription required, I think), Moisés Naím says: China, India, the former Soviet Union, and many other countries launched major reforms that deepened their integration into the world’s economy. In developing countries alone, import tariffs dropped from an average of around 30 percent in the 1980s

Should those concerned with sovereignty be worried about a powerful, sovereignty-impinging "North American Union," as some groups apparently are, emerging from the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), which provides a framework for cooperation between Canada, Mexico and the U.S.? Over at Opinio Juris, Julian Ku is

August 17, 2007 Press Release The Society of International Economic Law: Inaugural Conference, July 15-17, 2008 Members of the international economic law community have created a new organisation called the Society of International Economic Law (SIEL). The organisation will foster co-ordination, collaboration and debate between International Economic Law

As a trade lawyer, it's exciting for me to see GATT Article XX invoked, implicitly anyway, in the U.S. Presidential campaign: Presidential Candidate Chris Dodd called for suspending all imports of toys and food from China  ... "This is an issue of safety," said Dodd. "