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Simon Lester

House Approves Russian Energy Ban and Push for Russian WTO Suspension, But No U.S. MFN Withdrawal for Russia Yet

Late last night, the House passed a bill that would suspend Russian energy imports, but the bill had a proposed MFN withdrawal provision taken out (at the request of the White House apparently, although the reasons for this are not completely clear to me, as I've heard competing

Ukraine and Russia at the WTO

Thanks to Bryce Baschuk of Bloomberg, who posted the documents on Twitter, we have a letter written by Ukraine to the Chair of the WTO General Council regarding cutting of trade with Russia, and a letter Russia wrote in response. It's the trade response of other countries to

Fixing the WTO Dispute Settlement Crisis Requires U.S. Reform Proposals

Here's an excerpt from a short piece I wrote for IISD Trade and Sustainability Review about the WTO dispute settlement crisis: ... the key here, regardless of whether it is the Appellate Body specifically or dispute settlement more generally [that the U.S. is concerned with], is to make

Senators Brown and Cassidy Introduce No Most Favored Nation Trading with Russia Act

U.S. Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) have introduced the No Most Favored Nation Trading with Russia Act "to revoke Russia’s most-favored-nation status." The full text is here (and here). It is mostly identical to the Blumenauer/Doggett bill discussed here, so no need

Canada Revokes MFN Status of Russia and Belarus

Legislating and regulating seems much easier in parliamentary systems. As the U.S. starts considering the competing Russia MFN withdrawal bills I've been discussing the past couple of days, Canada just went ahead and withdrew the MFN status of Russia and Belarus. This is what Deputy Prime Minister

Ukraine Invokes National Security Exceptions at WTO: Complete Embargo and WTO Agreements No Longer Applied to Russia

Ukraine has sent a letter to the Chairman of the WTO's General Council, in which it says it will "impose a complete economic embargo and no longer apply the WTO agreements in its relations with the Russian Federation": On 24 February 2022 the Russian Federation committed

Two Views on What To Do about Russia at the WTO

Jim Bacchus, writing in the WSJ, is pushing for expulsion: No specific WTO provision relates to expelling a member. Expulsion would be possible under Article X of the WTO agreement, however, if two-thirds of the WTO’s current 164 members vote to alter the agreement. If Russia were to refuse

Senator Wyden's “No Most Favored Nation Trading With Russia Act”

Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-OR) has introduced the No Most Favored Nation Trading with Russia Act. According to the press release, the bill "revokes Russia’s Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) status and provides the president the power to raise tariffs on a host of Russian products.

The Portman/Cardin Russia (and Others) NTR Withdrawal Trade Bill

Following up on Senator Portman's speech discussed here, Senators Portman and Cardin have introduced bipartisan legislation "to revoke free trade privileges from Russia and other countries that invade sovereign nations." They explain that "[t]he No Trading with Invaders Act would automatically revoke Permanent Normal

Senator Rob Portman on Russia and the WTO

This is from a speech by Senator (and former U.S. Trade Rep.) Rob Portman: I believe we should also target Russia's trade sector by revoking our Permanent Normal Trade Relationship, or PNTR, with Russia. In other words, the United States should no longer give Russia unrestricted access