International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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Simon Lester

Virtual Conference on Dispute Settlement in International Trade Agreements: Prospective Pathways

This is from the Centre for Trade and Investment Law (CTIL), New Delhi and the Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law (RGNUL), Punjab, India: We are pleased to inform you that a virtual conference on Dispute Settlement in International Trade Agreements: Prospective Pathways scheduled to be held on 10-11 February

ITC Roundtables, Symposium, and Hearing on Distributional Effects of Trade and Trade Policy on U.S. Workers

As I mentioned here a couple months ago, the ITC will be carrying out a study requested by USTR on "the potential distributional effects of goods and services trade and trade policy on U.S. workers by skill, wage and salary level, gender, race/ethnicity, age, and income level,

Guest Post: Case C 638/19 P, European Commission v. Micula et al. Does the Court of Justice of the EU misunderstand investment law and investment treaty arbitration?

This is a guest post from Dr. Szilárd Gáspár-Szilágyi, Birmingham University and Dr. Maxim Usynin, Copenhagen University 1. The Context Those following the interaction between International Investment Law and EU Law have noticed that the past couple of years have produced a growing number of cases in which the Court

The U.S. View of Precedent in Article 22.6 Proceedings

I was intrigued by this passage in the U.S. - Countervailing Measures (China) Article 22.6 Arbitration Decision circulated last week: 3.137. Basing our choice of the year-prior on the calendar year preceding the imposition of the preliminary CVDs would therefore secure a correct calculation, rather than, as

Guest Post: Agreed Procedures under Art. 25 DSU in the US and EU Steel and Aluminum Disputes

This is a guest post from Caroline Glöckle, a PhD candidate at the University of Passau: The replacement of the US’ Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from the EU with tariff-quota rates on October 31, 2021 has been regarded as a major step in easing the tense

Guest Post: Cyclical Stability

This is a guest post by James Flett of the European Commission. The views expressed are those of the author, not the EU, the EU Commission, or its Legal Service. “Cyclical Stability” Since we seem to be in a cyclical environment, we should perhaps consider whether or not we can

GATT Article III:4 Less Favorable Treatment Issues in the EU - Palm Oil Case

In a series of TBT cases a while ago, the Appellate Body was confronted with defining the similar but not identical legal standards in TBT Agreement Article 2.1 and GATT Article III:4. Roughly speaking, its conclusion was that Article 2.1 required an examination of "regulatory purpose&

U.S. Court Rules that "Gruyere" Is a Generic Term

Periodically, I like to start fights with Europeans on Twitter about geographical indications. It's not a perfect breakdown by country/continent, but it mostly lines up as a "new world" vs. "old world" fight. Recently I started a good one based on a U.

Katherine Tai on WTO Dispute Settlement Reform

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai spoke today at an event hosted by The Institute of International and European Affairs. Here is something she said on WTO dispute settlement reform: On dispute settlement, ... I think that we need to come back to first principles ... . I know there's a

Congress' Sense of the WTO, as Articulated in USICA

I found the "sense of Congress" on various WTO issues in the Senate's United States Innovation and Competition Act of 2021 bill to be interesting, and it made me wonder about the process for coming up with this part of legislation. Many of these points I&