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Simon Lester

A Seventh Agreement To Use the MPIA

As readers can probably tell, I'm using this blog to track all the WTO disputes for which there have been agreed procedures between the parties for using the Multi-Party Interim Appeal Arbitration Arrangement (MPIA). See this link for the whole list (along with other developments in this area)

What Are the Core Trade Principles of the Biden Administration?

I'm trying to understand the core trade principles of the Biden administration, and I'm a bit puzzled. Based on various statements by U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and others in recent months, I would have thought the dominant view was that trade liberalization had gone

Binding Precedent and Precedential Value

The WTO panel report in India - Sugar and Sugarcane, circulated earlier this week, has a number of interesting passages about the role of precedent. They are a bit disconnected, and for some of them all I have is the panel's summary rather than the full statement from

Non-Discrimination and the EV Tax Credits in the Build Back Better Act

There has been a lot of Twitter discussion about the possibility that the electric vehicle (EV) tax credits in the Build Back Better Act violate USMCA or WTO obligations. There are actually three components to these tax credits, and I thought it was worth doing a quick analysis of each

Countering the "Unfettered Liberalization" Narrative

At a U.S. Chamber of Commerce event today, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said the following: But I think that we have pursued a really unfettered liberalization policy for the past many years and decades. And it is part of what has brought us to this current reality

Angela Ellard on Misperceptions in the US/Capitol Hill about the WTO

At an AEI/Brookings event yesterday, WTO DDG Angela Ellard spoke and offered some interesting insights into how people in the U.S. (and elsewhere) misunderstand the WTO: Neena Shenai: I wanted to turn to your perspectives on the WTO, given your experience and your personal experience on Capitol Hill.

Tweaking the MPIA Procedures

The Multi-Party Interim Appeal Arbitration Arrangement Pursuant To Article 25 of the DSU is here. Annex 1 contains a set of Agreed Procedures that can be used for these arbitrations. Interestingly, the procedures agreed to recently in specific WTO disputes are deviating from Annex 1 in one specific area. Here&

Guest Post: The Worst of Two Worlds: Why the US Blueprint for a Transatlantic Climate Club Authored by Todd Tucker & Tim Meyer Must Be Binned Immediately

This is a guest post by David Kleimann, PhD, writing in personal capacity. He wishes to thank Aaron Cosbey and Simon Lester for helpful comments on an early draft of this post. All errors remain the author’s alone. He would also like to thank Todd Tucker and Tim Meyer

More Hurdles for the "Green Steel Deal"

This is from a CFR blog post by Jennifer Hillman and Alex Tippett on the "green steel deal": For the proposed U.S.-EU agreement on green steel and aluminum be successful, however, it will have to avoid several potential pitfalls. First, the deal cannot devolve into a

ITC Institutes Investigation on Distributional Effects of Goods and Services Trade and Trade Policy

Back in mid-October, USTR asked the ITC to carry out a two-part investigation of the distributional effects of goods and services trade and trade policy. The ITC just announced that it would undertake this investigation. The Notice of Investigation is here. There has been a lot of good economic literature