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Simon Lester

Guest Post: Japan Signals a Possible Shift Away from the WTO Dispute Settlement System in Response to U.S. “Reciprocal Tariffs”

This is a guest post from Yoshimichi Ishikawa, Associate Professor, University of Shizuoka, Japan For decades, Japan has adhered to the principle that trade disputes should be addressed strictly within the WTO dispute settlement framework. This long-standing position may now be facing a turning point. On April 2, 2025, the

Andrew P. Vance Memorial Writing Competition Call for Papers

This is from the Customs and International Trade Bar Association (CITBA) and Georgetown Law School The Customs and International Trade Bar Association (CITBA) and Georgetown Law School are pleased to announce 2024-2025 Andrew P. Vance Memorial writing Competition. The competition is welcoming papers with an in-depth analysis of a current

Guest Post: How to (legally) respond to the ‘reciprocal’ tariffs announced by the Trump administration?

This is a guest post from Antoine Comont, Ph.D Candidate at Laval University and the University of Bordeaux If respecting international law is a virtue that still makes sense to you, the question for each of the countries affected by the tariffs announced yesterday by the administration is how

A Few Answers To My Questions about Trump's Reciprocal Tariffs

Last week, I asked a lot of questions related to what we might expect from Trump's "reciprocal tariffs." Now we have a few answers in the Executive Order and a fact sheet from yesterday. Let's go through them. Which statutes will they use as

Guest Post: How to retaliate against looming Trump tariffs

This is a guest post from Simon Schropp (BRG and George Washington University) and Kornel Mahlstein (Sidley Austin LLP) Eight weeks into the Trump Administration it appears that the “Trump tariffs” on America’s closest allies are not mere posture. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced on March 18 that the

The U.S. Argument that GATT Article XX Applies to Non-GATT Goods Agreements (Including the SCM Agreement)

In its first written submission in the U.S. - IRA Tax Credits WTO dispute (DS623), the U.S. makes a number of arguments people might find interesting. First, there's a new invocation of the GATT Article XXI security exception related to the exclusion under the Internal Revenue

Passing of Steve Charnovitz

I was saddened to hear of the passing this week of the great trade law scholar Steve Charnovitz, a professor at GW law school. The full list of his scholarly works can be found at his personal website. Steve was also one of the founding bloggers here at the IELP

Questions about Trump's Reciprocal Tariffs

President Trump and his trade team have been pointing to April 2 as the big day for his reciprocal tariffs. At this point, I have lots of questions, but few answers, about what to expect from all this. Here are some of my questions: - Which statutes will they use

WTO Dispute Settlement and Certainty

At the always excellent Georgetown Law International Trade Update last week, there was a "Fireside Chat" between Demetrios Marantis (former Deputy U.S. Trade Rep. and acting U.S. Trade Rep.) and Biden administration Ambassador to the WTO Maria Pagan. They covered a lot of ground, and on

Politicized AD/CVD vs. Neutral WTO Adjudication As a Way To Address Unfair/Non-Market/Protectionist Practices

In this post, I'm going to talk about an assumption that I think is held by many people (in the U.S. and elsewhere): AD/CVDs are a good way to respond to unfair/non-market/protectionist practices in other countries. I'm going to call that assumption