International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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Simon Lester

Undoing the Trump Administration's Trade Legacy: Part One of a Series (I Hope)

From USTR: The United States takes note of today’s decision by the Republic of Korea’s Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee to withdraw her candidacy for Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The Biden-Harris Administration is pleased to express its strong support for the candidacy of Dr. Ngozi

Making COOL WTO-Compliant

At today's confirmation hearing for Tom Vilsack as Agriculture Secretary, there were a couple questions on country of origin labelling for beef products, as farm state Senators pressed Vilsack on working on a new COOL measure that would be WTO-compliant: Senator Fischer: As you know the U.S.

Member of the Administrative Tribunal of The Inter-American Development Bank Group

The Inter-American Development Bank is looking for a new Member of the Administrative Tribunal: Members of the Tribunal The Tribunal has the authority to conduct hearings, examine evidence, make decisions and render judgments on controversies and disputes between the Bank or IDB Invest and their respective employees. In carrying out

Forced Technology Transfer Provisions in the CAI and the US-China Phase One Deal

It's interesting to compare the forced technology transfer provisions of the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) and the US-China Phase One trade agreement. Here are the CAI provisions: Article 3 Performance Requirements 1. Neither Party may, in connection with the establishment or the operation of all enterprises

SIEL Call for Papers and Panels: Rethinking Global Economic Governance

This is from the SIEL: The Seventh Biennial Global Conference of the Society of International Economic Law (SIEL) will take place as a virtual conference in collaboration with Bocconi University, Milan / Italy, on 8-10 July 2021. I. Conference Content Even prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, international economic

The Labor Provisions in the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment

The EU has published a number of parts of the text of the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) here. The "Investment and Sustainable Development" section is here. This is the substantive language on labor rights: Sub-Section 3 – Investment and Labour Article 1: Right to regulate The Parties

Two Upcoming Online Events: The WTO Panel Process, and U.S. Trade Policy in the Biden Administration

I'll be the moderator for two online events next week, one hosted by ASIL/IIEL on the WTO panel process, and the other hosted by SIEL on U.S. trade policy under the Biden administration. Here are the details and links: ASIL/IIEL - Rethinking the WTO Panel

The Trump/Lighthizer Legacy on Trade

With the Trump administration now finished, we are in the period where people will be spinning Trump's time in office into the narrative they want to create. On trade policy, Trump's U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer spent some of his final weeks in office trying

Americans on the WTO Indicative List of Panelists

Back in April of 2017, I said this: while the indicative list of panelists does not have much correlation to people who actually serve as panelists, a former intern of mine named Christina Woo put together this cool table of Americans on the indicative list since the GATT era. The

Trade Policy and Race/Ethnicity

There was some Twitter discussion last week of a new paper from Global Trade Watch called "Trade Discrimination: The Disproportionate, Underreported Damage to U.S. Black and Latino Workers From U.S. Trade Policies." I can see how it would be useful to study the impact of U.