International Economic Law and Policy Blog

Sign in Subscribe

Simon Lester

Another Agreement To Use DSU Article 25 For Appeals

I have noted previously four agreements between parties in particular disputes to use the MPIA for appeals in the event there is no Appellate Body when the time comes for an appeal. Now we have a similar, albeit much less detailed, agreement to use DSU Article 25 for this purpose

Ad Hoc Appeal Arbitration under DSU Article 25

This is from a communication from Qatar in the Saudi Arabia - IP Rights cases, which Saudi Arabia recently appealed into the void: Subject : Proposal for an appeal-arbitration arrangement under Article 25 of the DSU in Saudi Arabia – Protection of Intellectual Property Rights (WT/DS567) On 28 July 2020, Saudi

App Bans and International Trade Obligations

Inside US Trade reports the following discussion of restrictions on TikTok and WeChat at a WTO Council for Trade in Services meeting last week: The U.S. violated World Trade Organization rules with its recently imposed restrictions on Chinese-owned social media platforms TikTok and WeChat, China argued on Friday in

Guest Post: “The EU Gives Foreign Subsidies Its Best Shot”: One Take on White Paper on Levelling the Playing Field as Regards Foreign Subsidies

This is a guest post by Professor Andrea Biondi and Michael Bowsher QC, King’s College London, Professor Christopher Yukins, George Washington University Dr Luca Rubini University of Birmingham and PhD candidate Gabriele Carovano, King’s College London. On 17th June 2020, the EU Commission published a White Paper on

Does Plain Packaging Regulation Reduce Smoking?

Here are some excerpts from a paper which casts doubt on the idea that plain packaging regulation, by itself anyway, reduces smoking: ... we contribute to the existing empirical literature in three ways. First, we use a difference-in-differences (DiD) research design to evaluate the effect of plain packaging. Using data from

Appealing Into the Void in DS533

A document from the United States that is labelled as a "notification of an appeal" in the DS533 softwood lumber case has been circulated at the WTO. In that document, the United States does not list any specific points of appeal, and says: At this time, no division

Giorgio Sacerdoti Letter to the WSJ in Response to Lighthizer's Op-Ed

Giorgio Sacerdoti sent along the following letter he wrote in response to the Lighthizer WSJ op-ed from last month: Letter to the Editor, Wall Street Journal Milan, 29 August 2020 Dear Mr Lemmer, It was refreshing for all those who believe in the advantages of a multilateral rule-based trading system

What Would Biden Do About China's Trade Practices?

This is from a CNN Town Hall last week: GARRY HARTMAN, BUSINESSMAN: Vice President Biden, Cheetah Chassis is located in Berwick, Pennsylvania, where we produce intermodal container chassis. We're a small family-owned business that is facing unfair trade container chassis imports from, we'll call, a massive

Webinar — Investment Protection under the New NAFTA: Problems and Prospects

If you are not webinar'd out at this point, and if you can remember the USMCA, which seems like ages ago, here are the details on a Webinar I'll be participating in this Thursday with the Baker Institute at Rice University: At this webinar — the second

Panel Report on Section 301 Tariffs Against China (DS543)

The panel report in United States - Tariff Measures on Certain Goods from China (DS543) was circulated today. There are some big picture issues related to the dispute (e.g., will the U.S. appeal it into the void?), but I want to focus on an obscure interpretive point related