International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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Simon Lester

Guest Post: What’s Sauce for the Goose is not Sauce for the Gander? On Discriminatory Export Quotas for Vaccines

This post is by professors Henrik Horn and Petros Mavroidis The recent EU regulation restricting exports of vaccines [Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/111, 2021, O.J., (L 31I)] has caused much debate. One feature of the regime that has attracted less attention is the fact that the EU measure

USTR's View of GATT Exceptions in Relation to Non-GATT Goods Agreements

At today's DSB meeting, the U.S. - Origin Marking Requirement (DS597) dispute was on the agenda. This dispute involves a complaint by Hong Kong against various U.S. measures requiring that goods produced in Hong Kong must be marked to indicate that their origin is "China.

The EU's Outreach to the U.S. on WTO DS

The EU announced a new "open, sustainable and assertive EU trade policy" today. The press release is here; a Q & A is here; the main communication from the Commission is here. The most interesting details seem to be in this Annex. In this post, I'm

Exceptions Proposals in the WTO E-Commerce Negotiating Text: Part 2

In my last post, I offered a quick take arguing that, in the context of the WTO e-commerce negotiations, governments should rethink necessity tests in exceptions clauses. I was hoping to make the point as broadly as possible, so I focused on the general exceptions clause in the consolidated e-commerce

Exceptions Proposal in WTO E-Commerce Negotiating Text

The website bilaterals.org has posted the WTO E-Commerce consolidated negotiating text from December 2020. (This text is still officially restricted on the WTO website as far as I can see). I was intrigued by one of the formulations in the general exceptions provisions (see Annex I, section (6) on

SIEL Conversation on RCEP

This is from the SIEL: The Society of International Economic Law (SIEL) is pleased to invite you to its February Conversation entitled ‘The RCEP Agreement’ with Dr Deborah Elms (Asian Trade Centre), Prof. Manjiao Chi (University of International Business and Economics), Prof. James Nedumpara (Centre for Trade and Investment Law,

USTR Announces Key Staff Appointments

As they say, "personnel is policy," so let's talk about the personnel recently appointed to key staff positions at USTR, and think about what it might tell us about a Biden administration trade policy. The top position, of course, is Katherine Tai, and we don'

Guest Post: The Panel Report under the EU-Korea Trade Agreement Concerning Labor Practices: What are the Purposes of Trade Agreements as they Relate to the ILO’s Fundamental Labor Rights?

This is a guest post from Cornell professor Desiree LeClercq: In recent years, workers’ rights advocates have increasingly urged the US and the EU to strengthen the commitments under the labor chapters of their trade agreements. Following up on the innovative labor mechanisms in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA)

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.