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Simon Lester

Simon Lester

Co-founder of WorldTradeLaw.net and China Trade Monitor. Non-resident fellow at the Baker Institute.

http://simonlester.com

Katherine Tai on the USMCA Rapid Response Labor Mechanism Developments

U.S. Trade Rep. Katherine Tai testified in front of the Senate Finance Committee today on the Biden administration's trade agenda. She was asked about the USMCA rapid response labor cases I noted in my previous post: Senator Brown: Let me talk about what you would expect me

USMCA Labor Complaints Are Heating Up

On Monday, the AFL-CIO and some other groups announced the filing of a petition under the USMCA rapid response labor mechanism (for background on this procedure, see Kathleen's post here). Now today, USTR announced that it has initiated a request for review under that mechanism on a

My Take on the Vaccine/TRIPS Waiver Issue: Buyout Pharma Now, Rebalance the IP System Later, and Meh on the Waiver

After almost two days of intense discussion on Twitter and elsewhere, here's where I am now on the issue of vaccine production and the TRIPS waiver. The most important point here is whether additional factories around the world could produce vaccines. In order to do so, they would

SIEL Conversation on Indirect Expropriation in International Investment Law

From the SIEL: SIEL May ConversationThe Society of International Economic Law (SIEL) is pleased to invite you to its May Conversation entitled ‘Book Launch: Sondra Faccio, Indirect Expropriation in International Investment Law. Between State Regulatory Powers and Investor Protection (Editoriale Scientifica, 2020), with Sondra Faccio (University of Trento), Prof. Giuseppe

Guest Post: European Commission puts forth legislative proposal to tackle “foreign subsidies”

This is a guest post by Victor Crochet of Van Bael & Bellis The European Commission puts forth its legislative proposal to tackle “foreign subsidies” in the European Union. The text of the proposal can be found here. There has been lots of discussions on this blog over the Commission’

Book Launch of “The Protection of Intellectual Property Rights under International Investment Law”

Event Details Date & Time: * May 27, 2021 * 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM Location * Virtual Event Contact Information: * Jennifer Karnakis * jkarnakis@suffolk.edu Registration: * Register now Event Description Please join us for a virtual webinar celebrating the launch of “The Protection of Intellectual Property Rights under International Investment Law”

Talking Trade Policy on Clubhouse and Twitter

You may have heard about the "drop in audio" craze going on right now. The Clubhouse app was the first, and Twitter got in on the action with Spaces. The basic idea is that it's sort of like a call-in radio show, with a couple

Call for abstracts: PluriCourts Research Conference on Compliance Mechanisms

This is from PluriCourts: PluriCourts issues this call for abstracts on the topic of “International Courts versus Compliance Mechanisms: Comparative advantages of non-compliance mechanisms and complaint procedures.” In this project, we ask: Contributions will be published in an edited volume by Cambridge University Press (tbc) or a special edition

Alan Wolff on the Appellate Body Crisis

The always insightful Alan Wolff was talking about The Future of the WTO at the Peterson Institute today. The whole thing is worth a listen, but I wanted to highlight his response to my question on the Appellate Body crisis during the Q & A: Adam Posen: Simon Lester asks,

Katherine Tai's Responses on Phase One, Section 301, and Lumber/Steel/Solar Panel Tariffs

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai testified today at a Senate hearing on "Funding Priorities of the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative." In this context, she answered some substantive trade policy questions. Here are a few of her responses: China Phase One Enforcement Senator Moran: Ambassador,