Simon Lester

Back in May, UNCITRAL published a Note by the Secretariat on "Resources to implement the work programme with respect to investor-State dispute settlement (ISDS) reform." I was surprised to read this part: 24. Under the current pattern of meetings, Working Group III meets twice a year for a

Someone asked him that question at a recent event and here's what he said (starts around 45:30) Q: “Are you a protectionist?” A: “Well, you see, that’s interesting. So, what actually does that mean? That’s why when I started out I sort of said, and

In my view, carbon taxes are the best way to address climate change, and the best approach to carbon taxes is to apply them in a non-discriminatory manner to products from all countries. How exactly do you make them non-discriminatory? Ideally, you would do this on a multilateral basis, with

An Introduction to the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement: Understanding the New NAFTA (Edward Elgar Publishers, 2020), by David A. Gantz, has been published. The description follows: The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), a modified and modernized version of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), will continue to govern most economic relationships

From the SIEL: Upcoming SIEL Conversation: African Continental Free Trade Area in an Era of Waning Multilateralism - Of Optimists and Sceptics The aim of SIEL Conversations is to bring together authors and commentators to give talks that are idea-focused so as to foster learning and inspiration, and provoke conversations

This is a guest from Wentong Zheng, a law professor at the University of Florida On August 6, 2020, President Trump issued an executive order entitled Addressing the Threat Posed by TikTok, and Taking Additional Steps to Address the National Emergency With Respect to the Information and Communications Technology and

This is a guest post from Ernesto Hernández-López, Professor of Law at the Dale E. Fowler School of Law, Chapman University. He researches international trade and international law. Just as the United States and China agreed to a truce in tariff retaliations with the Phase One Agreement on February 14,

This is an anonymous guest post that responds to a recent op-ed by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. [Note: Some people’s work means that they prefer to discuss such issues on a non-attributable basis, and there have been many anonymous comments on this blog over the years, which