International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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Simon Lester

A Few Responses to USTR's 2020 Trade Policy Agenda and 2019 Annual Report

In the last post, I said that going through USTR's 2020 Trade Policy Agenda and 2019 Annual Report page by page and responding to every point "would be exhausting and would probably not achieve much." But I'm going to do a little bit of

How To Get Countries To Lower Their Tariffs

USTR's 2020 Trade Policy Agenda and 2019 Annual Report was released today. Among other things, it includes a lot of complaints about the WTO, and clearly reflects the trade views of the Trump administration. There's a part of me that would like to go through page

Guest Post: Neo-liberalism vs Ordo-liberalism: Beware the 2020 USTR Report on the WTO Appellate Body

This is a guest post from Prof. Ernst-Ulrich Petersmann, European University Institute Florence In his recent book on Globalists. The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism (Harvard University Press 2018), history Professor Q. Slobodian describes the WTO as ‘the paradigmatic product of Geneva School neoliberalism’ (at p.25)

Guest Post: The EU-UK Future Relationship: A Trade or Governance Agreement?

This is a guest post from law professor Geraldo Vidigal: 1. A New Partnership Agreement It was perhaps predictable. On 25 February 2020, the Council of the European Union (EU) authorized the opening of negotiations for a ‘new partnership agreement’ (NPA) with the United Kingdom (UK). Attached to the authorization

Can the WTO Discipline China's Export Credits?

This is from an article by Kristen Hopewell about China's growing use of export credits: 6.2. Inadequacy of World Trade Organization disciplines Amid the weakening of the OECD Arrangement’s authority and the inability to reach agreement on a new version to replace it, one might expect

DSU Article 11 vs. DSU Article 12.7

Last week I blogged about U.S. concerns with DSU Article 11. In the U.S. view, the Appellate Body has set the standard for such appeals too low (if such appeals should be allowed at all), leading to a proliferation of such appeals and contributing to the slowdown in

The U.S. Critique of the Appellate Body's GATT Non-Discrimination Jurisprudence

In its Report on the Appellate Body issued earlier this week, USTR makes the following point about the Appellate Body's non-discrimination jurisprudence: Articles I:1 and III:4 of the GATT 1994 and 2.1 of the TBT Agreement set out Members’ national treatment and most-favored-nation (“MFN”) obligations.

Guest Post: A new player enters the trade remedy game

This is a guest post from trade lawyer Victor Crochet: On 31 January 2020, the United Kingdom (UK) formally left the European Union (EU). An 11-month transition period that is scheduled to end on 31 December 2020 is now in place. During this period, new trade remedy investigations will continue

USTR's Report on the Appellate Body (With a Comment on DSU Article 11)

USTR's 121 page "Report on the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization" is here. A lot of it seems to have been taken from U.S. statements to the DSB over the past couple years, although I have only skimmed it at this point. For

Agreement Not to Appeal and Possibility of an Article 25 Appeal in a Case Involving the U.S.

This is from the Understanding between the Republic of Korea and the United States regarding procedures under articles 21 and 22 of the DSU in the DS488 case: 4. Following circulation of the report of the Article 21.5 panel, either party may request adoption of the Article 21.5