International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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Simon Lester

Separate Opinion in Today's Appellate Body Report

In today's DS437 Appellate Body report, there was a separate opinion covering several issues. Here is one of the issues (footnotes omitted): 5.5.1 Public Body 5.242. I concur with the majority in: (i) rejecting China's interpretation of the term "public body"

Joe Biden on Trade Policy

In a recent speech on foreign policy, Joe Biden said the following about trade policy (as prepared): Our trade policy has to start at home, by strengthening our greatest asset – our middle class. We have to take care of everything I’ve talked about on the campaign trail – giving every

The Way To Address USMCA Panel Blocking Is To Eliminate USMCA Panel Blocking

Inside US Trade reports: A leader of the House working group on U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement labor issues told Inside U.S. Trade on Wednesday that he will be traveling to Mexico next weekend to discuss “panel blocking” with Mexican officials. Many congressional Democrats have criticized USMCA for not changing

Guest Post: Contestation of Reforms to the WTO Notification Procedures: Inclusive Approach or More Differential Treatment?

This is a guest post by Vineet Hegde, PhD researcher in International Law, and Professor Dr. Jan Wouters, Professor of International Law and International Organizations, KU Leuven, and Director of the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies, Belgium. 1. Elsewhere in this blog, Professor Joost Pauwelyn highlighted a 29 March

Sub-National Measures that Discriminate Against Imports and Against Other State/Provincial Goods

This is from Australia's first written submission in the Canada - Sale of Wine (DS537) WTO dispute: 3. Article III requires treatment no less favourable than the "most favoured" domestic product within the territory of a Member 117. The majority of the Canadian measures that Australia

Joe Biden on Trump's Trade Policy

From a CNN interview with Chris Cuomo: BIDEN: With regard to North Korea, with China, I make it clear that we're going to move our defenses up, as we did before, and we're going to make sure we have the capacity to deal with it near

Guest Post: Brussels Demands Wood: A Precedent of Resorting to FTA Arbitration under the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement

This is a guest post from Iulianna Romanchyshyna, a Horizon 2020 Marie Curie Fellow and PhD candidate at the University of Passau (Germany) within the European Trade and Investment Partnership (EUTIP) project On 20th June 2019, the EU requested the establishment of an arbitration panel under the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement

Guest Post: “Terms of Reference” Analysis in US – Renewable Energy (DS510) Panel Report

This is a guest post by Vineet Hegde, a PhD researcher in International Law at the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies at KU Leuven, Belgium. On 27 June 2019, the WTO panel in US — Certain Measures Relating to the Renewable Energy Sector issued its report and found eleven US

Todd Tucker on the DS510 Panel Ruling

Todd Tucker of the Roosevelt Institute is not happy with yesterday's WTO panel ruling against various U.S. states' local content requirements in the renewable energy sector. I responded on the Cato blog here, but I want to add a bit more in response to some of

The Democratic Candidates Debate Trade (A Tiny Bit)

In the debate on Wednesday involving 10 of the 20 Democratic candidates, trade barely came up. Given how much activity, shall we say, there has been on trade under the Trump administration, that was a bit of a surprise. Last night, though, in the debate involving the other 10 candidates,