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Simon Lester

Shaffer and Gao on China's Marshall Plan

Greg Shaffer and Henry Gao have a new paper called "A New Chinese Economic Law Order?" Here is the abstract: China is incrementally developing a new, decentralized model of trade governance through a web of finance, trade, and investment initiatives involving memorandum of understandings, contracts, and trade and

The Evolving Role of Precedent in WTO Dispute Settlement

Here are some snippets from today's panel report in the DS534 case (report, addendum with interim review section): 7.56. .... We recall that the panel in US – Washing Machines concluded, relying on the definition of pattern as a regular and intelligible form or sequence, that prices that are

DSU Reform Proposals from Andy Stoler

Former WTO DDG Andy Stoler has some proposals for changes to WTO DS in response to the Appellate Body crisis. I don't agree with all of them, but they are certainly interesting. Some of them are pretty bold! Here are a few: Review of facts / treatment of municipal

The Russia - Traffic in Transit Panel Report

The Russia - Traffic in Transit panel report was circulated today. The big systemic issue here is the interpretation of GATT Article XXI, and the question of to what extent panels or the AB can scrutinize challenged measures when Article XXI has been invoked. Recall that GATT Article XXI says:

Planning for Life Without the Appellate Body

This is from the Agreed Procedures under Articles 21 and 22 of the Dispute Settlement Understanding between Indonesia and Viet Nam in the Indonesia – Safeguard on Certain Iron or Steel Products (DS496) dispute: 7. The parties agree that if, on the date of the circulation of the panel report under

Tobacco Etc. Carveout in the New Australia-Hong Kong Investment Agreement

Recall that the tobacco carveout originated in the TPP, but has now spread to new FTAs/IIAs involving Singapore. Interestingly, the tobacco carveout was not in the recent Australia-Indonesia FTA (there was a broader public health exclusion instead), but it does appear in the revised Australia-Hong Investment Agreement (their original

The CIT Opinion in the Section 232 Constitutionality Case

The opinion is here. The court rejected the plaintiffs' argument that Section 232 is unconstitutional. Here is a key part of the reasoning: Most importantly for the challenge here, in Algonquin, the Supreme Court found that section 232 “easily” met the intelligible principle standard because [i]t establishes clear

The Internal U.S. Government Debate over the GATT Security Exception

Mona Pinchis-Paulsen has a great new paper called "Trade Multilateralism and National Security: Antinomies in the History of the International Trade Organization". I highly recommend pp. 11-25, which describes the internal U.S. government debate on the power to interpret the security provisions. I don't think

"Imports" of Carbon Emissions

As a political stunt, I really like this: U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-09), a member of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee and its Subcommittee on Trade, sent a letter to U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross calling on him to initiate an investigation into the threat

Would Speeding up WTO Dispute Settlement Help With the Appellate Body Crisis?

Article 12 of the DSU specifies these time-frames for panels to issue reports: 8. In order to make the procedures more efficient, the period in which the panel shall conduct its examination, from the date that the composition and terms of reference of the panel have been agreed upon until