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Simon Lester

What Would a Progressive Trade Policy Look Like?

This is from a Vox interview by Zack Beauchamp with Ganesh Sitaraman, a professor at Vanderbilt and "a longtime adviser to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)": Would you say that, broadly speaking, a progressive foreign policy is critical of free trade as an idea, maybe even open to the

Guest Post: Trade, Security, and Stewardship (Part II): Making Legal Space to Adjudicate Security Matters

This is a guest post from Ben Heath, Acting Assistant Professor of Lawyering at NYU Law In Part I of this series, I introduced the idea that the Russia — Transit report embeds a conception of the dispute settlement system as a steward of the WTO rules. As I noted in

Guest Post: Trade, Security, and Stewardship (Part I): The Russia — Transit report’s vision of WTO dispute settlement

This is a guest post from Ben Heath, Acting Assistant Professor of Lawyering at NYU Law On April 26, the WTO Dispute Settlement Body adopted the first-ever panel report to interpret the “security exception” to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. This exception allows each member state to take

The Role of Panel and Appellate Body Rulings as Precedent: Suggestions from Thailand

This is from a draft General Council decision communicated to the WTO by Thailand: E. The precedential effect of previous panel and Appellate Body reports: 16. Under Article 3.2 of the DSU, the role of panels and the Appellate Body is to preserve the rights and obligations of Members

NAFTA/USMCA State-State Dispute Settlement Panels

This question (asked by Senator Ron Wyden) is from the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance Questions for the Record for Ambassador Robert Lighthizer, as part of a recent hearing: Question 15 The revised NAFTA includes some clear improvements over the status quo, especially in the Digital Trade chapter. But

CETA ISDS Upheld by CJEU

In an opinion released today, the European Court of Justice concluded that: "The mechanism for the resolution of disputes between investors and States provided for by the free trade agreement between the EU and Canada (CETA) is compatible with EU law." This is from paras. 151-161 of the

China and the WTO E-Commerce Talks

In a recent communication related to the Joint Statement on Electronic Commerce in Davos, China said the following: 4.1. Along with the new opportunities provided by electronic commerce, issues such as cyber security, data safety and privacy are increasingly highlighted, bringing unprecedented security risks and regulatory challenges to Members.

The Role of Appellate Body Rulings as Precedent: Suggestions from Japan and Australia

This is from a communication from Japan and Australia: 2 DRAFT DECISION The Dispute Settlement Body, Having regard to paragraph 1 of Article 2 and Article 17 of the Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes (DSU), Affirming that recommendations and rulings made by the DSB are

Toning Down WTO Precedent

This is from last week's China - TRQs panel report: 6.20. The United States requests that the reference to a "well-established principle in WTO case law" in paragraph 7.212 be deleted, since it could be "misunderstood as indicating that prior panel and appellate

Contracting Party vs. Member

This is from last week's China - TRQs panel report: 6.18. The United States requests that the term "contracting party" be replaced by the term "Member" in paragraph 7.187.120 China has not commented on this request. We note that the term