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Simon Lester

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

Does USMCA Article 31.8 Fix the Roster Problem?

As we all know, many years ago there was a problem with the U.S. blocking the appointment of a panel under NAFTA Chapter 20 (one key issue in this regard was the establishment of a roster; full details here). When I looked at Chapter 31 of the USMCA, my

Guest Post: Taking Recourse to the DSU to Save Dispute Settlement at the WTO (Part B)

This is Part B of a guest post from Vinayak Panikkar*, Prakhar Bhardwaj+, Akhil Raina† IV. Instituting a complaint for a violation of DSU Article 17.2. While bringing the US tariff dispute to the WTO on January 29, 2019, China asserted that the US’s actions to block AB

Guest Post: Taking Recourse to the DSU to Save Dispute Settlement at the WTO (Part A)

This is Part A of a guest post from Vinayak Panikkar*, Prakhar Bhardwaj+, Akhil Raina† I. Introduction The joint communication from the European Union and 11 other nations tabled in the General Council meeting held on 12-13 December 2018 (“EU DSU Proposal”) was the last comprehensive set of publicly available

Guest Post: Background and Impact of US’s intention to “terminate” GSP benefits to India

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. In the previous post by Simon Lester, he wrote about USTR’s decision to “terminate” GSP preferences to India. This is a second post

U.S. Terminates GSP Benefits for India and Turkey

This is from USTR: At the direction of President Donald J. Trump, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer announced today that the United States intends to terminate India’s and Turkey’s designations as beneficiary developing countries under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program because they no longer comply

How To Draft a Panel Appointment Provision

This is from the newly signed Australia - Indonesia CEPA: ... 3. Within five days of the date of the receipt of a request under Article 20.7, the Parties shall enter into consultations with a view to reaching agreement on the procedures for composing the panel, taking into account the

Internationally Agreed Unilateralism

One of the big issues in the U.S.-China trade talks is how to enforce any resulting agreement. The traditional enforcement mechanism in trade agreements is to have a neutral adjudication process, and if a violation is found, the complaining government can get authorization to impose tariffs (in order

The Appellate Body Crisis: What Needs To Happen Now?

This is from the U.S. statement at the February 25 DSB meeting: • We also note that at least one Member has said that the United States should table its own proposal. The United States has made its views on these issues very clear: if WTO Members say that we

Guest Post: Consent and Coercion in Trump’s Trade Policy

This is from law professor Frank Garcia: The current U.S. Administration has made coercing our trade partners and allies a signature of its approach to our transnational economic relationships. No one denies the need for trade to be a mutually beneficial bargain, since that is in fact what trade