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Simon Lester

Simon Lester

Co-founder of WorldTradeLaw.net and China Trade Monitor. Non-resident fellow at the Baker Institute.

http://simonlester.com

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: Article

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

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'

"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

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

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