International Economic Law and Policy Blog

Sign in Subscribe

Sungjoon Cho

Reclaiming the WTO’s Practical Mission: A Thought Experiment in WTO Reform

The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the predecessor of the World Trade Organization (WTO), emerged as a postwar response to economic nationalism. Like the United Nations, which sought to prevent another world war, the GATT aimed to avert the kind of trade wars unleashed by the Smoot-Hawley Tariff

Sociological Inquiries into International Law in a Polarized World: Markets, National Security, and Democracy (Utrecht University, November 13-14, 2025)

Call for Papers Sociological Inquiries into International Law in a Polarized World: Markets, National Security, and Democracy The Sixth Workshop on Sociological Inquiries into International Law will be held at Utrecht University on 13–14 November 2025. Participants will explore how sociological perspectives can deepen our understanding of the range

The Transatlantic Alignment on a Transnational Subsidy

The U.S. Department of Commerce has proposed a new agential interpretation on the countervailability of the so-called “transnational subsidy.” What is a transnational subsidy? Wentong Zheng and I have recently discussed this issue in an article. Here are some relevant excerpts: Suppose that a foreign company (A) from country

The EUI Workshop on Sociological Perspectives on International Economic Law and Human Rights Law (May 13-14, 2022)

The European University Institute (EUI) Workshop on Sociological Perspectives on International Economic Law and Human Rights Law will take place on 13 - 14 May 2022 in the Robert Schuman Centre, Conference Room - Villa La Fonte, Via delle Fontanelle 18 - San Domenico di Fiesole (Fiesole, Florence). This fifth

Three Forces of the World Trading System

On November 26, the World Trade Organization (WTO) General Council decided to indefinitely postpone the 12th Ministerial Meeting (MC12), which was scheduled to convene from November 30 to December 3 this year, due to “an outbreak of a particularly transmissible strain of the COVID-19 virus.” The prospect of the MC12

“Resistance Is Futile”: Debunking the Myth of De-Globalization

The World Trade Organization (WTO) released the World Trade Report today. Here are some excerpts: [E]ven a crisis as devastating and unprecedented as COVID-19 has not resulted in the wholesale unravelling of trade and integration. [W]hat became clear over subsequent months was not only how quickly supply chains

Is Weakening the Antidumping Jurisprudence an Essential Condition to Recuperate the WTO?

Former Deputy Director-General Alan Wm. Wolff appears to think so. In his remarks (“Defining Success for MC12”) delivered at Harvard JFK School on October 29, 2021, Wolff spelled out several candid, and controversial, prescriptions to revive the currently languishing WTO enterprise of both negotiation and dispute resolution. Here are some

The WTO Force Is Everywhere!

This is what Alan Beattie seems to argue (“WTO Still Has Ability to Affect Rulings and Regulation Elsewhere”). He stated that: “WTO laws and rulings are regularly cited in investment tribunals, bilateral trade disputes and even the European Court of Justice. Despite its reservations about WTO dispute settlement, for example,

Another Economic Defense for the Multilateral Trading System

Stephen Roach (Yale) has recently published a must-read (“US, China and the Myth of Global Decoupling”), which refutes the logic of trade wars. Here are main observations. Today’s global economy is far more integrated than ever before. (…) The tighter that trade is woven into the fabric of global commerce,

Is the European Union Outsourcing Public International Law to Save the WTO Dispute Settlement System?

Upon the Appellate Body having being paralyzed, the European Commission has promptly moved to secure its trade interests by arming itself with the retaliatory power, also creating the position of “Chief Trade Enforcement Officer.” The Commission’s proposal is reminiscent of Nicolas Lamp’s earlier post on the threat of