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Trachtman

China-Australia FTA Immigration

Today's WSJ reports that within the context of its FTA negotiations with Australia, China is negotiating for commitments regarding market access for unskilled labor. This may be understood as the bilateralization of current Mode 4 negotiations in the WTO GATS. The U.S. has addressed labor market access

History Recommences in Ecuador

As much of Latin America moves to the left (albeit in varied ways), the latest action is in Ecuador. The government has purported to cancel its contract with U.S. multinational Occidental Petroleum in response to an alleged breach by Occidental. The USTR has said this appears to constitute a

Closing Softwood Loopholes?

Inside U.S. Trade reports that part of the softwood lumber settlement requires the U.S. and Canada to suspend the application of NAFTA Chapter 11 (the investment chapter, giving private rights to investors). Apparently the idea is that two parties (the U.S. and Canada) can suspend this part

Good Morning, Vietnam

Today's WSJ reports that Vietnam has finally reached a bilateral agreement with the U.S., its largest export market. This agreement should pave the way for Vietnam's accession to the WTO, as Vietnam's bilateral negotiations are incorporated in a protocol of accession. It will

Justice and Growth

I've been attending a conference at the Kennedy School at Harvard on Equality in the New Global Order. Most of the other attendees are philosophers, with a few economists and a couple of lawyers. Dani Rodrik spoke yesterday, focusing on growth. His main argument, as is well known,

Export Restrictions: The Missing Disciplines

A student of mine has just submitted an interesting paper on the economic effects of, and legal disciplines on, export restrictions. The case he has in mind is Chinese coke. It appears that export restrictions have trade distorting effects symmetric with import restrictions. Of course, export prohibitions are illegal under

Blog, Blog, Blog

Remember "Bob Loblaw's Law Blog?" Well, there was a real world conference about blog scholarship last week at Harvard Law School. For blogs about it, see Ian Best's site.

The perfect exam question

Comes to us from Chicago, via Joseph Epstein in today's WSJ. The city of Chicago has banned foie gras. Epstein writes: "A Chicago alderman named Joe Moore, who sponsored the ban on foie gras, after its passage declared that it sends "a powerful message that we

"Soft in Wood and Head"

That is the title of the FT's editorial on the softwood lumber settlement. The FT concludes "In the end, the softwood sata shows the limits of international disputes procedures when the two parties are determined to ignore them and go on slugging it out." Was the

Peace in Our Time (Softwood Lumber)

Today's NYT reports a settlement of the U.S.-Canada lumber dispute. To say that this dispute has generated a lot of litigation is an understatement. And I suppose that the fact that the parties were willing to pay for all this litigation suggests that it had an