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The ITC's USMCA Report: The ISDS Section

This is the ISDS section of the ITC's USMCA report (starts on p. 199, footnotes omitted): Modeling of Changes to Key ISDS Provisions The Commission’s quantitative assessment of the ISDS provisions sought to identify how the changes in ISDS provisions could affect the U.S. economy as
Simon Lester 18 Apr 2019 7 min read

Highlights of the ITC Report on the USMCA's "Likely Impact on the U.S. Economy and on Specific Industry Sectors"

Here's the headline number from today's ITC report on the impact of USMCA: The Commission’s model estimates that USMCA would raise U.S. real GDP by $68.2 billion (0.35 percent) and U.S. employment by 176,000 jobs (0.12 percent). The model
Simon Lester 18 Apr 2019 4 min read

Peremptory Challenges during Panelist Composition in NAFTA 2.0

This is from the dispute settlement chapter of USMCA (Inu pointed it out to me): Article 31.9: Panel Composition ... 3. A panelist shall normally be selected from the roster. A disputing Party may exercise a peremptory challenge against an individual not on the roster who is proposed as a
Simon Lester 18 Apr 2019 1 min read

Can Special and Differential Treatment Reduce Poverty?

In January, the Trump Administration attacked the use of special and differential treatment (SDT), by virtue of developing country status, by China, India, Brazil, and a number of other countries (not to mention Singapore, South Korea, and Israel).  The argument, focusing on China, is that China is the world’s
Trachtman 18 Apr 2019 2 min read

In USMCA Ratification Fight, It's Much Ado about Labor

Congressional Democrats are starting to flex their muscles against President Trump’s trade policy. As ratification of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) hangs in the balance, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other prominent Democrats have called on U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to strengthen enforcement of the pact.
Inu Manak 17 Apr 2019 6 min read

Three Scenarios for the Future of the WTO Appellate Body, or: Why WTO Members Should Start Negotiating a DSU 2.0

A fundamental uncertainty bedevils attempts to unblock the appointment process of WTO Appellate Members: is the US holding up Appellate Body appointments in order to generate enough leverage for a negotiated reform of WTO dispute settlement? Or does the US seek to abolish the Appellate Body (in effect if not
Nicolas Lamp 15 Apr 2019 5 min read

Business Reactions to Trade Wars

There is a Chinese saying that “when there is a policy from the above, there is a reaction from the below” (“上有政策, 下有对策”). This is exactly what has happened since the inception of trade wars.  Both domestic and international businesses have attempted to avoid the punitive tariffs through various means,
Sungjoon Cho 14 Apr 2019 1 min read

Shaffer and Gao on China's Marshall Plan

Greg Shaffer and Henry Gao have a new paper called "A New Chinese Economic Law Order?" Here is the abstract: China is incrementally developing a new, decentralized model of trade governance through a web of finance, trade, and investment initiatives involving memorandum of understandings, contracts, and trade and
Simon Lester 14 Apr 2019 3 min read

Celebrating 30 years of TPRM but noting it could be much better

It is great to see the WTO’s news item on 12 April celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Trade Policy Review Mechanism (see https://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news19_e/tpr_12apr19_e.htm   and https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/tpr_e/tprm30_e.htm
Brett Williams 13 Apr 2019 1 min read

Book Release: Building Legal Capacity for a More Inclusive Globalization

This is from the Center for Trade and Economic Integration (CTEI) at the Graduate Institute in Geneva: The Center for Trade and Economic Integration (CTEI) at the Graduate Institute in Geneva announces the release of a new edited book by Joost Pauwelyn and Mengyi Wang, entitled "Building Legal Capacity
Inu Manak 13 Apr 2019 2 min read

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Featured

Can "Geopolitical" Tariffs Be Dealt with through Trade Deals?

Last Friday, U.S. Trade Rep. Jamieson Greer was asked about Trump's initial suggestion of tariffs related to the goal of taking over Greenland
20 Jan 2026 4 min read

Is Foreign Antitrust Enforcement "Discriminatory" and "Anti-American"?

The House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust held a hearing in December on "Anti-American Antitrust: How Foreign Governments Target U.S. Businesses." There was a lot of talk at the hearing about how foreign regulations and regulators "discriminate" against American companies.
05 Jan 2026 5 min read

Pennsylvania Court Finds Mexican Government Guilty of "Discrimination" Due To Its Subsidies

I'm always interested in how courts apply the concept of "discrimination" in the context of international trade, so I've been eagerly awaiting a Pennsylvania court decision in a case against Mexico.
12 Dec 2025 8 min read

Economic Security in Trade Agreements: My Response to Geoff Gertz

Thanks to Geoff for laying out his vision of why economic security should be in trade agreements and how to bring it in. It won't surprise anyone to hear I have some additional comments and questions in response!
04 Dec 2025 10 min read

Guest Post: The Case for Bringing Economic Security Priorities into U.S. Trade Agreements, Part II

This is a guest post from Geoffrey Gertz of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), responding to my post on Economic and National Security Provisions in U.S. Trade Agreements An earlier post made the case for why the United States should bring economic security commitments into trade
01 Dec 2025 3 min read

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