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To What Extent Are the Trade Negotiations about Security?

On the face of things, the trade negotiations triggered by President Trump's unilateral actions are focused on various trade-related objectives. Trump thinks higher U.S. tariffs are a good way to do some mix of the following: reshore domestic manufacturing, reduce the U.S. trade deficit, and increase
Simon Lester 27 Jul 2025 3 min read

Jamieson Greer on the Rise of Manufacturing Competition

At the Reindustrialize Summit held in Detroit last week, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the following about the decline of American industrial power: At the heyday of American industrialization, our country enjoyed a robust middle class, an unassailable national defense, and an innovation economy unprecedented in human history.
Simon Lester 23 Jul 2025 4 min read

Guest Post: WTO Law Compatibility of the UK’s New Electric Vehicle Grant Scheme

This is a guest post from from University of Swansea law professor Arwel Davies On July 15th, UK media outlets reported a new government scheme to support the purchase of EVs with a price of under £37,000. The two grant levels are £3,750 or £1,500 depending on
Simon Lester 21 Jul 2025 16 min read

Can the Trump Administration's Price Control Plan Bring U.S. Pharmaceutical Prices Down?

In recent months, the Trump administration has undertaken some efforts to lower U.S. drug prices. I'm skeptical that their approach will work, but nevertheless it involves a range of issues that interact in interesting ways. With the caveat that I'm not really an expert on
Simon Lester 20 Jul 2025 4 min read

What Are the Critics of China's WTO Entry Objecting To?

In recent years, there have been some prominent voices out there criticizing the decision to allow China to join the WTO. One thing I have trouble understanding is what the critics see as the counterfactual: How exactly do they think the United States (or the world) would be better off
Simon Lester 15 Jul 2025 3 min read

Guest Post: From Plenty to Protectionism: The Zero-Sum Logic Revisited

This is a guest post from João Felipe Achcar de Azambuja* and Paul Schiering** “I am a tariff man standing on a tariff platform.”[1] Being a tariff man was an important building block both for William McKinley and for Donald Trump to be elected U.S. President. But why
Simon Lester 10 Jul 2025 15 min read

How Many Trade Deals Do We Have So Far?

Back in April, with the 90 day pause on Trump's reciprocal tariffs scheduled to end at midnight on July 8, a Trump administration official suggested they could sign "90 deals in 90 days." At that time, I noted here on the blog that I had said
Simon Lester 09 Jul 2025 1 min read

Is Industrial Policy Undermining the Fight against Climate Change?

Todd Tucker has a new JIEL piece called "Towards a post-Trump order for the climate crisis." It has been a couple years since I've engaged with something from Todd, so I'm going to use this piece to try to revive our decades-long debates. Fingers
Simon Lester 06 Jul 2025 7 min read

What to Expect When You’re Expecting a Trade Deal

There is widespread speculation about trade agreements that may be coming in the next 10 days (or soon after), including their form and what they might contain.  What should we expect? The most reliable rumors are that some agreements have been drafted and are likely to be announced by the
Kathleen Claussen 30 Jun 2025 5 min read

The UK Joins the MPIA

The UK has just set out its new trade strategy, and one point in there is that it will be joining the MPIA: The WTO has an almost unique function to resolve trade disputes. That trade dispute system is busier than ever but, since 2019, it has lacked an appellate
Simon Lester 26 Jun 2025 2 min read

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International Economic Law and Policy Blog

International Economic Law and Policy Blog

Expert commentary on the law, politics and economics of international trade and investment

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USMCA Review and Extension Predictions

When the idea of an expiration clause was suggested during the NAFTA renegotiation, I was against it from the start, and Inu and I wrote a pretty critical piece about it at the time. A review is great, we said, let's definitely have reviews, and there are plenty of ways to do that.
08 Apr 2026 5 min read

The Section 301 Surge Continues: Investigating the Adoption/Enforcement/Administration of Forced Labor Import Bans

This Section 301 investigation intends to pressure all sixty named trade partners (even, inexplicably, including Canada and Mexico) to adopt similar enforcement procedures. This announcement is highly problematic for the four reasons I address below.
16 Mar 2026 4 min read

The Section 301 Surge Is Upon Us: Investigating Excess Capacity and Production

The first of a large batch of expected Section 301 investigations has arrived, as USTR announced yesterday that it was initiating investigations on acts, policies, and practices of various countries/economies "relating to structural excess capacity and production in manufacturing sectors."
12 Mar 2026 3 min read

Debunking the "Hyperglobalization" Trade Policy Myth

Policy is often shaped by narratives, and recently there has been a bipartisan effort to create a narrative that, starting in the early 1990s, globalization and free trade went too far.
03 Mar 2026 8 min read

Guest Post: Are President Trump’s New Section 122 Tariffs Legal?

This is a guest post from Bryan Riley and Joe Bishop-Henchman. Bryan is Director of the Free Trade Initiative at the National Taxpayers Union; Joe is Executive Vice President at the National Taxpayers Union Foundation President Trump has issued new 10% tariffs, shortly after raised to 15%, based on Section
24 Feb 2026 6 min read

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