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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

David Gantz: The Path Forward for North American Trade and Economic Integration

This is a post from David Gantz, Will Clayton Fellow, Baker Institute for Public Policy, Mexico Center; Samuel M. Fegtly Professor Emeritus, College of Law, the University of Arizona.  Part I: Introduction This report addresses the challenges to the continued viability of the United States-Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA), and more
Simon Lester 25 Jun 2025 26 min read

Trade Deficits, Savings/Consumption, Currencies and the Causes of U.S. Budget Deficits

I've seen a number of recent statements by people suggesting that U.S. fiscal deficits are being driven by (1) the dollar as the reserve currency and (2) relatively low foreign consumption/high foreign savings. These factors, it is suggested, lead to lower interest rates for borrowing in
Simon Lester 22 Jun 2025 7 min read

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International Economic Law and Policy Blog

International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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Could Congress Extend the USMCA for Another Term?

People have been assuming that the decision on whether to extend the USMCA for another term is up to President Trump, but based on the language of the USMCA related to the upcoming joint review, could Congress actually have the power to make this decision on its own?
04 May 2026 4 min read

Is There No Going Back on Trade? What Is the Path Forward? A Response to Lighthizer

Former U.S. Trade Rep. Bob Lighthizer has a new essay in Foreign Affairs, and I have some thoughts. I'm going to start with his brief big picture points on the direction of U.S. trade policy, and then go through a couple of the specific concepts he emphasizes.
27 Apr 2026 6 min read

The Section 301 Excess Capacity Investigation Needs Less Madness, More Method

Shortly after the Supreme Court ruled President Trump’s emergency tariffs under IEEPA  unconstitutional, the administration scrambled to rebuild its tariff wall. While the announcement of Section 122 tariffs immediately following the ruling will provide a temporary patch, the U.S. Trade Representative’s office quickly began to utilize another
24 Apr 2026 6 min read

War Tariffs

This is a co-authored post by Kathleen Claussen and Tim Meyer. Last week, President Trump announced that the United States would be imposing new tariffs of 50 percent of the value of any product coming from any country that sells weapons or provides military aid to Iran. Some commentators questioned
14 Apr 2026 5 min read

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

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