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What is "Socialist Market Economy"?

This is the million dollar question that has been asked about China's economic and trade system all the time. Last week, China's WTO Ambassador Dr. Zhang Xiangchen gave the following reply at the General Council meeting, "Back in 1992, when China announced that it would
Henry Gao 29 Jul 2018 2 min read

Do we need new WTO rules in dealing with China?

I understand that Geneva has been hot these days, but yesterday, the hottest place in town was nowhere but inside Centre William Rappard, where the US and China engaged in a white-hot debate on the Chinese economic system at the General Council meeting. Firing the first shot by calling China
Henry Gao 27 Jul 2018 2 min read

The Section 301 Action Against China (Fed. Reg. filing by Steve Charnovitz)

Comments by Professor Steve Charnovitz regarding the Proposed Determination of Action Pursuant to Section 301 By Professor Steve Charnovitz George Washington University USTR-2018-0018 July 23, 2018 This is a comment regarding the proposed action of imposing an additional 25 percent ad valorem duty on the products classified in the list
Charnovitz 24 Jul 2018 2 min read

The Constitutional Claim Against Section 232

Following up on their complaint, this is from a Motion for Summary Judgment filed by the American Institute for International Steel and two companies last week: SECTION 232 IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL AS AN IMPROPER DELEGATION OF LEGISLATIVE AUTHORITY AND A VIOLATION OF SEPARATION OF POWERS. Plaintiffs’ nondelegation challenge to section 232
Simon Lester 22 Jul 2018 6 min read

Deciding Whether the Section 232 Tariffs Are Safeguard Measures

So far, there have been 13 WTO consultations requests related to the Section 232 tariffs and the subsequent retaliation. Here are the 8 requests against the Section 232 tariffs, which allege violations of the GATT, and also allege that the tariffs are safeguard measures and violate the Safeguards Agreement: U.
Simon Lester 19 Jul 2018 1 min read

EU DSU Reform Proposals

Bryce Baschuk of Bloomberg has posted a European Commission document with some WTO modernization proposals.  This is from the part on dispute settlement: EU position: Without prejudice to EU position on whether the concerns formulated by the United States are well founded, this paper explores avenues in which addressing these
Simon Lester 16 Jul 2018 5 min read

The U.S. Challenges the Section 232 Retaliatory Tariffs

I had been wondering if the U.S. would bring WTO complaints against the tariffs applied by various governments in retaliation for the Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs. USTR has just announced that it will: The United States today launched separate disputes at the World Trade Organization (WTO) against
Simon Lester 16 Jul 2018 1 min read

The Timing of Panel Reports

As I discussed recently, the U.S. has raised the issue of the length of time it has been taking the Appellate Body to circulate its reports. But what about the length of time panels have been taking? DSU Articles 12.8 and 12.9 say this: 8. In order
Simon Lester 09 Jul 2018 3 min read

How Do We Measure Trade-Restrictiveness?

Back in 2000, the Appellate Body said this in Korea - Beef about the "necessary" standard in GATT Article XX(d): 164. In sum, determination of whether a measure, which is not "indispensable", may nevertheless be "necessary" within the contemplation of Article XX(d)
Simon Lester 05 Jul 2018 4 min read

Busy Week Coming Up For IEL Conferences in DC

Next week is a busy week for international economic law conferences in DC. On Wednesday, Georgetown's Institute of International Economic Law and the Graduate Institute Center for Trade and Economic Integration will host the G2 Conference on Resolving Disputes in International Economic Law. And then on Thursday, Friday,
Simon Lester 05 Jul 2018 1 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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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

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

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