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The New WTO Law of Market Economy Status for China

The New WTO Law of Market Economy Status for China Steve Charnovitz 12 April 2018 In this era of China bashing, WTO watchers should be reminded of one area of WTO law where the United States and the EU continue to engage in WTO-illegal behavior. That is, the unjustified application
Charnovitz 12 Apr 2018 6 min read

China's WTO Complaint against the Section 232 Tariffs

This is the legal basis of China's WTO complaint against the U.S. Section 232 tariffs, filed on April 5: The measures at issue, operating separately or together, appear to be inconsistent with the United States' obligations under: * Articles XIX:1(a), XIX:2 of the GATT
Simon Lester 10 Apr 2018 2 min read

The Dog that Didn't Bark in the US IP Claim Against China

One of the most significant complaints made by the US in its Section 301 investigation of China's IP practices is the claim that China conditions permission for foreign investment on transfer of technology.  However, in the US' recent WTO complaint against China's IP practices, the
Trachtman 10 Apr 2018 1 min read

ASIL Annual Meeting Videos

This is from Kathleen Claussen: Select videos from the 112th Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law (ASIL) held last week in Washington, DC are now available on the ASIL website (https://www.asil.org/resources/video/2018-annual-meeting).  These include video from a session on the future of
Simon Lester 10 Apr 2018 1 min read

How can China respond to the Trump tariffs in a WTO-consistent manner?

The $50 billion tariffs proposed by the Trump Administration put China into a “Catch-22” position. If China doesn’t retaliate and only follows the proper dispute settlement procedure to challenge them in the WTO, then it has to wait at least 2 years before the US measures are finally ruled
Henry Gao 07 Apr 2018 2 min read

China's WTO Complaint on the Section 301 Tariffs

China's consultations request on the U.S. Section 301 tariffs is here. This is the key part: On 22 March 2018, the United States published related documents of the Section 301 investigations against China. On 3 April, the United State published a list of products of Chinese origin,
Simon Lester 05 Apr 2018 3 min read

The U.S. Response to China's Retaliation: What Role for the DSU?

Here is the U.S. response to China's decision to deem the Section 232 tariffs a safeguard measure and to impose tariffs pursuant to provisions of the Safeguards Agreement: The United States has received China's requests for consultations under Article 12.3 of the Agreement on
Simon Lester 04 Apr 2018 2 min read

Justifications in the U.S.-China National Security/Safeguards/Section 301 Tariff Fight

I have been puzzling over what is happening with the safeguards issues related to the U.S. steel/aluminum "national security" tariffs (and as I was drafting this post, Brett Williams raised the same issue in a comment here). This is what I see so far. Safeguards Agreement
Simon Lester 04 Apr 2018 3 min read

China Retaliates Against the U.S. Steel/Aluminum Tariffs

This is from the Financial Times: China has unveiled retaliatory duties on US food imports including pork, fruit, nuts and wine of up to 25 per cent as a response to the Trump administration’s new tariffs on steel and aluminium imports. Beijing said the additional duties on 128 kinds
Simon Lester 01 Apr 2018 2 min read

Forced Technology Transfer and the WTO

This is from the U.S. statements at the DSB meeting on March 27: The United States would be pleased to discuss at length the seriously trade distorting policies adopted by China that are the subject of the ongoing Section 301 investigation mentioned in China’s statement. It is these
Simon Lester 29 Mar 2018 3 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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