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USTR Jobs

USTR has some job openings: Director for Innovation and Intellectual Property (Attorney) Trade Attorney USTR Intern Position - Summer 2018
Simon Lester 06 Feb 2018 1 min read

Federal Court of Canada hearing Canada's application to set aside Bilcon NAFTA award

For those that may have missed it, the NAFTA Bilcon v Canada dispute was back in the news this week. In 2015, the Claytons and Bilcon of Delaware, a US company, were awarded compensation for breaches of NAFTA Articles 1105 (fair and equitable treatment) and 1102 (national treatment). The dispute
Mona Paulsen 04 Feb 2018 4 min read

The Negotiating History of Section 15 of China's Accession Protocol

This is from law professor Weihuan Zhou: The China – EU (US) fight over issues relating to China’s market economy status is attracting growing prominence. In the ongoing EU – Price Comparison Methodologies (DS516) dispute, the WTO panel will need to determine, amongst other issues, whether Section 15 of China’s
Simon Lester 04 Feb 2018 2 min read

The Proposed Level of DSU Article 22 Suspension: Formulas versus Monetary Amounts

DSU Article 22.2 allows WTO complainants, in the event of non-compliance, to "request authorization from the DSB to suspend the application to the Member concerned of concessions or other obligations under the covered agreements." How explicit must they be in this suspension request? Do they have to
Simon Lester 02 Feb 2018 2 min read

Job opportunity for PhD candidate in trade law

Linklaters LLP seeks a second year+ PhD candidate or postdoc working on trade law to assist in preparing regular updates on trade matters. The time commitment would be approximately eight hours per week. Location unimportant. Please contact Dr Lorand Bartels ( [email protected] ) for further details.
Lorand Bartels 02 Feb 2018 1 min read

Are Trade Disputes a Coin Flip?

This is from Ambassador Lighthizer's statement at the NAFTA press conference today: Finally, I would like to refer, because I think it fits into this context to an unprecedented trade action that Canada brought against the United States very recently. It constitutes a massive attack on all of
Simon Lester 29 Jan 2018 2 min read

NAFTA and Reciprocity

The 6th round of the NAFTA talks wrapped up today, and my impression of the closing statements was that everyone was relatively positive, much more so than after the 4th round anyway. I wanted to highlight one thing from Ambassador Lighthizer's statement: Free trade agreements are essentially grants
Simon Lester 29 Jan 2018 2 min read

NAFTA ISDS is Complicated

This is from The Canadian Press: Canada and Mexico are applying pressure on the United States to decide whether it wants to be part of NAFTA’s investor-state dispute mechanism, threatening to sideline it unless it commits to participating fully. Multiple sources say the conversation came to a head this
Simon Lester 28 Jan 2018 3 min read

Trump Should Give TPP (or CPTPP) A Try-And the TPP Partners Should Stop the Bus to Let Him Get On

Davos has been depressing, a journalist friend emailed me the other day.  And indeed the spectacle of the neoliberal elites congratulating themselves on still ruling the world is a downer. But my ears perked up when President Trump, speaking from Davos, suggested that he might be open to participating in
Rob Howse 26 Jan 2018 2 min read

Who Is the Least Protectionist Country in the World?

This is from Inside US Trade: [Commerce Secretary Wilbur] Ross objected to the “protectionist” label that critics of the Trump administration have attached to U.S. trade actions and rebutted the idea that China could pick up the mantle and be a leader on free trade policy. “The Chinese have
Simon Lester 24 Jan 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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Featured

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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