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Call for Papers: Shaping Appropriate ADR in International Law

The International Law Association is hosting a conference on Shaping Appropriate ADR in International Law, on 7 April 2025 in Florence, Italy. The call for papers is here. Here is the conference theme: As 2025 begins, there is no shortage of international law disputes, in areas ranging from geopolitics to
Simon Lester 09 Jan 2025 1 min read

Jake Sullivan's International Economics Legacy

Never having worked in government at a high level (I was a summer intern once a long time ago), I am only vaguely familiar with the idea of bolstering your "legacy" at the end of your time in office. But people who seem to know what they are
Simon Lester 05 Jan 2025 5 min read

Is NAFTA a Good Explanation for Workers Leaving the Democratic Party? The Case of Ohio

The Washington Post recently published an op-ed about Sherrod Brown, a long-time Democratic Senator (and previously a Representative) from Ohio who lost his seat in the November election, highlighting his view that the passage of NAFTA led to "workers" leaving the Democratic party: ... Brown says the political shift
Simon Lester 29 Dec 2024 11 min read

Appeal/Review Proposals under Consideration in the WTO Dispute Settlement Reform Process

In a recent post on appeal/review issues being discussed as part of the WTO dispute settlement reform process, I quoted something that referenced "an updated draft of the document known as the Appeal/Review Tables, which will reflect the progress made in the discussions since the summer break
Simon Lester 22 Dec 2024 7 min read

Discussing Tariffs with Michael Pettis

Finance professor Michael Pettis had a recent FT piece on tariffs. His piece builds on one of his Bluesky threads, which I discussed with him there. In this post, I'm going to react to some of the things he said in both the FT piece and the Bluesky
Simon Lester 16 Dec 2024 5 min read

The U.S. Proposal on How to Handle Disputes on Essential Security Measures

At a DSB meeting in January 2023, the U.S. made clear its position that "it was a mistake to begin adjudicating national security at the WTO," and said: "we believe Members need to clarify and adopt a shared understanding of the essential security exception, and we
Simon Lester 11 Dec 2024 3 min read

More Discussions of Appeal/Review in the DS Reform Process

In July, I mentioned that the the WTO Dispute Settlement Reform Process was underway, with one of the key topics being a fix for the Appellate Body crisis. People can follow the discussions in limited detail as WTO news summaries are released, or in somewhat greater detail a few weeks
Simon Lester 08 Dec 2024 10 min read

Guest Post: Are the USMCA’s rules of origin for automobiles enough to stop Chinese sourced parts coming into the US/Canada?

This is a guest post by Karen Soriano, a recent Masters graduate in international economic policy from the Norman Paterson School Of International Affairs With President-elect Donald Trump’s frequent social media pronouncements on trade, it would be a futile practice to fact-check every claim made. However, recent comments by
Simon Lester 04 Dec 2024 3 min read

Will "Post-Neoliberalism" Mean Unfettered Markets or Unfettered Industrial Policy? (Or Are We Post-"Post-Neoliberalism" Now?)

There has been a lot of talk over the past eight years about whether we are now in a period of "post-neoliberalism," with efforts to flesh out exactly what that means for economic policy. To some extent, it even seemed as though there was an alliance between those
Simon Lester 01 Dec 2024 3 min read

Foreign Savings and U.S. Budget Deficits

In the context of expressing concern with trade imbalances, a recent piece by Michael Pettis and Erica Hogan argues that high foreign savings in some countries (e.g. China and Germany) is linked to the growing U.S. fiscal deficit (among other things): The global trade system is broken. Current
Simon Lester 24 Nov 2024 5 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 Foreign Antitrust Enforcement "Discriminatory" and "Anti-American"?

The House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust held a hearing in December on "Anti-American Antitrust: How Foreign Governments Target U.S. Businesses." There was a lot of talk at the hearing about how foreign regulations and regulators "discriminate" against American companies.
05 Jan 2026 5 min read

Pennsylvania Court Finds Mexican Government Guilty of "Discrimination" Due To Its Subsidies

I'm always interested in how courts apply the concept of "discrimination" in the context of international trade, so I've been eagerly awaiting a Pennsylvania court decision in a case against Mexico.
12 Dec 2025 8 min read

Economic Security in Trade Agreements: My Response to Geoff Gertz

Thanks to Geoff for laying out his vision of why economic security should be in trade agreements and how to bring it in. It won't surprise anyone to hear I have some additional comments and questions in response!
04 Dec 2025 10 min read

Guest Post: The Case for Bringing Economic Security Priorities into U.S. Trade Agreements, Part II

This is a guest post from Geoffrey Gertz of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), responding to my post on Economic and National Security Provisions in U.S. Trade Agreements An earlier post made the case for why the United States should bring economic security commitments into trade
01 Dec 2025 3 min read

Guest Post: The Case for Bringing Economic Security Priorities into U.S. Trade Agreements, Part I

Thanks to Simon for kickstarting a debate on the prospect of bringing economic security provisions into trade agreements, and for allowing me to respond here.
26 Nov 2025 4 min read

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