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It's a Big Week for NAFTA

Round 4 of the NAFTA renegotiation starts on Wednesday. After this round, we may have a better sense of the chances of a successful renegotiation. We have heard hints and rumors of a number of U.S. proposals, but this round may give us something more concrete.  Here are some
Simon Lester 09 Oct 2017 2 min read

The EU's New Anti-Dumping Calculation Methodology

This is from the European Commission: Brussels, 4 October 2017 The European Parliament and the Council have agreed to change the EU's anti-dumping and anti-subsidy legislation following a proposal from the European Commission from November 2016. The main change to the anti-dumping legislation is the introduction of a
Simon Lester 04 Oct 2017 3 min read

NAFTA Conferences

It sounds like the NAFTA renegotiation is about to get exciting, with proposals on controversial issues such as ISDS, rules of origin, and dispute settlement coming soon. To hear more about all this, you might want to attend a (free!) conference or two in Washington, DC. Georgetown University has one
Simon Lester 01 Oct 2017 2 min read

The GNLU International Moot Court Competition (GIMC)

This is from the Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar (GNLU): The GNLU International Moot Court Competition is GNLU’s flagship event, organized every year in February, by the University. GIMC is one of the very few moots in the world that simulates the WTO dispute settlement mechanism, and India’s
Inu Manak 01 Oct 2017 1 min read

Interdisciplinary Sovereign Debt Research and Management Conference

This is from the Graduate Institute in Geneva: On Thursday 5 October 2017 - Friday 6 October 2017, the Graduate Institute’s Centre for Finance and Development will be hosting a two day Interdisciplinary Sovereign Debt Research and Management Conference (DebtCon). Sovereign debt is at the centre of the policy
Inu Manak 28 Sep 2017 1 min read

A NAFTA proposal: fix the FET investment protection commitment*

With the NAFTA negotiations, investment lawyers, lawmakers, business groups, and civil society are waiting to see how Canada, Mexico, and the US will address the heated topic of investor-State arbitration, where an investor can claim compensation directly against a host state based on a treaty breach before an ad hoc
Mona Paulsen 27 Sep 2017 7 min read

Counting Down the Appellate Body Members' Terms

This is from Manfred Elsig, Mark Pollack and Gregory Shaffer: The future of the world trading system is at stake thanks to an impasse in Geneva over the appointment of members of the Appellate Body (AB) of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The Trump administration has been waging a behind-the-scenes
Simon Lester 27 Sep 2017 2 min read

Is International Economic Law International?

Following up on my earlier posts, I want to talk briefly about U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer's response to a question about WTO dispute settlement: ... We’ve had other provisions where the WTO has taken – really, I think, took the position that they were going to strike
Simon Lester 24 Sep 2017 5 min read

USTR's NAFTA Chapter 20 Proposals

Recall that at a recent CSIS event, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said this: ... Back when Senator Brock and I were there and there was a system, it was before 1995, before the WTO, under the GATT, and there was a system where you would bring panels and then
Simon Lester 21 Sep 2017 3 min read

Lighthizer on WTO Dispute Settlement

This is an excerpt from the Q & A at the Lighthizer CSIS event mentioned in the last post, relating to WTO dispute settlement. I'm just going to quote it for now, but I should have more to say later. MR. MILLER: ... To continue with the WTO, the
Simon Lester 19 Sep 2017 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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