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IELP Blog Relocation

Just a quick note to readers that the platform on which the IELP blog is hosted is shutting down at the end of September. Bear with me over the next few weeks as I find a new platform. Blogging might be a bit light during this period.
Simon Lester 27 Aug 2025 1 min read

U.S. State Capitalism as a Response to Chinese State Capitalism

In an interview last week, David Faber of CNBC pressed Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on several Trump administration actions that could be characterized as "state capitalism": Faber: As somebody who's been around the capital markets for years, as you have been, I do wonder, how do
Simon Lester 26 Aug 2025 4 min read

A Few Thoughts on Antitrust and Big Tech

I'm no antitrust expert, but I do have some opinions on it, and I'm going to offer a few of them in this post. As an intro, I want to mention a speech by Notre Dame law professor Roger Alford -- whose Opinio Juris blog posts have
Simon Lester 24 Aug 2025 3 min read

Wentong Zheng on Presidential Tariffs

University of Florida law professor Wentong Zheng has posted a new paper called "Presidential Tariffs," in which he argues that the IEEPA should not be interpreted to allow the President to proclaim tariff modifications for the purpose of entering into market-opening trade agreements, given that Congress allowed
Simon Lester 22 Aug 2025 1 min read

Matthew Schaefer on Trump Administration Trade Policy: A Historical Perspective and Key Questions & Takeaways

The following is an excerpt from a new Yeutter Institute piece by University of Nebraska law professor Matthew Schaefer entitled "Trump Administration Trade Policy: A Historical Perspective and Key Questions & Takeaways," offering a good roundup of a lot of the biggest trade policy issues out there at
Simon Lester 22 Aug 2025 11 min read

Todd Tucker on Tariffs and the Role of Courts

In an op-ed in the FT entitled "Opponents of Trump’s tariffs should be wary of relying on the courts," Todd Tucker argues against U.S. courts striking down Trump's IEEPA tariffs. I have some questions and comments on his views of this issue, focusing
Simon Lester 17 Aug 2025 7 min read

Guest Post: Trump, Trade and Coercion

This is a guest post from Boston College law professor Frank Garcia. (Cross-posted from the Cambridge University press blog) The first year of Trump’s second term has been a chaotic one for trade, as for so much else. Before inauguration, the President had already threatened tariffs against Denmark
Simon Lester 13 Aug 2025 7 min read

What Trump's Trade Representative Got Wrong

Last week, USTR Jamieson Greer wrote an essay in The New York Times entitled, ‘Trump’s Trade Representative: Why We Remade the Global Order’. Simon has already done the heavy lifting by asking some necessary questions about this new order. Out of all the inaccuracies and “too early to tell”
Mona Paulsen 12 Aug 2025 3 min read

New Security Exception Language Establishes a Two-Tiered Approach

Via Mona Paulsen and Devon Whittle, I see that Chapter 28 of the UK-India trade agreement has some interesting new language on security exceptions. It starts off as expected, with the following: Article 28.2 Security Exceptions 1. Nothing in this Agreement shall be construed to: (a) require a
Simon Lester 11 Aug 2025 3 min read

Jamieson Greer on Remaking the Global Trade Order

U.S. Trade Rep. Jamieson Greer had a NY Times op-ed yesterday entitled "Why We Remade the Global Order." I have a few reactions to specific things he said. I'll quote some points from the op-ed and then give a brief response. Greer: Our
Simon Lester 08 Aug 2025 5 min read

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Why Section 338 Does Not Work in a GATT/WTO World: Lessons from Trade Law History

On July 21, 2026, President Trump exercised his authority under Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (hereinafter Section 338) to impose the maximum amount of additional tariffs (fifty per cent) on Canadian cars, alcohol, and dairy, owing to his determination of Canada’s discriminatory treatment of US exports.
23 Jul 2026 10 min read

EU WTO Reform Proposal Seeks To Extend Accession-Based State Enterprise Rules To All Members

In a new WTO reform paper entitled "Further Reflections on Disciplines, Subsidies and Industrial policy," the EU argues for stronger WTO disciplines on the behavior of state enterprises.
17 Jul 2026 5 min read

Governments Make Their Case Against Section 301 Forced Labor Tariffs

Last month, USTR made a determination in its Section 301 investigation into "Acts, Policies, and Practices of Various Economies Related to the Failure To Impose and Effectively Enforce a Prohibition on the Importation of Goods Produced With Forced Labor."
10 Jul 2026 5 min read

How Should the EU Get Tough with China? Unilateral Action vs. WTO Complaints

I've seen several recent calls for the EU to get tougher in its economic relations with China, along with arguments that it has been too slow to act against the Chinese economic threat.
06 Jul 2026 4 min read

Trump Administration Decides Not To Extend USMCA for Another Term: What Does That Mean Exactly?

Today, as part of the first joint review of the USMCA, the three governments held a virtual meeting.
01 Jul 2026 4 min read

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