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In the Race to Set International Standards, the EU is Taking the Lead

The conclusion of an “Agreement in Principle” on the Japan-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (JEEPA) is being heralded by many as a major victory for free trade. Despite growing concerns about a rise in protectionism, the EU and Japan are trying to buck this trend. Beyond the big picture, however, some
Inu Manak 07 Jul 2017 4 min read

How Many Jeffs Do You Need? Calling Out Foreign Affairs on its Definition of “Expert”

In June 2017, Foreign Affairs published a piece entitled “Will Economic Globalization End? Foreign Affairs Asks the Experts.” In it, the editors explained that they had decided to ask a “broad pool of experts” for their take and so, as with previous surveys, they approached “dozens of authorities,” some with
Anthea Roberts 06 Jul 2017 4 min read

Amending the KORUS FTA

Inside US Trade has some KORUS news: Following President Trump's promise to renegotiate the U.S.-Korea free trade agreement “right now,” an administration official told Inside U.S. Trade the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will formally request that both countries' joint committee convene
Simon Lester 03 Jul 2017 1 min read

Call for Papers: International Investment Treaties and National Governance

The Centre for International Law at the National University of Singapore is pleased to announce a call for papers for a workshop, entitled “International Investment Treaties and National Governance”, which shall take place on 16 -17 November 2017 in Singapore. Please submit a 1-page abstract (no more than 500 words)
Inu Manak 03 Jul 2017 1 min read

Misconceptions about ISDS Misconceptions

This is from a Q & A with Meg Kinnear, Secretary-General of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID): We have seen some anti-investment arbitration sentiment in the global press; what are the main misconceptions about ISDS? There are a number of fundamental misconceptions. For example, there is
Simon Lester 30 Jun 2017 1 min read

David Gantz on Ford in China

From the comments on another post, here's something from David Gantz: Am I missing something with the announcement that Ford will build a new plant in China to build the next generation small car (Focus)? I believe that this was the plant that Ford originally planned for Mexico,
Simon Lester 30 Jun 2017 1 min read

International Trade Law position

Victoria University of Wellington's School of Law is looking to hire an additional Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in International Trade Law.  The job posting can be found here under Reference No. 1643. http://www.victoria.ac.nz/about/careers/current-vacancies
Meredith Kolsky Lewis 28 Jun 2017 1 min read

The CAFTA Guatemala Labor Panel Report

The panel report is now available. I'll put it on WorldTradeLaw.net soon, but for now you can read it here. This is from the conclusion: 594. The United States has proven that at eight worksites and with respect to 74 workers Guatemala failed to effectively enforce its
Simon Lester 26 Jun 2017 2 min read

How Will NGOs React if ISDS Is Taken Out of Trade Agreements?

In my last post, I cited a Politico article which suggests that ISDS/investment protection will be removed from the Japan - EU free trade agreement (JEFTA) that is currently under negotiation.  But now I see that Greenpeace has leaked some of the JEFTA text, which shows that it has
Simon Lester 25 Jun 2017 1 min read

Are Investment Protection and Trade Headed for a Divorce?

To follow up on Anthea's post from last week, there is another fundamental question about ISDS/investment protection: If it is going to exist, in one form or another, where exactly does it belong? Should it be part of the trade regime? Or should there be a separate
Simon Lester 20 Jun 2017 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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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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