From the NY Times: Cookies and sugary drinks served at government meetings are about to go away. So are imported noodles and canned fish served in tourist bungalows. Taking their place? Local coconuts, lobsters and lime juice. While many governments struggle to ban soda to curb obesity, the tiny Torba

For anyone who has ever lived in, or traveled to, Canada, there is one indisputable fact—buying liquor is a challenge. Rules have slowly been relaxed, however, with wine sales in groceries stores leading the way.  I remember a trip to Toronto a few years back where a “store within

Canadian heartthrob and panda-lover (and Prime Minister) Justin Trudeau was in DC yesterday to meet with President Trump, and there were some brief discussions of trade: PRESIDENT TRUMP:  ... We have a very outstanding trade relationship with Canada.  We’ll be tweaking it.  We’ll be doing certain things that

From the WSJ: The White House is exploring a new tactic to discourage China from undervaluing its currency to boost exports, part of an evolving Trump administration strategy to challenge the practices of the U.S.’s largest trading partner while stepping back from direct confrontation. Under the plan, the

We've heard many times now from Trump and his advisers that they will be pursuing bilateral trade agreements. For example, in withdrawing from the TPP, Trump said this: it is the intention of my Administration to deal directly with individual countries on a one-on-one (or bilateral)

Everyone familiar with the Kevin Brady/Paul Ryan "Blueprint" cash flow tax seems to agree that the first line of defense of the United States before a WTO Panel would be to argue that this tax is akin to VAT (Value Added Tax).  Let us recall that VAT

Donald Trump tweeted the following on Friday: Countries charge U.S. companies taxes or tariffs while the U.S. charges them nothing or little.We should charge them SAME as they charge us! Under NAFTA, Canada, Mexico and the U.S. reduced all tariffs to zero (aside from trade remedies

From a White House press release: President Trump’s National Security Advisor Michael T. Flynn today announced the following additions to the National Security Council senior staff. ... Kenneth I. Juster will serve as Deputy Assistant to the President for International Economic Affairs.  He will coordinate the Administration’s international economic

Over at Opinio Juris, Julian Ku writes the following about a draft executive order on multilateral treaties being considered by the Trump administration: The draft executive order on multilateral treaties is potentially more significant because the President has broad powers to withdraw from treaties.  But the order itself simply creates

From the WTO Appellate Body and National Law University, Delhi: The Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization (WTO), together with National Law University, Delhi, is organizing the WTO@20 Conference in New Delhi on 16-18 February 2017 to mark the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the WTO.