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Security Exceptions in International Investment Agreements

This is from the latest Columbia FDI Perspectives: A network of bilateral treaties and other international investment agreements (IIAs) has constructed a predictable and enforceable international investment regime. Since 1992, however, the protections offered by this regime have potentially been limited by the inclusion in IIAs of self-judging essential security
Simon Lester 07 Dec 2016 1 min read

A Tax on Outsourcing

This is the latest from Donald Trump: The U.S. is going to substantialy reduce taxes and regulations on businesses, but any business that leaves our country for another country, fires its employees, builds a new factory or plant in the other country, and then thinks it will sell its
Simon Lester 05 Dec 2016 1 min read

Can All the Global Governance Regimes Get Along?

What will happen if some global governance regimes try to assert their authority over other regimes?  This is from a paper by Lukasz Gruszczynski: The current language of the [Framework Convention on Tobacco Control] does not provide any exclusion clause that would prevent the recourse to other international dispute settlement
Simon Lester 05 Dec 2016 1 min read

Call for Papers: 2017 ILA-ASIL Asia-Pacific Research Forum, Taipei, Taiwan

This is from Pasha Hsieh: Call for Papers: 2017 ILA-ASIL Asia-Pacific Research Forum, Taipei, Taiwan The Chinese (Taiwan) Society of International Law will hold the ILA-ASIL Asia-Pacific Research Forum on May 19-20, 2017 in Taipei, Taiwan, ROC. The theme of the Research Forum is "The Geopolitics of International Law:
Simon Lester 05 Dec 2016 1 min read

Trebilcock and Daniels on Trade Adjustment Assistance

An important proposal here.
Trachtman 03 Dec 2016 1 min read

Carrier and President-Elect Trump

This is from the Washington Post: Trump’s strategy secured an early victory this week when the president-elect persuaded air-conditioning manufacturer Carrier not to move up to 1,000 jobs from Indiana to Mexico. The negotiation was an unusual move for a modern president, but [Treasury secretary nominee Steven] Mnuchin
Simon Lester 01 Dec 2016 1 min read

Trump's Commerce Secretary

This is from CNBC: Wilbur Ross, President-elect Donald Trump's choice for Commerce secretary, told CNBC on Wednesday he wants to overhaul "dumb trade" deals that the U.S. has with countries around the world. "Believe it or not, Mexico has better treaties with the rest
Simon Lester 30 Nov 2016 1 min read

Bitcoin Subsidies

My Cato colleague Jim Harper is a bitcoin expert. He explained bitcoins to me once, and I think I understood it all briefly, but it has now escaped me. But now that international trade rules might be relevant, I may take another look.  Here he is explaining how there may
Simon Lester 28 Nov 2016 3 min read

The Use of Scholarship by the WTO Appellate Body

For all you scholars out there hoping to get cited by the WTO Appellate Body, here is the abstract of an interesting paper by Sondre Torp Helmersen, entitled The Use of Scholarship by the WTO Appellate Body: This article examines the use of scholarship by the WTO Appellate Body. While
Simon Lester 22 Nov 2016 1 min read

India, US, and their WTO Dispute on Importation of Certain Agricultural Products

This is from Indian economist Natasha Agarwal: In a turn of events, on 7th July 2016, the United States made a request pursuant to Article 22.2 of the Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes (DSU) seeking authorization from the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body (DSB)
Simon Lester 22 Nov 2016 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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