International Economic Law and Policy Blog (Page 183)

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How are Foreign and Domestic Firms Treated by Governments?

This is from a new paper by Emma Aisbett and Lauge Poulsen, called "Relative Treatment of Aliens: Firm-level Evidence from Developing Countries": Foreign firms are subject to a wide range of political risks when operating in developing countries that lack strong property rights institutions. Important insights about

Global Trade Watch on the Lighthizer Nomination

From the Global Trade Watch blog: The nomination of Robert Lighthizer to be U.S. Trade Representative signals President-elect Donald Trump’s interest in altering the trade policy approach that has prevailed through Republican and Democratic administrations for the past two decades. Lighthizer has consistently noted that historically Republicans

Is "Mercantilist" a Pejorative Adjective? And What Does It Mean Exactly?

As pointed out by Simon, Robert Lighthizer is probably the next U.S. Trade Representative. In this regard, it is interesting to note that Lighthizer told a congressional panel in 2010 that the WTO's dispute resolution system was ineffective and that the United States “should consider aggressive interpretations

Robert Lighthizer as U.S. Trade Rep

From the WSJ: Donald Trump is expected to name Robert Lighthizer, a former trade official under President Ronald Reagan, to head the U.S. Trade Representative office, the first in a final push of appointments anticipated this week as Mr. Trump fills the remaining senior government vacancies in the run-

Prospects for a NZ-US FTA

I'm not a fan of letting foreign policy influence trade policy (which is one of the reasons I prefer multilateral trade liberalization to bilateral or regional trade deals, which are particularly susceptible), but there is no question that it sometimes does. In this regard, I often come across

Call for Papers: Annual WTO Law Conference 2017

The Graduate Institute’s Centre for Trade and Economic Integration and Georgetown University’s Institute of International Economic Law are proud to present a call for papers for the Annual Conference on WTO Law, to be held in Geneva from June 9-10, 2017. For details, please see the announcement

The Hormones Dispute May Be Back On

From a USTR press release today: The Obama Administration announced today that the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) is taking action against the European Union’s (EU) unfair trade practices that discriminate against U.S. beef imports. Acting on the request of the U.S. beef industry,

SIEL/JIEL/OUP Essay Prize Competition

This from SIEL/JIEL/OUP: The deadline for entering the 2016-2017 SIEL/JIEL/OUP Essay Prize competition is fast approaching, and authors meeting the stated conditions are warmly encouraged to send their submission by 15 JANUARY 2017. For further details: http://www.sielnet.org/essayprize

US Presidential Power To Undermine Trade Agreements

Last week, Joel had a post entitled "US Presidential Power to Terminate Trade Agreements," in which he discussed the difficulties that a U.S. President would have in ending U.S. participation in existing trade agreements, without Congressional consent. His post may have been reassuring to some people

Do GATT Article II:2(a) and Article III Allow Tax Adjustments for Value Added Taxes?

In light of all of the recent talk about the U.S. adopting a VAT-ish tax reform, I thought it was worth revisiting a fundamental question. Everyone seems to be operating under the assumption that a VAT is covered by GATT Article II:2(a) and Article III, and