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EU Competence on Trade Policy

As I've mentioned before, the Court of Justice of the EU is hearing an important case on the EU - Singapore FTA related to the competence of the EU over trade policy, which will have important implications for EU trade policy going forward. The hearing in the case was
Simon Lester 06 Oct 2016 2 min read

Deplorables-or Discontents? Does support for Trumpian border-closing stem from genuine economic anxiety-or visceral hatred & xenophobia?

The Deplorables sounds like the name of a band that might have been playing clubs in the Bowery in the early 80s.  Now it's been used, notoriously, by presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to denote a sub-set of Trump supporters whose attitudes and beliefs are, in liberal democratic
Rob Howse 05 Oct 2016 5 min read

ISDS Lawsuits for Failure to Protect the Environment

The award in the Allard vs. Barbados investment arbitration was just recently made public.  Here were the basic facts and the legal claims: 33. In 1994, Mr. Allard decided to acquire and develop land in Barbados for an eco-tourism attraction. To this end, in October 1996, he incorporated the
Simon Lester 02 Oct 2016 6 min read

Seung Wha Chang on Judicial Style

This is from his farewell speech at the DSB: Most importantly, the outcome of cases must never be an acceptable reason for opposing reappointment. And similarly, an Appellate Body Member’s adjudicatory performance relating to case-management, including her “judicial style,” should not be recognized as a legitimate reason for
Simon Lester 29 Sep 2016 2 min read

SIEL/JIEL/OUP Essay Prize

This is from SIEL/JIEL/OUP: " A prize has been established by the Society of International Economic Law (SIEL), Journal of International Economic Law (JIEL) and Oxford University Press (OUP) for the best essay submitted on any topic in any field of international economic law. The 2016-2017 SIEL/
Simon Lester 29 Sep 2016 1 min read

The German Constitutional Complaint on CETA

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, several German NGOs have filed a complaint in German court alleging that CETA is unconstitutional. The full complaint is here. It's in German, but luckily we have a German intern named Max Wirth at Cato right now, so I asked him
Simon Lester 27 Sep 2016 3 min read

Trump Raises the VAT Issue

The Trump campaign released an Economic Plan today. On trade, they raise one issue that has been of concern to respected trade policy people and has been lingering for quite a while: Ending the Unequal Value-Added Tax Treatment Under WTO Rules In addition to the obvious problem of relatively
Simon Lester 26 Sep 2016 4 min read

The Obama Administration's Attack on Appellate Body Independence Shows The Need for Reforms

By Steve Charnovitz, George Washington University Law School The Obama Administration has not yet apologized for its unilateral action in May 2016 to unseat Appellate Body Member Seung Wha Chang, a distinguished jurist from South Korea. Although this hostile act by the United States has been roundly criticized by other
Charnovitz 22 Sep 2016 6 min read

The UK's Status in the WTO after Brexit

This is the abstract of a new paper by Lorand Bartels: It has become conventional wisdom that once the UK leaves the EU it will have to renegotiate core aspects of its WTO rights and obligations, and in particular its concessions under Article II of the GATT 1994 and Article
Simon Lester 22 Sep 2016 3 min read

A Flurry of New WTO Complaints

After a bit of a lull, three potentially interesting new WTO complaints were filed recently. Here's a brief rundown. First up is a complaint by India focusing on various U.S. state renewable energy programs that have domestic content requirements. Are there any creative new defenses that can
Simon Lester 22 Sep 2016 2 min read

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What Kind of Discrimination Should Section 338 Target?

A couple weeks ago, the U.S. International Trade Commission asked for public comments on implementing Section 338.
25 Sep 2026 5 min read

Jake Sullivan Wants To Build On the Biden Administration's Industrial Policy

In a recent article, Jake Sullivan makes the case for continuing on with the Biden administration's economic policies, arguing for an even broader and more comprehensive industrial policy than what we saw under Biden.
13 Sep 2026 6 min read

How Difficult Will It Be Politically To Remove Trump's Tariffs?

Heather Hurlburt, who was the Chief of Staff for U.S. Trade Rep. Katherine Tai from 2022-2024, recently poured some cold water on the idea that Trump's tariffs might be removed quickly after he is out of office.
12 Aug 2026 3 min read

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

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