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Trade Enforcement Advisory Opinions

This is from trade lawyers John Veroneau and Shara Aranoff: Congress should expand its use of Section 332 beyond general investigations by enabling the ITC to issue Trade Enforcement Advisory Opinions regarding specific allegations of trade violations. The process would work like this: A qualified U.S. company would file
Simon Lester 06 Apr 2016 2 min read

Legitimate Regulation or Disguised Protectionism: Lobster Bans

Clearly, this Swedish ban on certain U.S. lobsters is a legitimate regulation, right? Oversexed, overfed and over here: that, in a nutshell, is what the Swedes think of the American lobster from Maine, New England. It may be much sought after in restaurants but Sweden does not want the
Simon Lester 06 Apr 2016 2 min read

Trade in Everything: Used Clothing

From The Economist: GIKOMBA market, just north of Nairobi’s downtown, is a place to buy just about anything. At its entrance, where ragged minibuses push their way through rutted red mud, stalls sell piles of pillows, plastic toys, cutlery and soap. But the most common wares are second-hand clothing.
Simon Lester 04 Apr 2016 2 min read

Legitimate Regulation or Disguised Protectionism: Plastic Bag Bans

Clearly, this French ban on single use plastic bags is a legitimate regulation, right? As of 1 July this year, the distribution of “single-use plastic bags”, defined as bags thinner than 50 microns (0.05 millimetres), will be banned at shop tills. “And on 1 January 2017 the second stage
Simon Lester 04 Apr 2016 1 min read

A Modest Proposal: Trade Related Interests in Gun Rights

This seems like the appropriate day* to unveil a proposal I have for a new WTO agreement on trade and gun rights.  Given what is already covered by WTO rules, I don't see why it should be controversial. Recall that the TRIPS Agreement protects intellectual property rights, but
Simon Lester 01 Apr 2016 2 min read

More ISDS Discussion at Cato

Last week, I mentioned an ISDS event we will be having at Cato to talk about Lauge Poulsen's new book. We also have one coming up next week entitled “Investment Treaty Reform: The European Perspective,” with Rupert Schlegelmilch, Director of Services and Investment, Intellectual Property and Public Procurement
Simon Lester 31 Mar 2016 1 min read

Investment Complaints vs. Trade Complaints, by Respondent States

This chart from UNCTAD shows the top respondent states in investment disputes: And this table from WorldTradeLaw.net shows the top respondent states in WTO disputes: United States 126 EC/EU 82 China 34 India 23 Argentina 22 Canada 18 Brazil 16 Korea 16 Japan 15 Australia/Mexico 14 What,
Simon Lester 29 Mar 2016 1 min read

Protection of Foreign Investors under the German Constitution

This is from the EFILA blog: It has been argued that ISDS would not be necessary between developed States. ISDS would grant foreign investors additional rights and treat them better than domestic investors. That is – at least for Germany – not correct. And that is not due to an extraordinary high
Simon Lester 29 Mar 2016 1 min read

Tuna Compliance

The U.S. government has further modified its dolphin-safe labelling measure, in an attempt to bring the measure into compliance with the WTO rulings against it. Here are the various elements of the change: This interim final rule makes six amendments to the regulations, as explained below, none of which
Simon Lester 23 Mar 2016 7 min read

Marketing Marijuana

There's a lot of talk these days in international economic law -- both in disputes and negotiations -- about the marketing of traditional tobacco products. My sense is that this issue is on its way out, and in the coming years the big issue will be the marketing
Simon Lester 23 Mar 2016 2 min read

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International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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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

The Section 301 Surge Is Upon Us: Investigating Excess Capacity and Production

The first of a large batch of expected Section 301 investigations has arrived, as USTR announced yesterday that it was initiating investigations on acts, policies, and practices of various countries/economies "relating to structural excess capacity and production in manufacturing sectors."
12 Mar 2026 3 min read

Debunking the "Hyperglobalization" Trade Policy Myth

Policy is often shaped by narratives, and recently there has been a bipartisan effort to create a narrative that, starting in the early 1990s, globalization and free trade went too far.
03 Mar 2026 8 min read

Guest Post: Are President Trump’s New Section 122 Tariffs Legal?

This is a guest post from Bryan Riley and Joe Bishop-Henchman. Bryan is Director of the Free Trade Initiative at the National Taxpayers Union; Joe is Executive Vice President at the National Taxpayers Union Foundation President Trump has issued new 10% tariffs, shortly after raised to 15%, based on Section
24 Feb 2026 6 min read

Section 122 as a (Partial) Replacement for the IEEPA Tariffs

Apparently, this is the era of dusting off old international economic policy statutes and figuring out what they mean and how they work. After the Supreme Court's ruling today in Learning Resources, holding that "IEEPA does not authorize the President to impose tariffs," we are now
20 Feb 2026 5 min read

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