International Economic Law and Policy Blog
  • Home
  • About
  • WorldTradeLaw.net
Sign in Subscribe

TransCanada Will File a NAFTA ISDS Claim

From TransCanada's press release: TransCanada Corporation ... announced today it has filed a Notice of Intent to initiate a claim under Chapter 11 of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in response to the U.S. Administration's decision to deny a Presidential Permit for the Keystone
Simon Lester 06 Jan 2016 2 min read

10 Years of Blogging

10 years, man! 10 years! That's how long it has been since Joel did the first post (Tomer had the first comment).  It was on the EU GMO ban, and the EU's failure to comply with its WTO obligations.  What are the chances this issue will
Simon Lester 06 Jan 2016 1 min read

Presidential Candidates Threatening To Violate International Economic Law Obligations

You may have heard that there's this leading U.S. Presidential candidate making threats to violate U.S. international economic law obligations.  Yes, that one, but also this one: Hillary Clinton signaled a willingness to hold as "leverage" the patents of American companies keeping assets overseas
Simon Lester 05 Jan 2016 1 min read

The Indian Model BIT

Recall that a while back, I talked about a new draft Indian model BIT.  As Investment Arbitration Reporter explains, India now has a final version of this model BIT.  IA Reporter has the complete rundown; I'm just going to mention briefly the general exceptions clause.  In the draft
Simon Lester 05 Jan 2016 1 min read

Does the TPP Tobacco Carveout Allow for Discriminatory Measures?

Recall that the TPP tobacco carveout says this: Article 29.5: Tobacco Control Measures12 A Party may elect to deny the benefits of Section B of Chapter 9 (Investment) with respect to claims challenging a tobacco control measure13 of the Party. Such a claim shall not be submitted to arbitration
Simon Lester 03 Jan 2016 2 min read

Is TTIP-Light Enough?

At the outset of the TTIP talks, people were talking up regulatory issues as the most important part.  But perhaps it was just too much to deal with, at least in such a short period of time.  Can everyone accept a "TTIP Light"?  This is from Inside US
Simon Lester 30 Dec 2015 1 min read

Will the EU Grant China Market Economy Status?

This is from the FT: Washington has warned Brussels against granting China ‘market economy status’, saying the long-sought trade concession could hamper efforts to prevent Chinese companies flooding US and European markets with unfairly cheap goods. ... US officials have warned EU counterparts that granting Beijing MES would amount to “unilaterally
Simon Lester 30 Dec 2015 1 min read

How High Were Tariffs Before the GATT?

In various papers I've written, I'm sure I have made the point that prior to the GATT, world tariffs were around 40%, and the GATT/WTO brought them down from there to much lower levels.  I suspect others have done the same. But Chad Bown and
Simon Lester 23 Dec 2015 1 min read

Philip Morris Loses its ISDS Plain Packaging Case against Australia

Investment Arbitration Reporter has the scoop: A tribunal at the Permanent Court of Arbitration has issued a decision dismissing a high-profile case between cigarette multinational Philip Morris and the Commonwealth of Australia. The PCA website indicates that a Decision on Jurisdiction and Admissibility was issued on December 17, 2015. A
Simon Lester 17 Dec 2015 1 min read

Appeals of Article 22.6 Arbitration Decisions

Last week, in a post about a systemic issue involving the calculation of the level of nullification or impairment in an Article 22.6 proceeding, Joost said:  "as systemic as this finding is, 22.6 arbitration reports cannot be appealed. Is this, however, not the kind of finding one
Simon Lester 17 Dec 2015 2 min read

About

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

Sign up for email notifications

[email protected]
Subscribe

Featured

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

Topics

2008 Presidential Election

25 posts

2012 Republican Primary

6 posts

2020 Democratic Primary

22 posts

2020 Presidential Campaign

6 posts

2024 Presidential Campaign

9 posts

2024 Republican Primary

9 posts

Announcements

27 posts

Appellate Body

72 posts

CAFTA

5 posts

CETA

8 posts

Currency Disputes

57 posts

Development

23 posts

Digital Trade

57 posts

Domestic Trade Powers

10 posts

Dormant Commerce Clause

3 posts

DSU 25 Interim Appeals

43 posts

DSU Article 11

13 posts

Economic Integration

8 posts

Economic Statecraft

9 posts

EU-UK Trade Negotiation

5 posts

Exceptions

19 posts

Exchange Rates

6 posts

Export Restrictions

13 posts

Food Aid

5 posts

Foreign Investment

21 posts

FTA Negotiations

13 posts

FTAs - General

22 posts

Gambling Dispute

52 posts

Global Governance

9 posts

Globalization

13 posts

Government Procurement

5 posts

Green Steel Deal

14 posts

IEEPA

9 posts

IEL in Domestic Courts

20 posts

Indo-Pacific Economic Framework

5 posts

Industrial Policy

19 posts

Investor-State Arbitration

93 posts

Jamieson Greer

16 posts

Katherine Tai

66 posts

NAFTA

19 posts

NAFTA Chapter 11

15 posts

NAFTA Chapter 19

5 posts

National Security

38 posts

Non Appeal Pact

3 posts

Non-Discrimination Standards

59 posts

Non-Market Economies

6 posts

Non-Violation Nullification or Impairment

18 posts

Precedent

25 posts

Public Views of Trade

9 posts

Rare Earths

1 post

Robert Lighthizer

17 posts

Russia Trade Sanctions

17 posts

Sanctions

15 posts

Section 301

2 posts

Sovereignty

9 posts

Speech

1 post

SPS/TBT

5 posts

Standards of Review

7 posts

State Enterprises

7 posts

Sub-National Trade Issues

5 posts

Subsidies

83 posts

Tariffs

3 posts

Terms of Trade Manipulation

6 posts

Trade Agreements

20 posts

Trade and Competition

14 posts

Trade and Development

21 posts

Trade and Environment

117 posts

Trade and Health

20 posts

Trade and Human Rights

9 posts

Trade and Income Inequality

1 post

Trade and Intellectual Property

25 posts

Trade and Labor

25 posts

Trade and Peace

4 posts

Trade and Security

35 posts

Trade and the Stock Market

2 posts

Trade Balance

11 posts

Trade in Everything

65 posts

Trade in Services

21 posts

Trade Law and International Law

10 posts

Trade Preferences/GSP

23 posts

Trade Remedies

62 posts

Trans Pacific Partnership

8 posts

Trump Administration

53 posts

U.S. Trade Policy

32 posts

U.S. Trade Politics

60 posts

US-China Trade Relations

26 posts

USMCA

19 posts

USMCA Dispute Settlement

33 posts

USMCA Sunset/Review Clause

18 posts

USTR

16 posts

WTO - General

24 posts

WTO Accessions

8 posts

WTO Disputes

175 posts

WTO DS Reform

13 posts

WTO Jurisprudence

28 posts

WTO Negotiations

30 posts
Powered by Ghost