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WTO Panel Report on Argentine “Sanctions” Against Panama Tax Haven

Now here is an interesting panel report that came out Wednesday, Sept. 30. Can a WTO member (here, Argentina) impose “defensive measures” against countries not sharing tax information (here, Panama)? The “defensive measures” had to do with capital gains, income tax, transfer pricing rules and rules on capital and re-insurance
Joost Pauwelyn 02 Oct 2015 3 min read

The Policy and Politics of an ISDS Tobacco Carveout

Inside US Trade reports from the TPP negotiations: The U.S. proposal on tobacco tabled here would give countries the option to prevent tobacco companies from challenging tobacco control measures under investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), using a concept that already exists under the U.S. investment model called "denial
Simon Lester 02 Oct 2015 3 min read

WTO Complaints About Discrimination Against Other Countries

Todd Tucker has been blogging about the recently circulated Argentina - Financial Services (DS453) panel report (see here, here, and here), based on a claim by Panama against Argentina, and he has some good general background and some exploration of the nuances. There's lots to talk about in
Simon Lester 02 Oct 2015 3 min read

Denying "Scandalous" Trademark Registrations

This is from the Strong Language blog, which bills itself as "A sweary blog about swearing" (in the excerpt below, I've deleted the controversial words from this family friendly blog!): Under the federal trademark statute, trademarks that are found to be “scandalous” can’t be registered
Simon Lester 30 Sep 2015 1 min read

The Pre-History of ISDS

This is the intro of a new article by history professor Ben Coates, in the Journal of American History: On July 28, 1904, the gunboat Bolívar arrived in Guanoco, in northeastern Venezuela. It carried a contingent of Venezuelan soldiers with instructions to seize the property of the New York and
Simon Lester 30 Sep 2015 1 min read

What Should Trade Negotiators Negotiate About?

Maybe trade negotiators could negotiate about this: State and municipal governments in the United States each year offer some $80 billion in tax breaks and other subsidies to encourage large companies to do what they would do regardless — invest in new plants, office space and equipment in the hopes of
Simon Lester 28 Sep 2015 2 min read

Call for Submissions: Trade, Law and Development

From the journal Trade, Law and Development: Call for Submissions Special Issue on Trade & Public Health Founded in 2009, the philosophy of Trade, Law and Development has been to generate and sustain a constructive and democratic debate on emergent issues in international economic law and to serve as a
Simon Lester 28 Sep 2015 1 min read

More on the "Right to Regulate" in ISDS

Last week, I said that it wasn't clear to me how the "right to regulate" provision in the European Commission's proposed TTIP ISDS rules would function, or whether it would have any real impact.  Now I see that some people are worried it will
Simon Lester 25 Sep 2015 2 min read

Hillary Clinton Says No To Keystone XL

From NPR: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has come out against the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline. ... "I think it is imperative that we look at the Keystone XL pipeline as what I believe it is: a distraction from the important work we have to do to combat climate
Simon Lester 23 Sep 2015 1 min read

Trade Policy Professor Position

This position looks like it could be very appealing to some of you out there: The Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin invites applicants to fill the newly endowed Victor Ramon Davila, Sr. Chair in International Trade Policy, beginning August 2016. The
Simon Lester 23 Sep 2015 1 min read

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International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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Could Congress Extend the USMCA for Another Term?

People have been assuming that the decision on whether to extend the USMCA for another term is up to President Trump, but based on the language of the USMCA related to the upcoming joint review, could Congress actually have the power to make this decision on its own?
04 May 2026 4 min read

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

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