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Guest Post on the US - COOL AB 21.5 Report

This is a guest post from Geneva-based trade lawyer Adarsh Ramanujan“Risks non-fulfilment would create” I wanted to follow-up from Simon’s post last week on the Article 2.2, TBT jurisprudence arising from the Article 21.5 AB Report in US – COOL.  I believe there are some important clarifications
Simon Lester 03 Jun 2015 5 min read

QRs Notified with a GATT Article XXI Defense

The WTO Secretariat has issued an interesting report on notified quantitative restrictions: 1.1. This report has been prepared at request of the Chairperson of the Committee on Market Access with a view to providing Members with factual information on the notifications of quantitative restrictions (QRs), which have been received
Simon Lester 03 Jun 2015 1 min read

Can the TPP Fix the NAFTA Chapter 20 Dispute Process?

From a recent paper by Hugo Perezcano: Even though the United States committed to — and indeed required — eliminating tariffs and other barriers so that there would be free trade in all goods, it has also failed to live up to its obligations as regards trade in sugar. This breach of
Simon Lester 02 Jun 2015 3 min read

Modelling the Benefits of Trade Agreements

I'm as skeptical about estimates of gains/losses from trade agreements as I am about trade polling.  How many jobs will be added/lost?  How much will GDP rise/fall?  I'm not sure there are any good answers out there, although I think economists should keep
Simon Lester 02 Jun 2015 3 min read

Trade Polling

Generally speaking, I don't think much of the polling done on trade issues.  The questions are too vaguely worded to tell us much.  So, I'm never sure what to make of news reports like this one: Most Americans say they support new trade deals, according to
Simon Lester 31 May 2015 2 min read

More Plain Packaging

This time from Norway: Norway’s Ministry of Health and Care Services has proposed the imposition of a requirement for all tobacco products to be sold in standardized packaging, according to a World Trade Organization notification. It has not been decided when the measure should be adopted or when it
Simon Lester 31 May 2015 5 min read

Financial University Organizes Conference on Russia and the WTO

On 19-20 May 2015, the Financial University of the Russian Federation held its first international conference on the topic of "WTO Law in the Legal System of the Russian Federation: Problems of Application and Teaching."  To my knowledge, this was the first international legal conference held to address
Charnovitz 25 May 2015 2 min read

TPA is Half Done

The Senate half is done.  From Reuters: President Barack Obama scored a major victory on Friday when the U.S. Senate voted to give him "fast-track" powers that would help wrap up negotiations on a 12-nation Pacific Rim trade deal central to projecting American influence in Asia. But
Simon Lester 24 May 2015 2 min read

Plain Packaging Litigation is Everywhere

Now it's in the UK and EU: Two of the world's biggest tobacco companies have challenged the legality of the UK government's plain packaging regulations. British American Tobacco and Philip Morris filed legal objections at the High Court in London on Friday. They claim
Simon Lester 24 May 2015 2 min read

Long Liberalization Periods

This is from "The Puzzle of Agricultural Exceptionalism in International Trade Policy", by Michael Trebilcock and Kristen Pue: ... Hence, in explaining the resilience of the agricultural sector to efforts to liberalize trade in agricultural products we are left with a rather untidy amalgam of some elements of normative
Simon Lester 24 May 2015 1 min read

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AOC on Foreign Policy and Trade Policy

AOC spoke on a couple panels last week at the Munich Security Conference and also spoke at the Technische Universität Berlin, and this European trip was widely seen as a move to establish some foreign policy credentials for a presidential run.
17 Feb 2026 12 min read

Comparing the Enforcement Provisions in the New U.S. Trade Deals

Building on the comparison of trade agreement provisions in my last post, let's take a look at the "enforcement" provisions of the six agreements for which the legal texts have been published.
11 Feb 2026 3 min read

Comparing the Economic and National Security Provisions in the New U.S. Trade Deals

By my count, we now have the legal texts of five Trump administration trade agreements. Will there be enforcement actions under these agreements?
09 Feb 2026 5 min read

Jamieson Greer on the 30 Year Aberration in U.S. Trade Policy

When he was in Davos last week for the World Economic Forum, U.S. Trade Rep. Jamieson Greer talked a bit about U.S. trade policy history and described a recent period during which, in his view, U.S. trade policy shifted away from tariffs/protectionism and towards free trade.
29 Jan 2026 6 min read

Is this the end of MFN as we know it? The EU submission on WTO reform and the meaning of development

With the release of the EU submission on WTO reform, it has become clear that the MFN principle’s central role within the WTO architecture is under challenge. As a keystone, it risks the entire bridge falling. Even if the foundations are retained but deemed outdated or unusable, and a
23 Jan 2026 3 min read

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