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Tim Walz on the Foreign Policy / Trade Policy Relationship

After Kamala Harris announced Tim Walz as her running mate yesterday, there has been a lot of discussion of Walz's policy views. Vice-Presidents don't typically take the lead on trade policy, but nonetheless I thought it was worth mentioning something Walz said in a speech back
Simon Lester 07 Aug 2024 3 min read

Is the U.S. Going to Propose Security Exception Reforms?

During a DSB meeting in January 2023, the U.S. indicated that it would be seeking an "authoritative interpretation" of the GATT security exception: The United States believes that Members need to deepen their collective understanding of this issue that is so critical to all of us. We
Simon Lester 04 Aug 2024 2 min read

What Would a Kamala Harris Trade Policy Look Like?

There was a lot of speculation last week about what Kamala Harris would do on trade policy (and various other policies). I thought this piece by Alan Beattie of the FT offered a very thoughtful and objective evaluation of where things might go on trade and industrial policy in a
Simon Lester 28 Jul 2024 5 min read

WTO Member Statements on Appeal/Review in the DS Reform Process

The WTO Dispute Settlement Reform Process is underway. The WTO website provides brief overviews of the meetings as they happen, but for those of us who want more than just a short summary, we can follow it a few weeks behind the actual current developments as meeting minutes are derestricted.
Simon Lester 24 Jul 2024 10 min read

More from the Biden Administration on Chinese Overcapacity

A couple months ago, I did a post on "Subsidies, Overcapacity, and Domestic Demand/Savings," in which I argued that, in the context of concerns about Chinese overcapacity, it would be better to focus on Chinese subsidies than on differences in U.S./China domestic demand and savings
Simon Lester 21 Jul 2024 5 min read

Safeguards Without Compensation -- A New Normal?

Mexico’s push for exclusion from the United States’ solar safeguard measure, which jumped into the news this week, raises a point of potential interest for the IELP Blog audience. The escape clause / efficient breach theory of safeguards holds that a WTO Member can temporarily retract a trade concession, hiking
John Magnus 17 Jul 2024 2 min read

The Trade Section of the GOP 2024 Platform

I'm not sure how important party platforms are, but they probably have at least some relevance. Here's the section of the Republicans' 2024 platform on trade policy, which has been shaped by Trump's protectionist views on trade: CHAPTER FIVE: PROTECT AMERICAN WORKERS AND
Simon Lester 15 Jul 2024 4 min read

The Passing of Frederick Ikenson

My friend and former colleague Dan Ikenson informs me of the sad news of the passing of his father, Frederick Ikenson, who was a long-time Washington, DC-based trade and customs lawyer. Fred practiced in this field for over five decades, so many of this blog's readers probably got
Simon Lester 09 Jul 2024 1 min read

Multiple Permissible Interpretations under Chevron and AD Agreement Article 17.6(ii)

Here's an excerpt from the majority opinion in the recent Loper Bright U.S. Supreme Court decision that puts an end to Chevron deference, in which the majority says that it does not make sense to talk about "permissible" interpretations because there is always a "
Simon Lester 07 Jul 2024 5 min read

The Anti-Neoliberal View of Where Things Went Wrong on China Trade

Farah Stockman of the New York Times recently had a piece about former Biden administration official Jennifer Harris. If I understand their views correctly, Stockman and Harris are part of a group of people who are skeptical of past "neoliberal" policies, whereas I -- as I mention here
Simon Lester 26 Jun 2024 3 min read

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International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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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

Comparing the Forced Labor Provisions in the New U.S. Trade Deals

Continuing my multi-part blog posting series on comparing provisions in the Trump administration trade agreements, let's look now at the provisions that try to induce U.S. trading partners to take action against imports made with forced labor.
20 Feb 2026 4 min read

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 4 min read

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