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Changing China's Trade Practices: Hope vs. Unilateral Tariffs vs. WTO Complaints

Former Biden administration official Peter Harrell recently argued that with regard to reform of China's economic practices (and political system), the original plan was to hope that economic ties would be enough, but when that didn't work the Trump administration imposed tariffs for this purpose: For
Simon Lester 31 May 2024 2 min read

SIEL Call for Papers: Navigating New Horizons: International Economic Law in a Changing World

This is from SIEL: The Ninth Biennial Global Conference of the Society of International Economic Law (SIEL) will take place on 9-11 July 2025 in Taipei (Taiwan), in collaboration with National Taiwan University (NTU). SIEL’s Ninth Biennial Global Conference will be in person and address the pressures of escalating
Simon Lester 31 May 2024 1 min read

Still Puzzling over Privacy Exceptions in Digital Trade Chapters/Agreements

There seems to be a lot of experimentation going on these days with exceptions for the protection of personal data/privacy in digital trade agreements/chapters. I've talked about the some of these exceptions in prior posts, but to be honest I think I missed some nuances as
Simon Lester 28 May 2024 8 min read

Guest Post: IMO Carbon Pricing Mechanism, the Equitable Transition of International Shipping, and WTO Law

This is a guest post from Goran Dominioni, Assistant Professor, School of Law and Government, Dublin City University  International maritime transport is the lifeblood of the global economy, accounting for about 80 percent of international trade (by volume). In July 2023, the International Maritime Organization (IMO)—the UN agency that
Simon Lester 23 May 2024 6 min read

Alan Sykes on Making WTO Appeals Discretionary

Stanford law prof Alan Sykes has posted a new paper entitled "The Utility of Appellate Review at the WTO and Its Optimal Structure." One part of the paper that I found particularly interesting was his call for any appeals body to have discretion over what appeals to hear:
Simon Lester 20 May 2024 4 min read

Guest Post: Time to regulate cross-border subsidies? Who decides?

This is a guest post from Luca Rubini, Senior Research Fellow in International Law, University of Turin This brief post has been triggered by yesterday’s delivery of the Opinion of Advocate General Capeta in the Fiberglass case currently pending before the European Court of Justice. The key legal issue
Simon Lester 17 May 2024 3 min read

U.S. Subsidies vs. Chinese Subsidies / Good vs. Bad Subsidies

At a press briefing with Ambassador Tai on the announcement that the Biden administration would maintain the Section 301 tariffs on China and add tariffs on a few additional products, a reporter asked the following question regarding U.S. vs. Chinese electric vehicle subsidies: The U.S. government is subsidizing
Simon Lester 16 May 2024 2 min read

Director of WTO Rules Division: Apply Soon!

If you are a trade remedies expert contemplating a career change, here's a great opportunity: The Secretariat of the WTO is seeking to fill a position of Director to lead the Rules Division. The Rules Division is responsible for all aspects of WTO work, legal and technical, in
Simon Lester 11 May 2024 1 min read

Anticipating the First USMCA RRM Panel Determination: A Look Back

By now, many will have heard that the first panel constituted under the USMCA Rapid Response Labor Mechanism (RRM) recently completed its determination as to whether there has been a Denial of Rights at the San Martín mine.  At the moment, we are waiting for the public release of the
Kathleen Claussen 09 May 2024 7 min read

USTR's View of Non-Discrimination

Here is an excerpt from the U.S. statement at the last DSB meeting, in which it discusses the EU - Palm Oil panel's interpretation of non-discrimination in TBT Agreement Article 2.1: - The United States is disappointed that the Panel in this dispute at times simply
Simon Lester 07 May 2024 4 min read

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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

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Is Foreign Antitrust Enforcement "Discriminatory" and "Anti-American"?

The House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust held a hearing in December on "Anti-American Antitrust: How Foreign Governments Target U.S. Businesses." There was a lot of talk at the hearing about how foreign regulations and regulators "discriminate" against American companies.
05 Jan 2026 5 min read

Pennsylvania Court Finds Mexican Government Guilty of "Discrimination" Due To Its Subsidies

I'm always interested in how courts apply the concept of "discrimination" in the context of international trade, so I've been eagerly awaiting a Pennsylvania court decision in a case against Mexico.
12 Dec 2025 8 min read

Economic Security in Trade Agreements: My Response to Geoff Gertz

Thanks to Geoff for laying out his vision of why economic security should be in trade agreements and how to bring it in. It won't surprise anyone to hear I have some additional comments and questions in response!
04 Dec 2025 10 min read

Guest Post: The Case for Bringing Economic Security Priorities into U.S. Trade Agreements, Part II

This is a guest post from Geoffrey Gertz of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), responding to my post on Economic and National Security Provisions in U.S. Trade Agreements An earlier post made the case for why the United States should bring economic security commitments into trade
01 Dec 2025 3 min read

Guest Post: The Case for Bringing Economic Security Priorities into U.S. Trade Agreements, Part I

Thanks to Simon for kickstarting a debate on the prospect of bringing economic security provisions into trade agreements, and for allowing me to respond here.
26 Nov 2025 4 min read

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