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italaw.com Looking for Editors

From Andrew Newcombe: Dear Colleagues In the coming days you will see that italaw.com has been redesigned.   In addition to a more contemporary look, over the coming months I am planning to expand site content to include different types of international investment law cases.  With the support of Investor-State
Simon Lester 19 Mar 2015 1 min read

Tie Votes at the ITC

One of the claims in the the latest WTO complaint, brought by Indonesia against a U.S. AD/CVD measure, is the following: The United States' imposition of anti-dumping and countervailing duty orders appears to be inconsistent with at least the following provisions of WTO law: ... With respect to
Simon Lester 17 Mar 2015 2 min read

International Investment Obligations in Domestic Law

Here's more from the ISDS in TTIP debate between Lauge Poulsen, Jonathan Bonnitcha, Jason Yackee, on one side, and Freya Baetans, on the other. Poulsen, Bonnitcha, and Yackee say the following: While the high quality of the US judicial system (and US laws) concerning foreign investors is beyond
Simon Lester 17 Mar 2015 3 min read

ISDS as Good Governance

There's a good back and forth on ISDS in TTIP between Lauge Poulsen, Jonathan Bonnitcha, Jason Yackee, on one side, and Freya Baetans, on the other.  I'm going to get 4 or 5 blog posts out of all this! I'll start with something from
Simon Lester 16 Mar 2015 2 min read

Can ISDS Serve as an International Antitrust Court?

This is from three well-known labor economists, writing in support of the TPP: If passed, the TPP also would create a powerful template for future trade deals, including with China, which would move the U.S. closer to resolving conflicts the WTO has been unable to handle. Consider, for example,
Simon Lester 15 Mar 2015 1 min read

A New Structure for Appellate Body Reports

The Appellate Body has announced a change related to how it approaches summaries of parties' arguments in its reports: The Appellate Body intends to continue the practice of asking participants in appeals to submit executive summaries of their written submissions. The deadlines for filing such summaries will also remain
Simon Lester 15 Mar 2015 2 min read

More on a TPP Secretariat

Continuing with the theme of issues I think are interesting, but few people are talking about, let me raise again the question of whether there should be a TPP Secretariat. This is from Deborah Elms: The TPP requires a robust Secretariat to ensure the long-term health and success of this
Simon Lester 12 Mar 2015 3 min read

More on That Interesting Debate

In the comments on that last post, Marc Benitah asked why I thought this was such an important debate. I had been planning to explain this anyway, so I'm glad he asked. I think the distinction between "protectionism" and "terms of trade manipulation," as
Simon Lester 10 Mar 2015 2 min read

The Most Interesting Trade Debate You've Probably Never Heard Of

There's a great debate that has been going on slowly and sporadically, over a period of years, about the purpose of trade agreements.  On one side are Don Regan of Michigan Law School and economist Bill Ethier; on the other side are economists Kyle Bagwell and Rob Staiger,
Simon Lester 09 Mar 2015 4 min read

State Subsidy Competition Is Bad

From a new paper by economist Ralph Ossa: U.S. cities, counties, and states spend substantial resources on subsidies trying to attract firms. According to a New York Times database which I describe in detail later on, expenditures for such subsidies range from $33.4 million per year in Nevada
Simon Lester 08 Mar 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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