This anti-ISDS bill, recently introduced by some Democratic members of Congress, is an odd one: PROHIBITION ON AGREEMENTS THAT INCLUDE INVESTOR-STATE DISPUTE SETTLEMENT PROVISIONS. (a) IN GENERAL.—The President may not, on or after the date of the enactment of this Act, enter into any free trade agreement

This blog post from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is -- how shall I describe it? -- quite something to behold: Roses are red Violets are blue I love the TPP And so should you Dearest Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, I can’t stop thinking about how great we’d be

In a foreign policy address today, likely presidential candidate Jeb Bush said (at 38:05) that "the focus [of US policy towards Latin America] ultimately needs to get back to a Free Trade Agreement of the Americas." Of course, that idea failed once before, but could a new

This is the abstract from a paper by trade lawyer Bernard O'Connor: Constructing Normal Value in WTO Anti-Dumping Law. Giving meaning to the phrase open, market-oriented policies in the preamble to the Marrakesh Declaration This paper looks at the construction of normal value in WTO anti-

In the context of the present fast track negotiations, a recent article in the New York Times points out the following aspect: The Obama administration fears that prohibitions on currency intervention could boomerang on Washington, allowing trading partners to challenge policies of the Federal Reserve Board. In the implicit view

I enjoyed this passage from the China - HP-SSST WTO panel report circulated on Friday: 6.24. Japan suggests that the Panel's analysis of the use of the indefinite article "a" preceding "like product" in the second sentence of Article 3.2 is "

Here's John Oliver on his show last night, giving his take on the tobacco litigation going on right now in international economic law: He didn't get into the interpretive issues related to overlap/conflict between the WTO and the FCTC, which I talk about in the

I recall many years ago conversations about how interim review in the WTO panel process was a waste of time, and we should get rid of it.  It had been proposed as a way to improve the quality of panel reports, but appellate review served that same purpose, so there

International trade law covers so much these days that it's hard to write a treatise or casebook on it in less than 1,000 pages.  Trust me on this, or give it a try yourself. Law prof Michael Trebilcock has just given it a try, with some success.

It turns out that when you have trade negotiations with only a select group of countries, other countries are left out.  Often, those who are left out are developing countries.  What's the impact of having "mega-regional" trade talks that exclude most developing countries?  Some people