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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

International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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War Tariffs

This is a co-authored post by Kathleen Claussen and Tim Meyer. Last week, President Trump announced that the United States would be imposing new tariffs of 50 percent of the value of any product coming from any country that sells weapons or provides military aid to Iran. Some commentators questioned
14 Apr 2026 5 min read

USMCA Review and Extension Predictions

When the idea of an expiration clause was suggested during the NAFTA renegotiation, I was against it from the start, and Inu and I wrote a pretty critical piece about it at the time. A review is great, we said, let's definitely have reviews, and there are plenty of ways to do that.
08 Apr 2026 5 min read

The Section 301 Surge Continues: Investigating the Adoption/Enforcement/Administration of Forced Labor Import Bans

This Section 301 investigation intends to pressure all sixty named trade partners (even, inexplicably, including Canada and Mexico) to adopt similar enforcement procedures. This announcement is highly problematic for the four reasons I address below.
16 Mar 2026 4 min read

The Section 301 Surge Is Upon Us: Investigating Excess Capacity and Production

The first of a large batch of expected Section 301 investigations has arrived, as USTR announced yesterday that it was initiating investigations on acts, policies, and practices of various countries/economies "relating to structural excess capacity and production in manufacturing sectors."
12 Mar 2026 3 min read

Debunking the "Hyperglobalization" Trade Policy Myth

Policy is often shaped by narratives, and recently there has been a bipartisan effort to create a narrative that, starting in the early 1990s, globalization and free trade went too far.
03 Mar 2026 8 min read

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