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Who Should Be Able To Sue a Government in an International Tribunal?

As this blog's readers all know, under most investment treaties and investment chapters of trade agreements, foreign investors can sue a host government directly in an international tribunal, based on various obligations imposed on the government (fair and equitable treatment, etc.). For those who support this system, I&
Simon Lester 29 Oct 2014 1 min read

Reliving the Loewen NAFTA Case: Is a Court Ruling a Measure?

Following up on the post yesterday regarding U.S. government documents relating to the Loewen NAFTA case, turns out there was a lot of repetition in those documents.  The main substantive issue was whether court rulings constitute "measures," and how the U.S. should approach this issue as
Simon Lester 28 Oct 2014 2 min read

Clinton Era Trade Documents

Previously confidential documents from the Clinton era are being released now and then.  I'm keeping an eye out for items that relate to international economic law.  Here are two recent ones from the Loewen NAFTA case: http://www.clintonlibrary.gov/assets/storage/Research-Digital-Library/formerlywithheld/batch7/2010-0021-F-1.pdf http:
Simon Lester 27 Oct 2014 1 min read

Speaking Clearly on ISDS?

From a speech today by President-elect of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker before the European Parliament: Investor-to-state disputes I took note of the intense debates around investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations. Let me once again state my position clearly, that I had
Simon Lester 22 Oct 2014 2 min read

OGEL & TDM Call for Papers: Special Issue on Renewable Energy Disputes

From OGEL and the TDM journal: Oil, Gas, and Energy Law Journal (www.ogel.org) and Transnational Dispute Management (www.transnational-dispute-management.com) invite submissions for a joint Special Issue on Renewable Energy Disputes. Renewable energy production is nothing new: windmills have been used to produce wind-based energy and dams have
Simon Lester 22 Oct 2014 2 min read

What Do Americans Think of Mandatory Country of Origin Labelling?

I was struck by this sentence from a Global Trade Watch blog post, in reaction to yesterday's WTO panel report in the Article 21.5 proceeding in U.S. - COOL: The COOL policy was created when Congress enacted mandatory country-of-origin labeling for meat – supported by 92 percent
Simon Lester 21 Oct 2014 3 min read

Mesa Power v. Canada NAFTA investor-state arbitration: public viewing of the hearing

Many of you will be familiar with Mesa Power as the NAFTA case that concerns the local content requirements in Ontario's feed-in-tariff (FIT) programme for renewably generated electricity, which were found to violate WTO rules in the recent Canada-Renewable Energy rulings.  The NAFTA claim raises far broader issues
Rob Howse 20 Oct 2014 1 min read

The Amended COOL Measure Was Not So Cool, a WTO Compliance Panel Said

Here is the compliance (DSU Article 21.5) panel report as well as a summary of findings.  Overall, the panel followed the Appellate Body’s approach in the original COOL dispute.  The panel concluded that the amended COOL measure actually “has increased the original COOL measure's detrimental impact
Sungjoon Cho 20 Oct 2014 3 min read

Where to publish in international law-a not entirely unbiased pitch for the London Review

My co-authors and I are close to signing off on our manuscript analyzing the WTO Seal Products rulings.  Coming from the very happy Howse/Langille experience with the Yale Journal of International Law, I think we will again submit to the US student-edited law journals-also the nature of the piece.
Rob Howse 17 Oct 2014 1 min read

What Is Investment Protection For?

This is from U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman: investment protections are ... intended to safeguard against a host of abuses, including discrimination, repudiation of contracts, and expropriation of property without due process of law ... It surprises me how little analysis of this issue exists. From what I can tell, the
Simon Lester 17 Oct 2014 1 min read

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Tracking Goods Exports under the Trump Administration's Trade Policies

My sense is that one of the reasons some traditionally pro-trade members of Congress have continued to support Trump's trade policies, despite misgivings they may have about tariffs, is because they hope these policies will pry open foreign markets, leading to increased US exports.
07 May 2026 8 min read

Could Congress Extend the USMCA for Another Term?

People have been assuming that the decision on whether to extend the USMCA for another term is up to President Trump, but based on the language of the USMCA related to the upcoming joint review, could Congress actually have the power to make this decision on its own?
04 May 2026 4 min read

Is There No Going Back on Trade? What Is the Path Forward? A Response to Lighthizer

Former U.S. Trade Rep. Bob Lighthizer has a new essay in Foreign Affairs, and I have some thoughts. I'm going to start with his brief big picture points on the direction of U.S. trade policy, and then go through a couple of the specific concepts he emphasizes.
27 Apr 2026 6 min read

The Section 301 Excess Capacity Investigation Needs Less Madness, More Method

Shortly after the Supreme Court ruled President Trump’s emergency tariffs under IEEPA  unconstitutional, the administration scrambled to rebuild its tariff wall. While the announcement of Section 122 tariffs immediately following the ruling will provide a temporary patch, the U.S. Trade Representative’s office quickly began to utilize another
24 Apr 2026 6 min read

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

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