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GATT Consistency of a Commercial Fishing Ban

For you law professors out there searching for a good exam question, take a look at this fact pattern from an Economist article: IN PALAU, the traditional prescription for an ailing reef is a fishing ban called a bul. Local chiefs may declare a bul to rest a busy fishing
Simon Lester 10 Jun 2014 2 min read

Fun With Plain Packaging

A while back, I was thinking about the Australian plain packaging law, and it occurred to me that people were saying "plain package" and "cigarettes" together quite a lot, and the terms are now associated closely with one another.  With that in mind, wouldn't
Simon Lester 06 Jun 2014 1 min read

The Next WTO Moot Court Case

Many of you have been involved in some capacity in the ELSA WTO Moot Court competition. It may have occurred to you that it would be fun to write up a case that would drive students completely nuts teach students a lot about WTO law.  If so, here's
Simon Lester 06 Jun 2014 2 min read

WTO Seals: migrating from this blog to ASIL Inisghts

ASIL Insights has just posted a preliminary assessment of the AB ruling in Seals co-authored by Jo Langille, Katie Sykes and me.bit.ly/1uiYXcx The exchanges on this blog were very helpful to us in the deliberations that led to our joint piece.  So many thanks to Simon, our
Rob Howse 04 Jun 2014 2 min read

Are the WTO “Teeth” Working?

Maybe.  Here go some excerpts from a recent report by the U.S. House Appropriations Committee.      Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling (COOL).—The Committee is aware that the governments of Canada and Mexico have challenged a final rule published in the Federal Register on May 24, 2013, (78 Fed. Reg.
Sungjoon Cho 03 Jun 2014 1 min read

More on the ECJ's "Right to be Forgotten" as a Trade Barrier

From a recent op-ed: This month’s bombshell decision from the European Court of Justice pronouncing a “right to be forgotten” on the Internet was couched as a principled stand for digital privacy. Looking closer, however, one could see a double standard at work: The enormously expensive effects of the
Simon Lester 03 Jun 2014 2 min read

The Relationship between China’s Protocol of Accession and the GATT 1994: China – Rare Earths and the Incorporation Theory ― Off with its Head! (Part 1)

by André de Hoogh, cross-posted from the GUILD-blog Introduction Last March, a WTO panel issued its report on a dispute between the European Union, the United States and Japan on the one hand and China on the other concerning export duties imposed on certain rare earths, tungsten and molebdynum (here
Simon Lester 02 Jun 2014 8 min read

ISDS Forum

For those of you who could not attend, here's the video of our ISDS policy forum at Cato: http://www.cato.org/events/investor-state-dispute-settlement-mechanism-examination-benefits-costs I think we had a pretty good back and forth, with reasonable people on all sides. My favorite part, though, was Lori Wallach of
Simon Lester 02 Jun 2014 1 min read

What Did the AB Mean in Seal Products?

We've had some good discussions of the Seal Products AB report here on this blog over the past week or so.  There are definitely some differences of opinion as to what the AB meant in relation to the GATT non-discrimination obligations.  When will we get some clarification? It
Simon Lester 02 Jun 2014 1 min read

The EU’s New GMO Compromise: Scientific v. “Non-Scientific” Grounds

Folks, this is quite interesting.  The EU member states have just struck a compromise on the GMO regulation by providing individual member states with options to exclude the GMO importation.  (This deal is subject to subsequent legislative procedures involving the Commission and the European Parliament.)  Note that this is not
Sungjoon Cho 30 May 2014 1 min read

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Comparing the Forced Labor Provisions in the New U.S. Trade Deals

Continuing my multi-part blog posting series on comparing provisions in the Trump administration trade agreements, let's look now at the provisions that try to induce U.S. trading partners to take action against imports made with forced labor.
20 Feb 2026 4 min read

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 4 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

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