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Blanking on Blanco: What is it with his website?

As I recently tweeted, over the last 24 hours I've tried to access WTO Director General candidate Herminio Blanco's website on 4 different devices (the last one an open computer in the Swiss lounge in JFK airport, so it's nothing to do with my
Rob Howse 27 Apr 2013 1 min read

Aftermath of the ECJ Seal Ban Judgment: Pro-hunt lobby angry and demoralized

It's pretty clear that the pro-seal hunt interests are hurting hard from their loss at the ECJ.  One spokesperson appeared to accuse the Court of being "self-serving" and lacking a "fair or just process."  That doesn't seem very consistent, to say the
Rob Howse 26 Apr 2013 1 min read

Discrimination in the Seal Products Dispute: The Role of Categories

This is from the second EU written submission in seal products: 199. Canada considers that the EU Seal Regime, through the IC exception, modifies the conditions of competition to the detriment of its imports when compared with imports of Greenland. Specifically, Canada suggests that, in the case of an origin-neutral
Simon Lester 25 Apr 2013 4 min read

The ECJ Finds EU Seal Products Ban Proportionate to Objectives

Further to Simon's post, I am not an EU law expert, but I do think that, in particular, the findings of the ECJ on proportionality are relevant to the WTO dispute.  Here they are: Second, the applicants’ argument that the basic regulation goes beyond what is necessary to
Rob Howse 25 Apr 2013 2 min read

The Seal Products Ban: No Problem under EU Law

From CTV: A court has upheld the European Union's three-year-old ban on seal products, dealing another blow to Canada's embattled sealing industry. The General Court of the European Union issued a statement today saying it has rejected a challenge from a group that included the Canadian
Simon Lester 25 Apr 2013 1 min read

Trade Facilitation: The WTO Negs Deserve More Attention from Civil Society

These days trade faciltiation is an oft-repeated mantra in WTO circles, including by the DG candidates.  But there is little commentary to be found by civil society groups on these negotiations or the draft texts (the latest, from the end of March can be found here:  http://bit.ly/XXyaEA.
Rob Howse 24 Apr 2013 3 min read

Are SPS Measures Protectionist?

A recent article argues that a lot of them are: we hypothesize that SPS notification activity is correlated with the amount of protectionism afforded traded agricultural products and with the level of demand for protectionism by agricultural producers. To test our claims, we assemble a dataset recording the annual number
Simon Lester 23 Apr 2013 1 min read

Trade in Online Services: Education and Health

This is from a new Peterson Institute paper: In a recent book, The Cost Disease: Why Computers Get Cheaper and Health Care Doesn’t, William Baumol reports some arresting numbers to illustrate the spiraling cost of key services which are plagued by slow productivity growth. Since the 1980s, the price
Simon Lester 23 Apr 2013 1 min read

Do We Need a Multilateral Investment Agreement?

A couple months ago, I mentioned a new proposal for a Multilateral Investment Agreement.  Axel Berger of the Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE) has a skeptical response here.  An excerpt: The shortcomings of the current investment regime can be better dealt with in the context of regional negotiations; these should,
Simon Lester 23 Apr 2013 1 min read

Know Your Negotiating Partner: the Case of Karel De Gucht

The United States is now entering into the negotiation of an ambitious agreement on trade and economic cooperation with the  EU.  But do the Administration and Congress really know the man who will be sitting on the other side of the negotiating table, Karel De Gucht? Searching for more clues
Rob Howse 22 Apr 2013 1 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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