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"Is India undervaluing patents or is the rest of the world overvaluing them?"

Economist Arvind Subramanian comments on the Indian Supreme Court's Novartis ruling: Critics have suggested that India is a deviant for being the only country where Novartis’ claim has been rejected. Left out is the fact that even in the United States, the Novartis application—which was really for
Simon Lester 08 Apr 2013 1 min read

Food Labelling: Can There Be Too Much Information?

A couple weeks ago, I asked the following question in relation to the U.S. COOL measure: "What will consumers think of seeing details on where the animal was 'born, raised, and slaughtered' on every package of meat?" CNN's Jake Tapper was intrigued by
Simon Lester 05 Apr 2013 1 min read

Seven of the Nine DG Candidates Speak Out

Thanks to the  efforts of leading WTO scholars and EUI professors Bernard Hoekman and Petros Mavroidis, today we have a better view of the perspectives and positions of seven of the nine candidates for Director-General of the WTO.  Their e-book Race for the WTP Director General job:  Seven candidates speak,
Rob Howse 03 Apr 2013 3 min read

Arms Trade Treaty

The General Assembly has approved the conventional weapons trade treaty.  While the treaty requires members to restrict exports in certain circumstances, it contains no reference to WTO law requirements, and Art. 26 on the relationship with other agreements seems to assert dominance. See Joost Pauwelyn's earlier post on
Trachtman 03 Apr 2013 1 min read

Is This One of Those Regulatory Trade Barriers Everyone Is Talking About?

One of the big issues in the US-EU trade talks is supposedly going to be "regulatory trade barriers."  Everyone agrees there are significant economic gains to be had by eliminating these barriers.  And I can imagine there are.  But one problem is, it is not really clear what
Simon Lester 02 Apr 2013 3 min read

Novartis, the Indian Supreme Court, and TRIPS

The Washington Post reports on a big patent decision at the Indian Supreme Court: India’s Supreme Court on Monday rejected a Swiss pharmaceutical company’s effort to patent an updated version of its cancer drug, a decision aimed at boosting a domestic generic drug manufacturing industry that supplies cheap
Simon Lester 02 Apr 2013 1 min read

Cybersecurity and Trade Conflict

Over at Opinio Juris, Roger Alford talks about some new U.S. cybersecurity legislation that bars federal government purchases of IT equipment “produced, manufactured or assembled” by entities “owned, directed, or subsidized by the People’s Republic of China” unless the head of the purchasing agency consults with the FBI
Simon Lester 28 Mar 2013 1 min read

Is the Biggest Trade in Cigarettes Battle Still Looming?

There has been a lot of excitement in the area of trade in cigarettes in recent years.  We've had the Clove Cigarettes case.  The Australian Plain Packaging case is starting up, and might spread if others adopt plain packaging.  Trade concerns have been raised about Canadian rules on
Simon Lester 27 Mar 2013 2 min read

The Future of the Publishing Industry and International Price Discrimination

Following-up on Perry's excellent post about the Supreme Court decision in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., I just wanted to offer some brief thoughts.  A couple months ago, I saw this post from economics blogger Tyler Cowen, titled "What does equilibrium look like for the
Simon Lester 22 Mar 2013 2 min read

Perry Bechky on IEL at SCOTUS

This is a guest post by Perry S. Bechky, Visiting Scholar at Seattle University School of Law and Senior Attorney at Dorsey & Whitney LLP. If you buy a book (or other copyrighted work), where does your right to resell it end?  Does the answer depend on whether the resale
Simon Lester 20 Mar 2013 4 min read

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International Economic Law and Policy Blog

International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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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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