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Is Section 301 the Right Remedy for Chinese Shipbuilding Subsidies?

In the Section 301 petition recently filed by a group of unions, the petitioners argued that "Section 301 provides an appropriate mechanism for addressing China’s policies in the maritime, logistics, and shipbuilding sector." They offer three reasons for this: First, traditional trade remedies are not available to
Simon Lester 19 Mar 2024 2 min read

Katherine Tai on Online Business Models and Digital Regulation

U.S. Trade Rep. Katherine Tai spoke recently at a SeedAI event and had some interesting things to say about both online business models and digital trade regulation. I'll start with a quote that reflects what she has said many times about sorting out domestic digital regulation before
Simon Lester 18 Mar 2024 5 min read

Did NAFTA Push White Male Social Conservatives to the Republican Party?

This is the abstract of a new paper titled "Local Economic and Political Effects of Trade Deals: Evidence from NAFTA", which argues that many "white, less educated voters left the Democratic Party" due to NAFTA: Why have white, less-educated voters left the Democratic Party? We highlight
Simon Lester 17 Mar 2024 3 min read

Guest Post: Back from the WTO MC13 – A brief report and some remarks from four scholars who were in Abu Dhabi

This is a guest post by several people from the Research Chair on New Challenges of Economic Globalization, Laval University, Quebec City, Canada: Carla Gomez, Ph.D. Researcher; Antoine Comont, Ph.D. Researcher; Van Anh Ly, Ph.D., Deputy Director of the Research Chair on New Challenges of Economic Globalization;
Simon Lester 11 Mar 2024 10 min read

Let Them Eat Cake? Reflections on the Labor Provisions in the New India-EFTA Agreement

I’ve never understood the expression: they want to have their cake and eat it too. Who on this planet wants to hold onto a piece of cake and not eat it?!? I was at a birthday party this weekend, and my 5-year-old asked me to hold his plate of
Desiree LeClercq 10 Mar 2024 4 min read

Mexico Invokes Public Morals, Exhaustible Natural Resources, Indigenous Peoples Exceptions in GE Corn USMCA Dispute

Mexico's initial written submission in the GE Corn USMCA dispute was recently posted. The English public version is here. There's a lot in there and I'm not going to go through it all in this post. I just thought it was worth noting quickly
Simon Lester 09 Mar 2024 4 min read

Resolving the Biden Administration's Internal Debate on International Digital Rules, and Reengaging in Negotiations

I've already made these points for the trade policy crowd, but I have now tried to make my pitch on a way forward for the Biden administration on international digital trade rules slightly more accessible (i.e., without so many blockquotes of international legal texts!). Below are some
Simon Lester 07 Mar 2024 3 min read

Katherine Tai on USMCA Dispute Settlement and the USMCA Six Year Review

At a Brookings event yesterday, Josh Meltzer of Brookings had some interesting exchanges with U.S. Trade Rep. Katherine Tai on USMCA dispute settlement and the USMCA six year review. Here's the one on dispute settlement: Meltzer: What I'd like to do is ask you a
Simon Lester 07 Mar 2024 8 min read

Conversations at WTO Ministerial Side Events: Subsidy Races and Trade Remedies

As part of the WTO Ministerial Conference last week, there were some side events going on. I was watching one called "Business Forum at MC13" and came across some interesting discussion of subsidy races and trade remedies. The question that kicked off the subsidy race discussion was about
Simon Lester 03 Mar 2024 3 min read

The Role of WTO Case Law in a USMCA RRLM Proceeding

Here is an interesting exchange from last week's hearing in the USMCA San Martín mine labor dispute about the role of WTO case law in interpreting the USMCA provisions at issue: Panelist: Mexico raised the question that the United States has not provided any legal authorities for its
Simon Lester 03 Mar 2024 2 min read

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International Economic Law and Policy Blog

International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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Featured

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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