Canada and the EU are having some trouble, apparently: A set of leaked documents obtained by The Canadian Press show Canada and the European Union are still far apart in deciding how much power investors should have under their pending free-trade agreement. A Feb. 7 draft of the investment

This NY Times article about Iceland's geothermal energy is fascinating from a trade and investment perspetive. Basically, Iceland has lots of cheap, clean geothermal energy.  They currently use it to attract investment.  And they may lay a long cable so that they can export it: the power company

Inside U.S. Trade reports that some agriculture groups are upset with the idea of creating a special exception for tobacco products in the TPP, as has been proposed, because of the precedent it might set in other policy areas.  They argue: unlike health-related exceptions consistently included in trade

From my friends at the JIEL: Editorial Assistant Position with the Journal of International Economic Law (JIEL) Professor John H. Jackson, University Professor of Law at Georgetown Law Center, is currently collecting recommendations or applications from persons who might wish to take on the position of Editorial Assistant to the

Many people (or at least, many holders of intellectual property and their advocates) are concerned about how Antigua might use cross-retaliation under TRIPS, in relation to the U.S. - Gambling case, to steal U.S. intellectual property. I still haven't heard anything concrete about what Antigua is

Here's a guest post by frequent commenter Aaron Cosbey of IISD, on a potentially very interesting SPS dispute: In a letter sent Feb. 19 to Ron Kirk, USTR, thirty-three US senators urged him to use “all enforcement tools available” to address Russia’s recent “ban” on US

Before getting into the substance of the Seal Products dispute, let me take this opportunity to thank Rob for all of his reporting on the panel meetings.  I don't think I've ever come across such a detailed analysis of this part of the panel process.  I

Beginning with this post, a few further observations on the hearings, as I review my notes on the plane home. One of the mantras repeated by the complainants is that the indigenous exception is discriminatory because it crates a closed list of countries that can benefit from the exception.  The

Another interesting aspect of day two was that Norway began to break ranks with Canada, claiming that the practices depicted in the EU's videos of the Canadian Hunt would not be tolerated by Norway, what the hunt is under constant inspection.  But the EU pointed to the limited

The day began with the panel hearing from Third Parties. I had been eagerly anticipating Russia’s debut in WTO litigation but it didn’t happen.  Even though Russia pursued and attained Third Party status late in the game, and was present in the room during the hearing, they stayed