Benn McGrady says the following about the fair and equitable treatment standard in international investment law: Older cases from the days of diplomatic protection (when a state would bring a claim on behalf of its nationals) suggest that it is very difficult to establish a violation by the host state.

Yesterday the investment chapter of the TPP was leaked to the public. I don't have any particular thoughts on this at the moment (except, how do these things get leaked?), so I'll just quote from some others. Global Trade Watch says: “The outrageous stuff in this

From Australian law professor Matthew Rimmer: The Ukraine would have more chance of winning the UEFA (Union of European Football Association) football competition then they would of winning this WTO action. Is that an accurate assessment? Is he underestimating the chances? Or is that just about right? How do the

From Reuters: Starbucks Corp (SBUX) on Tuesday will debut the first products in a line of U.S.-made mugs and other merchandise that will be sold in its roughly 7,000 U.S. cafes to support domestic manufacturing and raise money for its Create Jobs for USA fund. The

This is from Friday's Shrimp and Saw Blades WTO panel report: 6.7 The United States considers that the quotations to two Appellate Body Reports contained in paragraph 7.29 do not adequately reflect the role that each panel  plays in the dispute settlement process.  The United States

Reuters reports that the Ex-Im bank has been reauthorized. In this context, President Obama said: As long as our global competitors are providing financing for their exports, we've got to do the same. So I'm glad that Congress got this done. It sounds to me

Is there any way for the US not to discriminate against foreign tuna with its dolphin safe labeling laws? In the context of the WTO Tuna decision and possible implementation alternatives, some members of Congress seem to think this will be difficult: The WTO decision, in contrast, would require the

From Rob Howse, who asked me to post this for him: At the May 24 DSB meeting the United States made the following statement concerning implementation of the Cloves ruling: This morning, as provided for in the first sentence of Article 21.3 of the DSU, the United States wishes

There are a number of past GATT/WTO disputes where the issue of the "coercive" nature of the measure was raised. The old tuna/dolphin cases and the shrimp/turtle cases come to mind immediately, and I'm sure there are others. (I haven't done

This is from paragraph 299 of the Tuna report, where the Appellate Body sets out its conclusion on TBT 2.1: We  find, instead, that the US "dolphin-safe" labelling provisions provide "less favourable treatment" to Mexican tuna products than that accorded to tuna products of