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Katherine Tai on WTO Complaints against China

U.S. Trade Rep. Katherine Tai had a couple exchanges at last week's Senate Finance Committee hearing in which she suggested that WTO complaints against China had not been effective, and for that reason the Biden administration had moved away from filing these complaints. I disagree with her
Simon Lester 22 Apr 2024 4 min read

Katherine Tai on Trade Policy Pitting Americans against Americans

At a House Ways and Means Committee hearing last week, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said a couple times that she wanted "to stop pitting Americans against Americans" in U.S. trade policy: * "Trade should work for all Americans. Our goal is to stop pitting Americans
Simon Lester 21 Apr 2024 2 min read

Senator Whitehouse and Ambassador Tai Talk About Getting Rid of ISDS

Here's an exchange between Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and U.S. Trade Rep. Katherine Tai at a Senate Finance Committee hearing today (2:32:00): Whitehouse: The other thing I wanted to talk with you about is the loathsome ISDS process. We are not putting ISDS provisions
Simon Lester 17 Apr 2024 2 min read

Subsidies, Overcapacity, and Domestic Demand/Savings

There has been a lot of discussion recently about how Chinese subsidies and other government support has led to industrial overcapacity, which can have a negative impact on the manufacturing sector of other economies. If domestic supply exceeds domestic demand, the Chinese-made products that won't be sold
Simon Lester 14 Apr 2024 5 min read

Free Trade and Peace Sells ... but Who's Buying?

I remain puzzled by some recent statements questioning whether free trade promotes peace. When I read another one in the Boston Review, I thought I was going to have to go through all my old rebuttals again. The article starts off this way: To many today, the idea that free
Simon Lester 07 Apr 2024 4 min read

The Role of the WTO in Planetary Sustainability

The Role of the WTO in Planetary Sustainability Steve Charnovitz 6 April 2024 Promoting planetary sustainability is within the legal competence of all multilateral organizations.  As a result, no international organization is likely to have an exclusive competence to effectuate any major sustainability goal.  A recognition of such overlapping legal
Charnovitz 06 Apr 2024 4 min read

USTR's New Vision for Foreign Trade Barriers

Last week, in the press release for its 2024 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers, USTR said that over the years, the identification of trade barriers in this annual report has strayed from the original purpose of the statute, and that in the 2024 report it was going
Simon Lester 01 Apr 2024 4 min read

Digital Trade Fights: The Case of Korea

In recent years, the U.S. has expressed concerns about digital trade regulation in a number of other countries, with the focus tending to be on the the EU due to its large market and active regulatory efforts (although it sounds like USTR and the European Commission are getting along
Simon Lester 31 Mar 2024 3 min read

Data Flows Obligations and Exceptions in the EU - New Zealand FTA

There's a new FTA digital chapter to analyze, with the EU-New Zealand FTA coming into force soon. Let's take a look at the data flows provisions, with the EU-Japan text in the back of our minds as a comparison. The EU-NZ digital trade
Simon Lester 26 Mar 2024 7 min read

New U.S. AD/CVD Regulations Will Take Into Account Weak Property, IP, Human Rights, Labor, Environmental Protections

In a Proposed Rule issued last year, the U.S. Commerce Department said it would take into account "nonexistent, weak, or ineffective property (including intellectual property), human rights, labor, and environmental protections" in various ways as part of its anti-dumping/countervailing duty calculations (surrogate value selection, § 351.
Simon Lester 25 Mar 2024 5 min read

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Governments Make Their Case Against Section 301 Forced Labor Tariffs

Last month, USTR made a determination in its Section 301 investigation into "Acts, Policies, and Practices of Various Economies Related to the Failure To Impose and Effectively Enforce a Prohibition on the Importation of Goods Produced With Forced Labor."
10 Jul 2026 5 min read

How Should the EU Get Tough with China? Unilateral Action vs. WTO Complaints

I've seen several recent calls for the EU to get tougher in its economic relations with China, along with arguments that it has been too slow to act against the Chinese economic threat.
06 Jul 2026 4 min read

Trump Administration Decides Not To Extend USMCA for Another Term: What Does That Mean Exactly?

Today, as part of the first joint review of the USMCA, the three governments held a virtual meeting.
01 Jul 2026 4 min read

Competing Views of Sovereignty: The Haves vs. The Have Nots in AI (and Steel)

It's interesting to watch how political leaders craft narratives around economic competition that reflect their own country's strengths and weaknesses.
29 Jun 2026 4 min read

A law of many meanings: Exchange Actions under the GATT and IMF

Earlier this week, Simon Lester posted about the EU’s concerns with the undervaluation of the Chinese currency. He situated the recent demands for trade restrictions against a longstanding debate about the function of GATT Article XV:4.
25 Jun 2026 8 min read

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