The Australian government has posted a response to the Philip Morris notice of arbitration in the Plain Packaging BIT claim.  In addition to a brief discussion of substantive issues, Australia has offered some jurisdictional arguments: 29. The Australian Government objects to the jurisdiction of the arbitral tribunal (by way of

From the NY Times: The Justice Department has reversed its long-held opposition to many forms of Internet gambling, removing a big legal obstacle for states that want to sanction online gambling to help fix their budget deficits. Although the opinion dealt specifically with lottery tickets, it opened the door

From today's Philippines - Spirits decision: 119. While in the determination of "likeness" a panel may logically start from the physical characteristics of the products, none of the criteria that a panel considers necessarily has an overarching role in the determination of "likeness" under Article

Christian Tietje and Karsten Nowrot have posted a short policy paper discussing the legal issues surrounding the treatment of China as an NME.  Here's an excerpt: In light of these findings, it thus appears – at least from a theoretical legal perspective – in principle very well admissible that some

From The Globe and Mail: Russia and two of its neighbours have informed the World Trade Organization that they are banning the import and export of harp seal pelts – a move that animal-rights activists are celebrating as the death knell of Canada’s commercial seal industry. Russia has been

In addition to explaining the history of the case and the issue in general, Scott comments on the impact of yesterday's GPX decision: So what happens to all of these CVD orders and investigations?  Well, it seems somewhat likely that Commerce and/or the domestic industry will appeal

From the GPX opinion by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, released today: In this consolidated countervailing duty case, the U.S. Court of International Trade (“Trade Court”) ordered the U.S. Department of Commerce (“Commerce”) not to impose countervailing duties on goods from China, a

From a statement (Word doc) by Antigua at the Ministerial Conference plenary session: The question of dispute settlement brings me to an issue that, along with the case of cotton, highlights inappropriate dispute settlement results at the WTO that have the potential to undermine the credibility of the organization. Antigua

From WTO DG Pascal Lamy's opening statement at the Ministerial Conference: ... We also need to look at the real drivers of today’s and tomorrow’s world trade, at today’s and tomorrow’s obstacles to trade, at today’s and tomorrow’s trade patterns, at how to

From a statement (Word doc) by Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Venezuela at the WTO Ministerial: 5.    Trade is a tool and not an end in itself.  The Preamble to the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization, which lays down the general objectives of the multilateral trading system, confirms