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Conference: The UK’s Accession to CPTPP: Legal and Policy Issues

Lorand Bartels sent along this notice of a CPTPP conference: The Lauterpacht Centre for International Law at the University of Cambridge is holding a conference on ‘The UK’s Accession to CPTPP’ on 1 December 2023, covering legal, policy, and geostrategic issues. Details and registration: https://www.lcil.cam.ac.
Simon Lester 11 Nov 2023 1 min read

Understanding the "Progressive Nationalist" View of Trade and International Economic Policy

I don't think it will come as a shock to anyone to hear that people who write about politics and policy often have an ideological agenda. (And yes, I confess that sometimes I have one! Maybe I should label my posts that have an ideological agenda so as
Simon Lester 08 Nov 2023 8 min read

Is the Foreign Pollution Fee Bill WTO-Compliant?

Senators Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) have introduced the Foreign Pollution Fee bill (S.3198), which would impose a fee on certain carbon-intense imports. A FAQ document for the bill explains how this would work: The legislation imposes a fee on products imported into the U.S. that
Simon Lester 05 Nov 2023 3 min read

The U.S. Changes Its Mind in the WTO E-Commerce Negotiations

The U.S. made headlines last week by withdrawing some proposals it had previously made on specific aspects of the WTO Joint Statement Initiative on E-commerce negotiations. Many pro-trade people were upset by this decision, but for reasons I will explain below, I wasn't as bothered. My first
Simon Lester 30 Oct 2023 3 min read

ISDS Event at Georgetown Law Tomorrow

This is from Georgetown Law's Center on Inclusive Trade and Development: Please join Senator Elizabeth Warren and Nobel laureate Joe Stiglitz on Wednesday, October 25, 1:30-2:30 PM ET for a special event on the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) regime. Georgetown Law’s Center on Inclusive Trade
Simon Lester 24 Oct 2023 1 min read

Political Compromise and Reducing Carbon Emissions

In a new paper, law prof Tim Meyer offers a defense of combining (1) discriminatory regulations such as local content requirements with (2) subsidies to reduce carbon emissions. In the abstract of the paper, he says: Second, like all policies, green trade policies usually pursue multiple objectives. The fact that
Simon Lester 23 Oct 2023 5 min read

The Fifth USMCA Panel

Yesterday, there was a notice posted here about panel composition in the Mexico - GE Corn (USMCA) case, with the following panelists having been appointed: * Christian Häberli, Chair of the panel * Hugo Perezcano Díaz, panelist * Jean E. Kalicki, panelist Kalicki is American and Perezcano Díaz is Mexican, so even though
Simon Lester 20 Oct 2023 1 min read

Katherine Tai on Industrial Policy, the Global Steel and Aluminum Arrangement, and EU Digital Regulation

Last week, U.S. Trade Rep. Katherine Tai spoke at the Center for American Progress. You can watch the whole event here. As I try to do whenever I have time and she says something in the Q & A that intrigues me, I'm going to quote a
Simon Lester 15 Oct 2023 11 min read

A Veritable Worker-Centered Trade Policy

Comments by Steve Charnovitz Docket Number USTR-2023-0004-0003 (Advancing Inclusive, Worker-Centered Trade Policy) 15 June 2023 National trade policy is used to undertake both industrial and foreign policy objectives. Often those objectives will be in tension. In shaping and rebalancing trade policy, governments may consider the impact of trade policy decisions
Charnovitz 04 Oct 2023 4 min read

The Evidence on Trade and Peace

I see a few people questioning the idea that trade promotes peace, and I'm not quite sure what to make of this. Here are two recent examples from ex-Twitter: * This is from Paul Krugman: "Not just strategic relations. People underestimate the role of geopolitical ideas in economic
Simon Lester 04 Oct 2023 3 min read

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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

Guest Post: Are President Trump’s New Section 122 Tariffs Legal?

This is a guest post from Bryan Riley and Joe Bishop-Henchman. Bryan is Director of the Free Trade Initiative at the National Taxpayers Union; Joe is Executive Vice President at the National Taxpayers Union Foundation President Trump has issued new 10% tariffs, shortly after raised to 15%, based on Section
24 Feb 2026 6 min read

Section 122 as a (Partial) Replacement for the IEEPA Tariffs

Apparently, this is the era of dusting off old international economic policy statutes and figuring out what they mean and how they work. After the Supreme Court's ruling today in Learning Resources, holding that "IEEPA does not authorize the President to impose tariffs," we are now
20 Feb 2026 5 min read

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