USTR declines a Section 301 petition related to expropriation: On May 24, 2011, representatives of two individuals—Mauricio Gadala Maria and Carolina Maratos Gadala Maria—filed a petition requesting that the Trade Representative initiate a Section 301 investigation with respect to alleged expropriations without adequate compensation by the Government of

A job advertisement from USTR: The incumbent serves as the Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Trade Policy and Economics. The Office is responsible for managing a staff of professionals engaged in the intra-agency and interagency trade policy coordination.  The Office also provides statistical and economic analytical support for

More on the issue of the aspect of the measure to be examined under Article XX, from last week's DSB meeting: Australia had reservations about the reasoning applied by the Appellate Body in its application of the necessary test under Article 20 of GATT 1994. According to Australia,

From a recent op-ed by USTR Ron Kirk: Tariff levels are generally falling around the world, but U.S. companies still face significant “behind-the-border” barriers, which typically take the form of complex, burdensome regulations and standards. The story of Tuthilltown Spirits of Gardiner, N.Y., illustrates the

In an article entitled The Offsetting Duty Norm and the Simultaneous Application of Countervailing and Antidumping Duties, economist Brian Kelly writes about the economics of overlapping AD/CVD measures.  From the abstract: World Trade Organization (WTO) members have long expressed a norm concerning the trade “remedies” of countervailing (anti-subsidy)

I've heard this argument before, but I've never seen it written up (and thus been able to blog about it).  Here's the text of a draft letter to USTR Ron Kirk, which is being circulated by Congresswoman Linda Sanchez to her House colleagues: ... We