International Economic Law and Policy Blog (Page 351)

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Update on New Zealand and Investor-State

Is New Zealand re-thinking its opposition to investor-state? This is from Radio New Zealand: The New Zealand Government could be opening itself to being sued by American multinationals in trade talks - contradicting assurances from Prime Minister John Key. A top United States trade official says New Zealand is

Banning Plastic Bags in Stores

The state of Oregon is considering banning plastic bags in retail stores: Oregon lawmakers will consider whether the state should become the first to pass a ban on plastic bags, a measure recycling advocates believe would trigger a domino effect among other states. A bill co-sponsored by two Republicans

The End of the Doha Round: Bhagwati/Sutherland Report

The Report is here. Its title is stark: The Doha Round: Setting a Deadline; Defining a Final Deal. Aside from the fact that the report urges a "realish" deadline of the end of this year, the most striking thing for me was the magnitude of gains from concluding

WTI Postdoc Fellowships

I just received this from WTI: Please find below the links of the Post-doc Research Fellowships description. You will find all information concerning the job description as well as the PDF to download on our website. Please feel free to distribute the link to your networks and personal contacts.

Sausage

The NYT has an interesting op-ed today regarding developments in congressional antics regarding GSP, Trade Adjustment Assistance, Andean Preferences, and the Colombia-US FTA. I won't try to replicate its description of the linkages among these, which remind us of Bismarck's observation that there are

Measuring Trade Flows

In the comments, Susan Aaronson says: In the 1/25 Financial Times, World Trade Organization director-general Pascal Lamy argues that the way we calculate trade flows is inaccurate and is exacerbating tension over imbalances. The problem, he says, is an outdated system that assigns a given good only one

A Better Way to Argue for Free Trade?

In a new Cato Institute paper, Dan Ikenson and Scott Lincicome question the approach taken by many people who argue for free trade, and propose an alternative. They start things off with a critique of the existing pro-trade arguments: ... in an atmosphere where demagogues peddle myths to mislead the

National Treatment in the Renco Investor-State Complaint

And here's the final non-discrimination post of the day. U.S. company Renco Group, on its own behalf and on behalf of its affiliate Doe Run Peru (DRP), has brought an investor-state claim against Peru under the U.S.-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement. The Notice of

Non-Discrimination under GATT Article III:2, first sentence

Here's the third non-discrimination post of the day. Looking over the U.S. responses to the Panel's questions in Philippines - Spirits (DS396/403), it was striking how little discussion of intent/effect issues there was, in comparison with Clove Cigarettes and Tuna, the subject of

National Treatment: Imports from Complainant versus All Imports

For today's non-discrimination post number 2, here's something from the U.S. - Tuna II (DS381) panel's questions to the U.S.: 149. To the United States: You have referred to the treatment afforded to “imported products” under the measures in the context of