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Development Aid: Show Them the Money?

I'm pretty sympathetic to this idea: In the last decade ... the governments of the nations where most of the world’s poorest actually live have begun to turn to an idea that seems radical in its simplicity: Solve poverty and spur development by simply giving out money. In
Simon Lester 19 Jul 2010 1 min read

A Brief History of Subsidies Regulation

With all this recent talk about subsidies, I was happy to stumble accross this excellent paper from former DDG Andy Stoler, "The Evolution of Subsidies Disciplines in GATT and the WTO."  Very informative and useful.
Simon Lester 16 Jul 2010 1 min read

The Aircraft Report: The EU Appeal

The FT reports: The European Union will next week launch an appeal against a World Trade Organisation ruling that found EU members were illegally subsidising Airbus. ... People familiar with the dispute said the EU appeal will focus on alleged export subsidies for the A380, Airbus’s largest jumbo launched in
Simon Lester 16 Jul 2010 1 min read

More on Nicolas Diebold's Non-Discrimination Paper

I want to say a bit more about Nicolas Diebold's SIEL conference paper "Non-Discrimination and the Pillars of International Economic Law – Comparative Analysis and Building Coherency".  I've read it more closely now, and I like it even better than when I first skimmed through
Simon Lester 14 Jul 2010 8 min read

California's High Speed Rail and Foreign Companies

The Economist reports on a California law that may make it hard for certain foreign companies to bid on  high speed rail contracts: LAWMAKERS in California voted unanimously on June 29th to approve a proposed law which would force any company bidding for contracts to build the state’s new
Simon Lester 12 Jul 2010 1 min read

Responses to Anti-Dumping Measures

From BusinessWeek: Beijing blocked imports of soybean oil from Argentina in response to anti-dumping investigations by the South American country on Chinese goods ranging from steel pipes to textiles, according to a state-backed trade group. Isn't this a clear violation of DSU Article 23?  Shouldn't concerns
Simon Lester 11 Jul 2010 1 min read

Is the Aircraft Dispute All About the Threat from China?

From the LA Times: The issues raised by both [WTO Aircraft] cases are important, and together they should help clarify what governments can and cannot do to support the aviation industry. Tougher limits on subsidies would assist both Boeing and Airbus — they can raise capital relatively cheaply to develop new
Simon Lester 11 Jul 2010 1 min read

Krugman on Protectionism

He has been a little unclear at times, but I think this Paul Krugman post, which is about his view that Hayek misunderstood the sources of the Depression, summarizes his (Krugman's) position nicely: Just to be clear, I don’t think the Smoot-Hawley tariff was a good thing
Simon Lester 11 Jul 2010 1 min read

Mankiw on Chinese Currency Issues

From a NY Times article:  What is the trilemma in international finance?  It stems from the fact that, in most nations, economic policy makers would like to achieve these three goals: • Make the country’s economy open to international flows of capital. Capital mobility lets a nation’s citizens diversify
Simon Lester 11 Jul 2010 1 min read

The Aircraft Report: No Balancing of Producer Harm with Benefits to Consumers

I've talked before about whether the harms to domestic producers caused by foreign subsidies might be outweighed by benefits to domestic consumers.  As I said there, even if they are, the distortions to production may mean the subsidies are nevertheless bad for the domestic and global economy.  But
Simon Lester 09 Jul 2010 2 min read

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International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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Is There No Going Back on Trade? What Is the Path Forward? A Response to Lighthizer

Former U.S. Trade Rep. Bob Lighthizer has a new essay in Foreign Affairs, and I have some thoughts. I'm going to start with his brief big picture points on the direction of U.S. trade policy, and then go through a couple of the specific concepts he emphasizes.
27 Apr 2026 6 min read

The Section 301 Excess Capacity Investigation Needs Less Madness, More Method

Shortly after the Supreme Court ruled President Trump’s emergency tariffs under IEEPA  unconstitutional, the administration scrambled to rebuild its tariff wall. While the announcement of Section 122 tariffs immediately following the ruling will provide a temporary patch, the U.S. Trade Representative’s office quickly began to utilize another
24 Apr 2026 6 min read

War Tariffs

This is a co-authored post by Kathleen Claussen and Tim Meyer. Last week, President Trump announced that the United States would be imposing new tariffs of 50 percent of the value of any product coming from any country that sells weapons or provides military aid to Iran. Some commentators questioned
14 Apr 2026 5 min read

USMCA Review and Extension Predictions

When the idea of an expiration clause was suggested during the NAFTA renegotiation, I was against it from the start, and Inu and I wrote a pretty critical piece about it at the time. A review is great, we said, let's definitely have reviews, and there are plenty of ways to do that.
08 Apr 2026 5 min read

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

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