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2010 SIEL/CUP Prize for an Essay in International Economic Law

<o:p></o:p> A prize has been established by the Society of International Economic Law and Cambridge University Press for the best essay submitted on any topic in any field of international economic law. The competition is open to all current undergraduate and graduate students
Lorand Bartels 17 Feb 2010 1 min read

Exclusive Rights, Monopoly Profits and Price Controls

Joel had a post a while back where he wondered if there is "anything in TRIPS that would restrict the ability of a state to set price controls on patented pharmaceutical products."  He doubted there was. I was thinking about this issue recently, and while he is probably
Simon Lester 15 Feb 2010 2 min read

In Defense of Child Labor

From economist Steven Landsburg: As any historian could tell you, no society has every pulled itself out of poverty without putting its children to work. Back in the early 19th century, when Americans were as poor as Bangladeshis are now, we were sending out children to work at about the
Simon Lester 15 Feb 2010 1 min read

The Seal Protests Begin

Not sure why I'm on this email list, but here's a message I just received from "Free Trade Kills Animals": ANIMAL CRUELTY OLYMPICS: As Winter Games Begin in Vancouver, Activists Dressed as Canadian & Norwegian Prime Ministers, WTO General Secretary Club "Baby Seals&
Simon Lester 12 Feb 2010 1 min read

More on Gender Discrimination Through Tariffs

Following up on this post, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has upheld the decision of the Court of International Trade rejecting a claim that imposing different tariffs on men's and women's gloves violates the Equal Protection Clause.  Lawrence Friedman of the Customs Law
Simon Lester 12 Feb 2010 2 min read

"Procedural Fairness" as a WTO Principle

From a speech by Pascal Lamy on the Government Procurement Agreement: The GPA is a paradigm example of a trade opening instrument that also recognizes the need for governance mechanisms — in this case, the procedural rules that Parties to the Agreement must follow to ensure fair and transparent contracting practices
Simon Lester 12 Feb 2010 1 min read

Who Is Most Hurt by the Yuan's Value?

According to Arvind Subramanian, the biggest harm from the undervalued yuan is to developing countries: .. an undervalued exchange rate is above all a protectionist trade policy, because it is the combination of an import tariff and an export subsidy. It follows therefore that the real victims of this policy are
Simon Lester 12 Feb 2010 1 min read

The Conflicts Inherent in State-Ownership of Industry

From an op-ed by Dan Ikenson of the Cato Institute: When he urged Americans to "stop driving" their Toyotas last week, was Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood speaking as the head of a federal agency concerned with highway safety or as a sales advocate for a nationalized General Motors?
Simon Lester 12 Feb 2010 1 min read

Obama on Trade: The Latest

From a soon to be published interview with Bloomberg BusinessWeek: In an effort to make U.S. exports more attractive, Obama set a year-end objective for persuading China to allow the value of its currency to rise. “My goal over the course of the next year is for China to
Simon Lester 11 Feb 2010 1 min read

“Free Trade Doesn’t Work”

That’s the title of a new book by Ian Fletcher.  (I came across it as a sponsored link in a Google search.)  There are a number of different reasons people criticize free trade, so I was curious to see what exactly he had in mind.  I asked him for
Simon Lester 10 Feb 2010 7 min read

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International Economic Law and Policy Blog

International Economic Law and Policy Blog

Expert commentary on the law, politics and economics of international trade and investment

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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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