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The Line Between Discriminatory Measures and Non-Discriminatory Measures that Affect Trade

I want to go back to the Staiger/Sykes paper on Intenational Trade and Domestic Regulation that I mentioned a little while ago.  At the end of the paper, they present a hypothetical set of facts, based (somewhat) on the EC - Hormones case, which I think provides a good
Simon Lester 20 Dec 2009 3 min read

Trade and Income

Over at vox, Pravin Krishna and Mine Z. Senses explain how trade can negatively affect income: In recent research (Krishna and Senses 2009), we have studied a different dimension of the labour market experience and focused on the effect of increased trade on the risk to income (the variance of
Simon Lester 20 Dec 2009 1 min read

Trade in Everything: Christmas Nutcrackers

It's definitely the Christmas season.  Santa yesterday, now a reader points me to this story about nutcrackers: Low-cost imports of nutcrackers pose a risk to the age-old woodcraft of eastern Germany's Erzgebirge region, famous for its Christmas ornaments. The Chinese-made replicas may increasingly look like the
Simon Lester 18 Dec 2009 2 min read

Santa's Trade Violations

According to Patrick Thomas and Tom Barry, he is dumping, not to mention violating IP rules, destroying the environment, using genetically modified reindeer and abusing his labor.
Simon Lester 17 Dec 2009 1 min read

Brower on Investment Disciplines in FTAs

Over at the Kluwer Arbitration blog, Charles Brower II has an excellent post about possibilities for “rebalancing” or “recalibration” of substantive investment disciplines in FTAs, including NAFTA.  Two of the key points are as follows:1.  It's not easy to amend the investment provisions of FTAs.When it
Simon Lester 16 Dec 2009 2 min read

The Tuna-Dolphin Panel

The new Tuna-Dolphin WTO dispute could be trouble for the system, which is bad, but will have some very interesting legal issues, which is good (or fun to follow, anyway).  Among other things, there will be issues related to: (1) choice of forum as between NAFTA and the WTO; (2)
Simon Lester 16 Dec 2009 3 min read

The Bananas Dispute Settlement: Who Wins?

European consumers: Banana prices are set to fall after the longest trade dispute in EU history was settled in Geneva today. Latin American exporters: The change means banana prices in the EU will drop 11 percent while Latin American producers will see exports climb, said Giovanni Anania, a professor at
Simon Lester 15 Dec 2009 1 min read

Financial Contribution to One Entity, Benefit to Another

I can recall talking with a number of people about the issue of whether a subsidy may exist where the financial contribution goes to one entity, but the benefit is to another.  It appears that this issue has come up in the DS379 dispute.  Here's a question from
Simon Lester 15 Dec 2009 3 min read

The Shortest WTO Dispute Written Submission Ever

It's the U.S. first written submission in the U.S. - AD Measures on Carrier Bags (DS383) case, related to zeroing.  It's five paragraphs long.  Here's the fifth and final paragraph: 5. The United States acknowledges the accuracy of Thailand’s description of
Simon Lester 15 Dec 2009 1 min read

Policy Space for Industrialization: How Constraining Is The WTO?

I've blogged about Dani Rodrik and policy space before.   He is now making similar points related to the specific case of China, arguing that China's currency undervaluation is a substitute for the protectionist policies it can no longer undertake as a result of joining the WTO:
Simon Lester 13 Dec 2009 2 min read

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Jamieson Greer on the 30 Year Aberration in U.S. Trade Policy

When he was in Davos last week for the World Economic Forum, U.S. Trade Rep. Jamieson Greer talked a bit about U.S. trade policy history and described a recent period during which, in his view, U.S. trade policy shifted away from tariffs/protectionism and towards free trade.
29 Jan 2026 6 min read

Is this the end of MFN as we know it? The EU submission on WTO reform and the meaning of development

With the release of the EU submission on WTO reform, it has become clear that the MFN principle’s central role within the WTO architecture is under challenge. As a keystone, it risks the entire bridge falling. Even if the foundations are retained but deemed outdated or unusable, and a
23 Jan 2026 3 min read

Can "Geopolitical" Tariffs Be Dealt With through Trade Deals?

Last Friday, U.S. Trade Rep. Jamieson Greer was asked about Trump's initial suggestion of tariffs related to the goal of taking over Greenland
20 Jan 2026 4 min read

Is Foreign Antitrust Enforcement "Discriminatory" and "Anti-American"?

The House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust held a hearing in December on "Anti-American Antitrust: How Foreign Governments Target U.S. Businesses." There was a lot of talk at the hearing about how foreign regulations and regulators "discriminate" against American companies.
05 Jan 2026 5 min read

Pennsylvania Court Finds Mexican Government Guilty of "Discrimination" Due To Its Subsidies

I'm always interested in how courts apply the concept of "discrimination" in the context of international trade, so I've been eagerly awaiting a Pennsylvania court decision in a case against Mexico.
12 Dec 2025 8 min read

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