In the comments, Susan Aaronson says: The WTO does not cover labor standards explicitly, but policymakers who are concerned about the trade spillovers of China’s labor laws have leverage on China. China recently reformed its labor laws, and it did so in a transparent accountable manner at the national

I've always thought that, in theory, import safety and global trade rules shouldn't come into conflict, and that many of the suggestions to the effect that WTO rules restrict what governments can do are exaggerated.  On the other hand, in practice, things can be more complicated,

Not by me.  I've tried predicting things before on this blog, without much success.  But trade lawyer Scott Lincicome is willing to give it a shot.  Here are his predictions (for his rationale for each one, check his blog here): Low Hanging Fruit (1) The WTO's

This reminds me a bit of the Brazil - Retreaded Tyres case: Mexico will limit imports of inefficient used cars ... the energy ministry said on Tuesday. ... Stakeholders in the domestic auto market have long lobbied for limits to be placed on the import of older used cars from the United

Trade in services is central to many of the new issues on the trade policy agenda. Policy on trade in services exists in the space between traditional trade negotiations and, among other things, a range of relatively new investment-related measures and labor migration policy. Inadequate conceptualization appears, however, to limit

As Joel noted, over at Opinio Juris, they are discussing  the new book by Greg Shaffer and Mark Pollack, When Cooperation Fails: The International Law and Politics of Genetically Modified Foods (Oxford, 2009).  Greg and Mark introduce the book as follows:As its title suggests, When Cooperation Fails has two