International Economic Law and Policy Blog (Page 420)

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Charnovitz: USTR Advisory Groups Need To Be Improved

The final cross-post from Steve Charnovitz: by Steve Charnovitz Having advisory groups is important for governments and international organizations. Left to themselves, government bureaucrats and international civil servants are often unimaginative and lack good ground-level information. As I have noted in my scholarship over the past decades (see

Danny Bradlow on Foreign Buying of African Land

He has some suggestions over at Vox for how to make sure those selling the land benefit: * Ensure adequate transparency by either following or adopting similar transparency standards to those contained in theExtractive Industry Transparency Initiative; * Ensure that the projects conform to best social and environmental practices by either committing

Russian Worries about Anti-Dumping Actions

From Reuters: Steel makers in Russia, the world's fourth-largest producer, have suffered from a decline in orders from the construction and automotive sectors as the global economic slowdown cuts demand. In response they have boosted exports, though this has led to a growing threat of tariffs and

Charnovitz: USTR Should Devote More Attention to Worker Issues

Cross-post #4 from Steve Charnovitz:by Steve Charnovitz Does USTR care about the workers who produce the goods and services in world trade? There is reason for doubt. In my 34 years of being a USTR-watcher, I have observed that the level of interest in labor, employment, and

More from the World Trade Report 2009

I found a lot of interesting things in the WTO's World Trade Report 2009, released yesterday. Here are a few tidbits. From page 51, questions about the problem of applying safeguards to services: How could the notion of safeguards be extended to the movement of consumers, under mode

Charnovitz: Transparency Chapter of KORUS FTA Is Problematic

A third cross-post by Steve Charnovitz: by Steve Charnovitz The Korea-US Free Trade Agreement (KORUS) is one of the three pending US free trade agreements that have been negotiated and signed, but not yet approved by the United States. Chapter 21 of the KORUS is titled “Transparency” and

WTO Report: Dumping is Good

At least in most cases. From page 67 of the World Trade Report 2009, released today: What are the effects of dumping on the economic welfare of the importing country? Economic theory suggests that, with the possible exception of predatory dumping, all other instances of dumping either increase, or at

Pascal Lamy on "Contingent Protection"

From a speech: We generally think of contingency trade policy as actions available to deal with unanticipated market situations. It is well understood such measures are fundamental to the effectiveness and stability of trade agreements. In their various guises, they can be thought of as safety valves, a form of

Charnovitz: USTR Misleads the Public on the Status of Unimplemented Free Trade Agreements

The second cross-post from Steve Charnovitz blogging at Eyes on Trade: by Steve Charnovitz Although President Obama claims to be for "free and fair" trade, he and his Administration have made no progress in securing the implementation of the three already-negotiated U.S. free trade agreements

Honey Standards and Foreign Competition

Just the other day, USTR Ron Kirk mentioned technical barriers to trade as a focus of future U.S. trade enforcement. He said: The second new tool will take on one of the biggest obstacles our manufacturers face: technical barriers to trade, such as technical regulations and standards that restrict