International Economic Law and Policy Blog (Page 44)

International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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USTR Goes Old School in USMCA Complaint on Mexican GE Corn Ban

Back in the 1990s, an important area of the trade policy debate was about how WTO rules might interfere with domestic environmental, food safety, and other public policy measures. There were cases such as Shrimp/Turtle, with a number of countries challenging a U.S. environmental measure; and EC - Hormones,

Security of Steel Capacity – and the Persistence of trade security exceptionalism

In its 2022 WTO Trade Policy Review for the United States (US), China asked the US about its Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminium. Specifically, China asked about the US steel capacity utilisation rate target of 80% in the Steel Report. China asked the US whether it would now

The Supreme Court's Latest Ruling on the Dormant Commerce Clause: More Evidence that People Disagree on the Appropriate Degree of Economic Integration

It has been a while since I've written about a U.S. Supreme Court dormant Commerce Clause case, but the recent National Pork Producers Council v. Ross decision provides a great opportunity to revisit the issue. Steve Charnovitz commented on the decision here. (Here are some other takes:

“Nice” Trade Lawmaking: How Congress Talks With The USTR

Readers will likely recall the exchange between Ambassador Tai and Rep. Greg Murphy during the annual trade policy agenda hearing a few weeks back in which Rep. Murphy said he thought Ambassador Tai was "too nice" to be effective as the USTR. You remember it because it went

Opt Outs, NVNI, or Automatic Rebalancing for National Security Disputes

Veteran U.S. trade lawyers Warren Maruyama and Alan Wolff have a new paper out on "Saving the WTO from the national security exception". In their conclusion, they set out three solutions to the "impasse over justiciability of national security claims": (1) allowing Members to "

Protectionism, Competition, and Corporate Power

Here's something U.S. Trade Rep. Katherine Tai said in a recent interview with PBS: In trade policy, it's something very interesting, and I've seen this happen in competition policy, where the anti-monopoly folks, antitrust people are working. We see in both of

Battle of the Gruyeres

Back in January 2022, I wrote about a U.S. federal court ruling that Gruyere is a generic cheese term, which meant that, despite the protests of the Swiss cheese industry, U.S. producers could make Gruyere cheese and put the word "Gruyere" on the product label in

The Transatlantic Alignment on a Transnational Subsidy

The U.S. Department of Commerce has proposed a new agential interpretation on the countervailability of the so-called “transnational subsidy.” What is a transnational subsidy? Wentong Zheng and I have recently discussed this issue in an article. Here are some relevant excerpts: Suppose that a foreign company (A) from

Warren, Doggett, et al. Letter on Removing ISDS from Existing Agreements

Thirty-three Democratic members of Congress, led by Senator Elizabeth Warren and Congressman Lloyd Doggett, recently sent a letter to U.S. Trade Rep. Katherine Tai and Secretary of State Antony Blinken about ISDS. One point they made in the letter is that ISDS should be removed from existing investment

Pigs and World Trade

Pigs and World Trade 11 May 2023 The decision by the US Supreme Court today in National Pork Producers Council v. Ross has profound implications for international trade. By validating the constitutionality of PPM-based domestic trade restrictions on what belongs in California stores, the Court has prioritized local government