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Investment Treaty Empiricism

Over at Opinio Juris, Susan Franck talks about empiricism and international law, with a focus on investment treaty decisions, noting the differences between the rhetoric and the reality of investment treaty decisions.  David Zaring offers some comments.
Simon Lester 03 Jul 2008 1 min read

New Paper: "Currency Manipulation" and World Trade

Robert Staiger and Alan Sykes have a new Working Paper on "'Currency Manipulation' and World Trade."  Here's the abstract: Central bank intervention in foreign exchange markets may, under some conditions, stimulate exports and retard imports. In the past few years, this issue has moved
Simon Lester 02 Jul 2008 3 min read

Strong Words from Bhagwati about Preferential Trade

From his new book: The Pandemic of PTAs There is yet another irony. The interwar proliferation of preferences was a result of an uncoordinated pursuit of protectionism, itself aided by the breakdown of financial stability and macroeconomic equilibrium in the world economy. But the current tide of preferences has been
Simon Lester 02 Jul 2008 1 min read

Domestic Tap Water Versus Imported Bottled Water

From AFP: A debate over water is boiling over in the United States and elsewhere amid growing environmental concerns about bottled water and questions about safety of tap water. While largely symbolic, the vote highlighted a growing movement opposing regular use of bottled water because of its plastic waste and
Simon Lester 01 Jul 2008 1 min read

Coming Soon: The China - Auto Parts Decision

Let's say a country has bound a 10% tariff duty on auto parts, but a 25% duty on automobiles.  To reduce the amount of duties paid, foreign companies have an incentive to export parts rather than completed automobiles.  The parts can then be assembled into finished automobiles after
Simon Lester 30 Jun 2008 1 min read

Call for Papers: Georgetown Journal of International Law

A Call for Papers:We welcome submissions that cover current developments in international trade law. Articles may include issues concerning the U.S. Court of International Trade, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the U.S. Department of Commerce, the U.S. International Trade Commission, regional
Simon Lester 30 Jun 2008 1 min read

Is Trade Skepticism on the Rise?

Perhaps, but it has a long history, as shown by this AEI paper that looks at public responses to trade-related polling over time.  Here's one illustration: Do you think it should be the policy of the United States to restrict foreign imports into this country in order to
Simon Lester 29 Jun 2008 1 min read

Trade in Everything: Supermodels and Nobel Laureates

From an Economist article about a proposed U.S. law to give more work visas to fashion models: The visas for models bill is still far from becoming reality, and comprehensive immigration reform is a distant dream. Luckily though, supermodels like Gisele Bündchen are in the clear. They are eligible
Simon Lester 27 Jun 2008 1 min read

Another Trade Law Job

VACANCY JUNIOR LEGAL RESEARCHER International Economic Law The Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies and the Institute for International Law of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven are looking for a full-time junior legal researcher for an interdisciplinary research project on the relationship between Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Human Development funded
Simon Lester 26 Jun 2008 1 min read

Obama on NAFTA in Fortune

There's an upcoming piece on Obama in Fortune magazine, where he talks about trade issues. Here are some snippets about it on Fortune's web site.  Fortune characterizes his views as "NAFTA not so bad after all."  A lot of people are talking about it
Simon Lester 26 Jun 2008 2 min read

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International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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Could Congress Extend the USMCA for Another Term?

People have been assuming that the decision on whether to extend the USMCA for another term is up to President Trump, but based on the language of the USMCA related to the upcoming joint review, could Congress actually have the power to make this decision on its own?
04 May 2026 4 min read

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

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