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Update on the Zeroing Negotiations

The Chair of the Negotiating Group on Rules has issued a new working document: http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/rulesneg_e/rules_may08_annexa_e.doc  Of course, I skipped right to the zeroing part. Here's what the Chairman's Text (TN/RL/W/213)
Simon Lester 28 May 2008 3 min read

Justice Kennedy for the Appellate Body?

If we can't stop internal domestic discrimination, how are we ever going to stop it in the international arena?  The recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in Davis v. Kentucky Department of Revenue dealt with the issue of explict tax discrimination against out-of-staters.  As explained on ScotusWiki: At
Simon Lester 27 May 2008 4 min read

The Role of Precedent at the WTO: What the Members Think

From the summary of the DSB meeting where the recent U.S. - Stainless Steel from Mexico case was adopted: There was a debate among members on whether or not panels were obliged to follow AB decisions. Some members argued that prior AB rulings constituted a clear line of jurisprudence
Simon Lester 26 May 2008 1 min read

Protectionism for English Footballers

From the Economist: The [English] Premier League's main source of strength is its financial clout. Since the early 1990s, when stadiums were upgraded and lucrative broadcasting deals agreed upon, the league has become a money-spinner. Foreign investors have poured in (Liverpool and Manchester United are owned by Americans,
Simon Lester 25 May 2008 2 min read

McCain on Other Benefits of Trade Agreements

Trade talk would be much more straightforward if trade agreements were only about trade, but things are never that simple.  Here John McCain points out one of his non-trade reasons for supporting the Colombia FTA: The strategic implications of rejecting this agreement are profound. Colombia is a beacon of hope
Simon Lester 25 May 2008 1 min read

A Final Word on Food Aid and the Farm Bill

Well, maybe not the final word, but one more thing anyway, from a Bloomberg article: Shipments of U.S. food aid took five months to reach Ethiopia during a famine in 1999-2000, arriving after the death toll had reached 20,000, according to Chris Barrett, an economics professor at Cornell
Simon Lester 23 May 2008 1 min read

New Paper on Development and Human Rights under WTO law

Here's a new paper from Gillian Moon of University of New South Wales, entitled "The WTO-Minus Strategy: Development and human rights under WTO law."  The abstract: International trade law, human rights law and development studies share the common objective of promoting higher standards of living in
Simon Lester 23 May 2008 1 min read

Protectionism and Wind Power

From a WSJ blog: We’ve noted before how China’s headlong push into wind power could put pressure on the rest of the global wind industry. Chinese turbines need the same scarce components as the turbines being built and installed in Europe, India, and the U.S. Now that
Simon Lester 22 May 2008 1 min read

Airbus vs. Boeing vs. China

The Economist has an article about how the Chinese are planning to develop aircraft to compete with Airbus and Boeing.  The article noties: Although Boeing huffs and puffs about ensuring that China sticks to WTO rules banning market-distorting subsidies, both it and Airbus are studiously polite about the prospect of
Simon Lester 22 May 2008 1 min read

Judging RTAs in WTO Dispute Settlement

Among the many difficulties with reconciling bilateral/regional trade agreements and the WTO Agreement is which "branch" of the WTO, the Dispute Settlement Body or the Committee on Regional Trade Agreements, should judge the overall consistency of these agreements with WTO rules.  A recent article by Youri Devust
Simon Lester 22 May 2008 1 min read

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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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