International Economic Law and Policy Blog (Page 478)

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The Champagne Cartel

There's always a lot of talk about the OPEC oil cartel, even in the trade context, but what about the French champagne cartel: A looming shortage of the bubbly French wine, spurred by limits on grape production and rising demand in the U.S., Japan, and the U.

Republicans versus Democrats in the WTO Negotiations

Which party is more likely to complete the Doha Round? According to this WSJ story, the Republicans are saying they are: ... the U.S. administration is using rising protectionist sentiment among the Democrat candidates ... to pressure delegates from around the globe to cut deals fast, while Republicans still hold the

"Illegal Subsidies" versus "Legal Inducements"

From a statement by John Edwards to the Iowa Fair Trade Campaign: And our trade deals must include prohibitions against illegal subsidies and currency manipulation and other trade cheating of the sort that is in fact encouraged under most of our current arrangements, to the detriment of American farmers, workers

Trade in Everything (New Year's Eve Edition): (Alleged) Hallucinogens

From the Palm Beach Post: Blame Johnny Depp's dazed bathtub scene in 2001's From Hell for making absinthe popular. Blame the fall of the Berlin Wall for making it available. It was the post-Soviet Czech Republic that gleefully jumped on the absinthe manufacturing bandwagon. The Czech

UN sanctions: are authorizations sufficient? The House of Lords speaks

On 12 December the House of Lords delivered its long-awaited judgment in Al-Jeddah, which is to do with the application of the ECHR to a person detained in a UK detention facility in Iraq. One of the issues concerned the scope of Article 103 of the UN Charter (which states

Paul Krugman on The "Trouble With Trade"

Paul Krugman has not had much to say about trade (that I've seen) in his op-ed columns, but today he writes: For the world economy as a whole — and especially for poorer nations — growing trade between high-wage and low-wage countries is a very good thing. Above all, it

Some Support for a WTO Agreement on Currency Manipulation

I've said before on this blog (see, e.g. here) that WTO rules on exchange rate manipulation would be useful. I didn't have any detailed proposal in mind; it was my gut instinct plus some very basic arguments. Well, now I can cite to some top-notch

The Chinese Film Ban (If It Existed) No Longer Exists

The Chinese film ban, if there was one, is apparently over: China's blackout of Hollywood films has been broken by the Will Smith starrer "The Pursuit of Happyness," which Chinese film import officials now say will be released here in January. ... 'Happiness Knocks at the

Some Exchange Rate Items of Interest

Here are two unrelated items about exchange rates: 1. From Marginal Revolution: Canadian shoppers taking advantage of the parity between the U.S. and Canadian dollars are leaving behind more than cash when the head home. They're leaving behind their old clothes. Some Canadian shoppers wear their new

Trade in Everything: Christmas Trees

Typepad has a nice feature that lets you schedule a post for publication at a later date, so I'm scheduling this for Christmas day. Two items to note: From the FT, "Fir flies as Danish Xmas tree growers charged": Denmark’s Christmas tree growers, the biggest