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TLAs

Many of us in the trade cognoscenti toss about acronyms with abandon.  It can be deeply frustrating to students and others.  But here comes a web-based solution:  http://www.acronymfinder.com/.  Give it a try.  My first try was SPS--not very successful.  TBT did a lot better.  Oh, and a
Trachtman 24 Aug 2007 1 min read

Who are the International Judges?

Over at the Conglomerate, David Zaring identifies "which American arbitrators are most likely to handle ICSID disputes": Charles Brower is our iron man, with 6 concluded and 6  pending arbitrations under his belt. He is an emeritus White & Case partner. Michael Reisman (Yale, 4 pending)), and Andreas
Simon Lester 23 Aug 2007 1 min read

Unilateral Tariff Reduction

Writing in Foreign Policy (subscription required, I think), Moisés Naím says: China, India, the former Soviet Union, and many other countries launched major reforms that deepened their integration into the world’s economy. In developing countries alone, import tariffs dropped from an average of around 30 percent in the 1980s
Simon Lester 22 Aug 2007 1 min read

North American Union or North American Cooperation?

Should those concerned with sovereignty be worried about a powerful, sovereignty-impinging "North American Union," as some groups apparently are, emerging from the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), which provides a framework for cooperation between Canada, Mexico and the U.S.? Over at Opinio Juris, Julian Ku is not
Simon Lester 21 Aug 2007 1 min read

Introducing the Society of International Economic Law

August 17, 2007 Press Release The Society of International Economic Law: Inaugural Conference, July 15-17, 2008 Members of the international economic law community have created a new organisation called the Society of International Economic Law (SIEL). The organisation will foster co-ordination, collaboration and debate between International Economic Law (IEL) scholars
Simon Lester 17 Aug 2007 1 min read

Chinese Imports and the U.S. Presidential Campaign

As a trade lawyer, it's exciting for me to see GATT Article XX invoked, implicitly anyway, in the U.S. Presidential campaign: Presidential Candidate Chris Dodd called for suspending all imports of toys and food from China  ... "This is an issue of safety," said Dodd. "
Simon Lester 15 Aug 2007 1 min read

WTO Law in Domestic Law: The Novartis Case

The status of WTO law in domestic law varies a bit from country to country, and is sometimes not very clear.  The recent Indian court decision in the Novartis case was interesting, as the court basically said that any consideration of consistency of Indian law with the TRIPS Agreement should
Simon Lester 09 Aug 2007 4 min read

"Social and Developmental Safeguards"

The always interesting Dani Rodrik proposes the following: A broadened safeguard agreement—call it an agreement on social and developmental safeguards—would enable countries to opt out from their international obligations under specified circumstances. The process for obtaining such an exemption would be a domestic one, as in the case
Simon Lester 06 Aug 2007 1 min read

From Dolphins to Turtles to Seals: The Next Trade and the Environment Dispute

Bloomberg reports: Canada filed a complaint against Belgium at the World Trade Organization, in an effort to reverse the European Union country's ban on seal products. ... ``This government believes that the Belgian ban on the importation and marketing of seal products is a violation of Belgium's
Simon Lester 31 Jul 2007 1 min read

The DS316 Aircraft Panel Hearing

Following-up on Roger Alford's post over at Opinio Juris and Tomer's post on this blog, the WTO panel hearing on one part of the Aircraft dispute (DS316, involving alleged subsides to Airbus) took place last week.  As Roger and Tomer noted, the hearing was transparent to
Simon Lester 29 Jul 2007 5 min read

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International Economic Law and Policy Blog

International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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Featured

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