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AOC on Foreign Policy and Trade Policy

AOC spoke on a couple panels last week at the Munich Security Conference and also spoke at the Technische Universität Berlin, and this European trip was widely seen as a move to establish some foreign policy credentials for a presidential run.
Simon Lester 17 Feb 2026 12 min read

More on the Trump Administration's Dollar Policy

Last May, I asked, "Does the Trump Administration Want a Strong or a Weak Dollar?" That post was about a House hearing with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and I didn't get an answer to the question posed in the title of my post.
Simon Lester 13 Feb 2026 2 min read

Guest Post: Talk the Talk and Walk the Walk: WTO Panel Rules against the U.S. in US — IRA (China)

This is a guest post from Jingyuan (Joey) Zhou of Chongqing University School of Law Introduction On January 30, 2026, a panel at the World Trade Organization (WTO) handed down another blow to the United States, finding the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (“IRA”) inconsistent with the U.S.’s
Simon Lester 12 Feb 2026 14 min read

Comparing the Enforcement Provisions in the New U.S. Trade Deals

Building on the comparison of trade agreement provisions in my last post, let's take a look at the "enforcement" provisions of the six agreements for which the legal texts have been published.
Simon Lester 11 Feb 2026 4 min read

Comparing the Economic and National Security Provisions in the New U.S. Trade Deals

By my count, we now have the legal texts of five Trump administration trade agreements. Will there be enforcement actions under these agreements?
Simon Lester 09 Feb 2026 5 min read

Joost Pauwelyn on Politics and Law in the World Trading System

Joost has a new paper for the Hinrich Foundation that, he says, applies the framework of his 2005 Transformation of World Trade piece to "today's moribund WTO."
Simon Lester 05 Feb 2026 5 min read

Peter Harrell on "Upending World Trade"

Peter Harrell, formerly of the Biden administration and now at Georgetown Law, has a new Foreign Affairs piece called "The Case for Upending World Trade: How Trump’s Vision Echoes America’s Traditional Approach." In the piece, Peter makes several points that I want to respond to.
Simon Lester 03 Feb 2026 4 min read

Jamieson Greer on the 30 Year Aberration in U.S. Trade Policy

When he was in Davos last week for the World Economic Forum, U.S. Trade Rep. Jamieson Greer talked a bit about U.S. trade policy history and described a recent period during which, in his view, U.S. trade policy shifted away from tariffs/protectionism and towards free trade.
Simon Lester 29 Jan 2026 6 min read

Why Haven't the Tariffs Had More Impact on the Economy?

Dan Drezner recently noted the following in relation to why the Trump tariffs haven't had a more negative impact on the U.S. economy: What about the overall effect of Trump’s tariffs on the U.S. economy? As to that question, a separate Ana Swanson story provides
Simon Lester 27 Jan 2026 2 min read

Is this the end of MFN as we know it? The EU submission on WTO reform and the meaning of development

With the release of the EU submission on WTO reform, it has become clear that the MFN principle’s central role within the WTO architecture is under challenge. As a keystone, it risks the entire bridge falling. Even if the foundations are retained but deemed outdated or unusable, and a
Mona Paulsen 23 Jan 2026 3 min read

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International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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Trade War Games (Review of How To Win a Trade War)

This blog post will offer a brief review of "How To Win a Trade War," by famous podcasters and think tankers/journalists Chad Bown and Soumaya Keynes. I wanted to post something in time for their official book launch (which is today), but I only got the book
20 May 2026 8 min read

Tracking Goods Exports under the Trump Administration's Trade Policies

My sense is that one of the reasons some traditionally pro-trade members of Congress have continued to support Trump's trade policies, despite misgivings they may have about tariffs, is because they hope these policies will pry open foreign markets, leading to increased US exports.
07 May 2026 8 min read

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

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