Two recent articles discuss the legal and political aspects of a U.S. - Taiwan FTA, including the role of China and East Asia generally. Claude Barfield of AEI writes: Turning to the political and strategic background to the proposal for a US-Taiwan FTA, it should first be acknowledged that

According to Australian Trade Minister Warren Truss.  He also said: ... if the Doha round negotiations could not be revived, then differences would move to international courts in coming months. "The lawyers will have a field day," Truss told Reuters in an interview before traveling to Davos, Switzerland. "

There is an interesting ranking of the WTO-citizenship of  member states available from the WTO summer program at the HEI . Guess who's #1? (hint: not Singapore or HK, the usual suspects for die-hard free traders). Several CIS states and middle-eastern states score very high in the ranking, and

There is a panel on trade at Davos, among 229 panels.  But there is also a panel on "The Scent of Success," "Classic Clarets," and "Reveal Your True Colours."  My personal favorite, from a very quick scan:  "Brands:  Today's Gods."

The European Union, Australia, Argentina and Brazil have joined Canada in a complaint against the United States over allegedly illegal  subsidies to American corn growers. Although corn is clearly an agricultural product, it is interesting to note the following comment by Clodoaldo Hugueney, Brazilian ambassador to the WTO: "This

For those who oppose the Iraq war, there is some small consolation if you also oppose farm subsidies: US Agriculture Committee head Tom Harkin says farm subsidies are likely to be reduced, because the Iraq war is becoming a "black hole" in the US Budget. Mr Harkin says

In an op-ed published in the WSJ (here's a version re-published on another site: http://www.truthabouttrade.org/article.asp?id=6820 ), former USTR Robert Zoellick has called for a new trade initiative in the Americas: This year President Bush and the Democratic-led Congress should launch a new

For the few of you who are not regular readers of the Durham, North Carolina based "News & Observer" newspaper, here is a link to an op-ed that my Duke Law colleague Barak Richman and I just wrote on Leonardo DiCaprio's new movie "Blood Diamond&

For those who will be in Brussels on January 23, there is an interesting seminar entitled, "Are developing countries deterred from using the WTO dispute settlement mechanism?"  Here is a link with more info and here is a brief description: The dispute settlement mechanism (DSM) is the backbone