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Reclaiming the WTO’s Practical Mission: A Thought Experiment in WTO Reform

The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the predecessor of the World Trade Organization (WTO), emerged as a postwar response to economic nationalism. Like the United Nations, which sought to prevent another world war, the GATT aimed to avert the kind of trade wars unleashed by the Smoot-Hawley Tariff
Sungjoon Cho 12 Oct 2025 2 min read

Discussing Trade Policy on the Internet

Shifting the IELP blog to a new platform has led me to do a bit of reflection on the past, present, and future of discussing trade policy online. I am vaguely aware that there were Usenet forum discussions in the 1990s, and there may have been good trade policy conversations
Simon Lester 10 Oct 2025 4 min read

Beware the "Securitization" of Trade Policy

In recent years, U.S. trade policy has seen a creeping takeover by "security" concerns. The precise scope of these concerns is unclear, but they appear to cover both the traditional aspects of military-related security as well as the vague and amorphous concept of "economic security."
Simon Lester 06 Oct 2025 4 min read

Call for Candidates (Co-)Editor(s)-in-Chief Journal of International Economic Law (JIEL)

This is from the JIEL: The 5-year term of the current Co-Editors-in-Chief of JIEL is ending. We have been charged to facilitate the process of electing the next Editor or Co-Editors-in-Chief.  JIEL is the pre-eminent journal in the field of international economic law, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). We
Simon Lester 03 Oct 2025 1 min read

CPTPP Roster of Panel Chairs

Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is looking for candidates for the roster of CPTPP panel chairs: Expressions of Interest: Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) Roster of Panel Chairs The Australian Government is seeking expressions of interest from suitably qualified individuals to be considered
Simon Lester 02 Oct 2025 1 min read

Guest Post: Putting the “harm” in Pharmaceuticals – evaluating President Trump’s proposal of 100% tariffs

This is a guest post from Simon Schropp (BRG and George Washington University) On Friday, September 25, 2025, President Trump – characteristically in a post on Truth Social – announced his intention to impose a 100% tariff on any branded/patented pharmaceutical products imported into the United States, unless the manufacturer “is
Simon Lester 01 Oct 2025 6 min read

Stephen Miran on Tariffs and National Savings

In a speech earlier this week, Stephen Miran, who had been the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers and is now a member of the Federal Reserve Board, made his case for a looser monetary policy. One aspect of his argument was that he thinks national savings will be
Simon Lester 24 Sep 2025 4 min read

A GOP Tariff Working Group and Post-Trump U.S. Trade Politics

The Hill reported last week that a handful of pro-trade Republicans in Congress used some leverage during a vote about voting on tariffs – it's complicated, check out the details at the link for more! – to get a Republican working group on tariffs established: And [Tom] McClintock [R-CA] said
Simon Lester 21 Sep 2025 4 min read

Guest Post: China – Enforcement of IP Rights: Navigating Different Conceptions of Territoriality in International Intellectual Property Law

This is a guest post from Emmanuel Kolawole Oke, Senior Lecturer at Edinburgh Law School What does it mean to ‘give effect to’ the provisions of the TRIPS Agreement? That is the key question at the centre of the dispute between the EU and China at the WTO regarding anti-suit
Simon Lester 18 Sep 2025 9 min read

Some MPIA Updates

This post is a brief one just to provide a few updates on disputes in which an appeal has been or might be heard by the MPIA arbitrators.
Simon Lester 17 Sep 2025 1 min read

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International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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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.
29 Jan 2026 6 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
23 Jan 2026 3 min read

Can "Geopolitical" Tariffs Be Dealt With through Trade Deals?

Last Friday, U.S. Trade Rep. Jamieson Greer was asked about Trump's initial suggestion of tariffs related to the goal of taking over Greenland
20 Jan 2026 4 min read

Is Foreign Antitrust Enforcement "Discriminatory" and "Anti-American"?

The House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust held a hearing in December on "Anti-American Antitrust: How Foreign Governments Target U.S. Businesses." There was a lot of talk at the hearing about how foreign regulations and regulators "discriminate" against American companies.
05 Jan 2026 5 min read

Pennsylvania Court Finds Mexican Government Guilty of "Discrimination" Due To Its Subsidies

I'm always interested in how courts apply the concept of "discrimination" in the context of international trade, so I've been eagerly awaiting a Pennsylvania court decision in a case against Mexico.
12 Dec 2025 8 min read

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