International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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Trade and Competition

13 posts

A Few Thoughts on Antitrust and Big Tech

I'm no antitrust expert, but I do have some opinions on it, and I'm going to offer a few of them in this post. As an intro, I want to mention a speech by Notre Dame law professor Roger Alford -- whose Opinio Juris blog posts

Whither the Worker-Centered Trade Policy?

The Biden administration changed U.S. trade policy significantly when it adopted a “worker-centered” trade policy that justified entering into “frameworks” and not trade agreements. That policy didn’t win many accolades from the trade crowd. Many critics felt that it forewent critical opportunities by refusing to discuss market access

Katherine Tai on Trade and Antitrust

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai spoke today at a conference on "Antitrust, Regulation and the Next World Order." She had the following to say about the connection between trade policy and antitrust policy: A lot of the change vectors that we are grappling with in trade are

Financial University Organizes Conference on Russia and the WTO

On 19-20 May 2015, the Financial University of the Russian Federation held its first international conference on the topic of "WTO Law in the Legal System of the Russian Federation: Problems of Application and Teaching." To my knowledge, this was the first international legal conference held to address

Soaring Prices and Access to Vaccines: A New Mission for WTO TRIPS flexibilities?

A must-read article that appeared in the New York Times a couple of days ago nyti.ms/1t8ugtz details the soaring cost of vaccines and the potentially disastrous public health consequences (some of which are already being felt). This seems an ideal case for compulsory licensing. I would note that

The Single Entity Theory of Sports Leagues

From the NY Times: Is the National Football League a single entity, or a collection of 32 teams that compete against one another every week? The question forms the core of an antitrust case that will be heard by the United States Supreme Court next week. How the court rules

Daniel Sokol on Trade, Competiton and the WTO

Daniel Sokol has posted "Limiting Anti-Competitive Government Interventions that Benefit Special Interests" on SSRN. From the abstract: When government regulates, it may either intentionally or unintentionally generate restraints that reduce competition (“public restraints”). Public restraints allow a business to cloak its action in government authority and to immunize

Is the Intel Verdict Protectionist?

Some people say yes: American technology advocates and legal experts have roundly condemned the EU's decision to fine Intel nearly a billion pounds for breaking anti-trust laws. Grant Aldonas, Senior Advisor at the bipartisan Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), says, "This is a potentially costly

Chinese Price Fixing

The Wall Street Journal reports on a civil antitrust complaint accusing four Chinese vitamin makers of price fixing. China's Ministry of Commerce got involved in the case, putting forward a defense of sovereign immunity: In its filings and oral arguments, the ministry broadly asserted sovereign immunity in its

More on International Antitrust and Pro Sports Leagues

It's probably clear to regular readers by now that I like sports. I work sports issues into this blog whenever I can find a conceivable connection to IEL. I recently came across two more such issues, both related to international aspects of antitrust, although it has taken me