In his latest Trade Talks podcast, my friend Chad Bown has covered a topic that he and I have discussed several times: What is the economic purpose of the GATT/WTO? I assume he knew his podcast would generate a reaction... Continue reading

When I say "another" in the title, I mean that in two senses: a second USMCA Canada - Dairy TRQs panel brought by the U.S.; and another one to complement the one recently brought by New Zealand under the CPTPP.... Continue reading

This is a guest post from Victor Crochet, Trade lawyer and PhD student at Cambridge University In response to the United States of America (“US”) Inflation Reduction Act and regained interest in industrial policies, the European Union (“EU”) recently announced... Continue reading

As noted on the blog here, in May 2022 New Zealand filed the first ever CPTPP consultations request, relating to Canadian measures "concerning the allocation of dairy tariff rate quotas (TRQs) under CPTPP (dairy TRQ allocation measures)." A panel request... Continue reading

There seems to be a bit of momentum with the MPIA these days. There was the recently issued Colombia - Frozen Fries award, which MPIA Arbitrator Joost Pauwelyn told us about. And now Japan is joining the arrangement, as METI... Continue reading

Rob Atkinson was nice enough to respond to my post on manufacturing and trade balances. I have thoughts on a lot of the points he made, but to keep the debate as simple and clear as possible, I'm going to... Continue reading

This is a response from Rob Atkinson of ITIF to my post on Manufacturing and Trade Balances: Recently Simon Lester and I got in a Twitter debate about the importance of the trade deficit and manufacturing. Interesting as far as... Continue reading

Recently, I tweeted this about the trade balance: Ro Khanna's Twitter bio says "Trade surplus again." I wish people would think more deeply about the trade balance. Here are some good pieces to read: https://cato.org/blog/trade-deficit-disorder… https://cato.org/testimony/americas-misunderstood-trade-deficit… https://cato.org/free-trade-bulletin/bad-news-trade-deficit-often-means-good-news-economy My basic point... Continue reading

Precedent in trade law is a hot topic these days. Jeffrey Kucik, Lauren Peritz, and Sergio Puig have a new article out called "Legalization and Compliance: How Judicial Activity Undercuts the Global Trade Regime." This is the abstract: The crisis... Continue reading

At last Friday's DSB meeting, the U.S. had some positive things to say about how the MPIA arbitrators in the Colombia - Frozen Fries dispute handled the issue of the AD Agreement Article 17.6(ii) legal standard of review: - The... Continue reading

At today's DSB meeting, in the context of the consideration of the U.S. - Steel/Aluminum and U.S. Origin Marking panel reports, the U.S. offered the following explanation of why it was appealing the reports into the void, as well as... Continue reading

Here is something U.S. Trade Rep. Katherine Tai said at a World Economic Forum event last week: So I think that whether it's in the world of goods trade, or services trade, or digital trade, part of what we are... Continue reading

This is from the SIEL: Please note that we have extended the deadline for the submission of paper, panel and poster proposals for SIEL 2023 until 1 February 2023. You can find the revised Call for Papers, Panels and Posters... Continue reading

The panel report in the USMCA Chapter 31 auto rules of origin dispute was circulated today (our WorldTradeLaw.net Chapter 31 panel reports page is here). Based on a quick skim, the panel's findings seemed reasonable to me, but I may... Continue reading

At a CFR event in December, Christina Davis of Harvard asked U.S. Trade Rep. Katherine Tai the following question about the WTO panel ruling on the Section 232 steel and aluminum duties: I'd like to ask about your response to... Continue reading

This is a guest post by law professor Geraldo Vidigal. A revised version of this post will appear in the next issue of Legal Issues of Economic Integration. Introduction The year 2022 was a paradoxical one for global trade governance.... Continue reading

This is from the Colombia - Frozen Fries MPIA Award issued today: 4.2. The Arbitrators take due note of paragraph 12 of the Agreed Procedures, which mandates that the Award in this Arbitration be issued within 90 days of the... Continue reading

The first MPIA Award, in the Colombia - Frozen Fries disputes, was circulated today. In a previous blog post on this dispute, I had some uncertainty about whether the arbitrators would say anything about the AD Agreement Article 17.6(ii) legal... Continue reading

Like many people, I have some questions about U.S. trade policy these days. I don't know if asking them publicly like this will get U.S. trade officials to answer, but it can't hurt to try! Here are four areas where... Continue reading

This is from Luca Rubini: DIEcon, the Interest Group on International Economic Law of the Italian Society of International and EU Law (SIDI), together with Professors Pia Acconci and Maria Rosaria Mauro, launches the Call for Papers “A Sustainable International... Continue reading

At an EXIM bank event yesterday, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said the following about the proposed Global Arrangement on Sustainable Steel and Aluminum: And the concept would be for the US and the EU to join our markets, and... Continue reading

Four separate WTO panel reports related to the U.S. Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum were circulated on Friday, in complaints brought by China, Norway, Switzerland, and Turkiye. Here are some questions I had about these disputes. What will... Continue reading

I assume most readers of this blog will already understand what I'm about to say, but I'm writing it because I see a bit of confusion in the public discussion of issues surrounding the Inflation Reduction Act's electric vehicle tax... Continue reading

Last week, Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves made some remarks on "Modern Industrial Strategy for U.S. Competitiveness, Equity, and Resilience." In his remarks, Graves explained how the Biden administration was providing direct subsidies and other government support to promote... Continue reading

When the Colombia - Frozen Fries MPIA appeal started up, I noted that "most of the issues are pretty basic anti-dumping ones, but there is a possibility of an important systemic issue coming up," as "[t]he panel report gets into... Continue reading