During the U.S.-China meetings last week, one of the key topics was AI, and a "Dialogue" was established as part of this. But many people want broader U.S.-China cooperation on AI, with a few calling for an AI treaty of some sort. What are

A couple weeks ago, the U.S. International Trade Commission asked for public comments on implementing Section 338.

Last week, I had the distinct honour of participating in the plenary session that launched the WTO World Trade Report for 2026. You can check out the recording. In the week prior, WTO Chief Economist Bob Staiger asked all of us speaking to prepare a quick answer in the final

Romania’s Law No. 163/2021, the constitutionality of which is currently being challenged in the Constitutional Court of Romania, offers an instructive case study of a broader and increasingly important question

Assessing the WTO Consistency of 5G Security Legislation_A Case Study of Romania’s Law No. 163-2021_Peter Van den Bossche_September 2026Assessing the WTO Consistency of 5G Security Legislation_A Case Study of Romania’s Law No. 163-2021_Peter Van den Bossche_September 2026.

At the Ministerial Conference held in March this year, 67 WTO Members participating in the negotiations for the Agreement on Electronic Commerce (ECA) issued a “Declaration on Interim Arrangements for the Agreement on Electronic Commerce”.

In a recent article, Jake Sullivan makes the case for continuing on with the Biden administration's economic policies, arguing for an even broader and more comprehensive industrial policy than what we saw under Biden.

I'm not totally sure what triggered the recent escalation in trade conflict between Canada and the U.S. As of June, things seemed to be muddling along well enough, with the focus on whether the USMCA would be renewed for another term and what that might look like for Canada-U.S. trade.

From the ANZSIL International Economic Law Interest Group (IELIG):The ANZSIL International Economic Law Interest Group (IELIG) was established in 2011 to provide a forum for those interested in international economic law, especially international regulation of trade, investment, intellectual property, and monetary law. The work of the Interest Group covers

We don't get much reporting on the behind the scenes details of AD/CVD calculations, but Politico had an article recently about how U.S. Commerce Department officials were trying to keep these duties down (yes, down – that's not a typo!)

In mid-July, Colombia submitted a communication for discussion in the TRIPS Council entitled "A Better Trip: Autonomous Examination TRIPS Prerogatives, and Existing Examples."

In the context of a House Committee on Rules discussion on Monday of Republican-sponsored H. Res. 1490 – Providing for the condemnation and denouncement of socialism in all its form, and for other purposes, there was the following exchange between Rep. Joe Neguse (D-CO) and Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI).

This is a guest post from Yoshimichi Ishikawa, Associate Professor, University of Shizuoka, Japan In August 2023, China suspended imports of all Japanese aquatic products following the release of ALPS-treated water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. The measure was widely discussed in Japan as an

One of the issues in the Section 301 investigation of Brazil's trade practices relates to Pix, an instant payment platform created and managed by the Central Bank of Brazil.

In two separate instances yesterday, I came across questions about whether the Trump administration feels constrained by the USMCA and other trade agreements.

Americans pay far more for brand-name drugs than Europeans do. For years that was treated as a domestic health problem. The Trump administration has started treating it as a trade problem.

Failure to Reach a Deal Despite intensive negotiations from August 19-21, 2026, Canada and the United States failed to reach an agreement that would have suspended the 50% tariffs the U.S. threatened a month ago on $20 billion worth of Canadian exports to the U.S. (The list

Former Biden administration officials Heather Hurlburt and Peter Harrell both offered LinkedIn responses to my post last week about the political prospects for removal of Trump's tariffs by a future president.

During the past several years, the composition of Mexican exports to the United States has significantly changed. Auto and auto parts exports have decreased because of high Trump administration tariffs designed to shift production for the U.S. market from Mexico (and Canada) to the United States.

Back in May, I posted about how U.S. goods exports were doing under Trump's trade policies. In this post, I'm going to provide an update based on 3 additional months of data, with export data for January - June now covered for the years 2023 - 2026.

The critical issue in any U.S. attempts to enforce against transshipment are the definitions and scope. As Peter Navarro's report accurately states, "Effective enforcement […] requires distinguishing legitimate manufacturing and substantial transformation from pass-through trade and origin shifting." (The Great Transshipment Scam) Given the

Many years ago, I did an April Fools' post about a trade agreement on gun rights. At long last, I have an actual substantive trade and gun rights issue to post about. I don't have any commentary to add here, but I wanted to mention that Eugene

Heather Hurlburt, who was the Chief of Staff for U.S. Trade Rep. Katherine Tai from 2022-2024, recently poured some cold water on the idea that Trump's tariffs might be removed quickly after he is out of office.

If I understand their views correctly, some of the more hawkish voices on China's economic practices see a link between the Chinese government's high level of industrial subsidies, on the one hand, and the low level of consumption by Chinese citizens, on the other.

Todd Tucker, my long-time sparring partner on international economic policy issues, has a new piece with his colleague Elizabeth Wilkins called "How Public Equity Can Promote a Revived American Democracy." It's behind a paywall so I couldn't read it, but when he explained

“I had to store my friend’s dead body in the freezer.” A fisher shared this with me and my colleagues at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) through an interpreter.

One of the many useful things that happens at the WTO is the Trade Policy Reviews carried out for each WTO Member, and Japan's latest review includes some questions/answers on the framework trade agreement with the Trump administration.

The Economist has a piece by a group of economists on trade imbalances, explaining that there is too much focus on the undervalued yuan. In my view, lots of people are getting things on wrong on trade imbalances, and it's nice to see these folks getting things right.

Amidst the flurry of recent tariff news was a USTR notice of action earlier this month in the Section 301 investigation of Brazil’s Acts, Policies, and Practices Related to Digital Trade and Electronic Payment Services; Unfair, Preferential Tariffs; Anti-Corruption Enforcement; Intellectual Property Protection; Ethanol Market Access; and

Recently introduced legislation from Congressman Michael Baumgartner (R-WA) seeks to penalize "foreign officials who weaponize the government to discriminate against American companies" by amending the Immigration and Nationality Act "to make foreign government officials who engage in economic discrimination against U.S. persons inadmissible to, and

This is a guest post by Peter Van den Bossche [1] Chair Professor of International Economic Law, Xi’an Jiaotong University School of Law; former Member and Chair of the WTO Appellate Body; Professor Emeritus of International Economic Law, World Trade Institute, University of Bern; and external legal advisor,

In my post on the Trump administration's invocation of Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930 last week to impose tariffs on certain Canadian imports, I offered some quick thoughts on how broadly "discrimination" in that provision of the statute might be interpreted and applied.

On Thursday, USTR announced its final tariff rates in the Section 301 investigation on forced labor imports. There are a wide range of ideas for how to challenge these tariffs in court, with some ideas broader than others. One broad approach would be to argue that these tariffs are just

This is a guest post by Bashar Malkawi, Legal Counsel at The Government of Dubai Legal Affairs Department On July 21, 2026, the U.S and Jordan concluded and signed a new Agreement on Reciprocal Trade. Jordan has now officiated preferential access to the US market. The U.S has

On July 21, 2026, President Trump exercised his authority under Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (hereinafter Section 338) to impose the maximum amount of additional tariffs (fifty per cent) on Canadian cars, alcohol, and dairy, owing to his determination of Canada’s discriminatory treatment of US

Yesterday's announcement of Section 338 tariffs to be imposed on Canada was a bit of a surprise, although no tariff announcement can be too much of a shock these days.

In a new WTO reform paper entitled "Further Reflections on Disciplines, Subsidies and Industrial policy," the EU argues for stronger WTO disciplines on the behavior of state enterprises.

Mohamed Aly El-Erian, a professor at the Wharton School who was chair of President Obama's Global Development Council, had a recent NY Times op-ed entitled "America Was Being Played. The Bessent Doctrine Says Those Days Are Over."

In a recent WSJ op-ed (which Julia Qin mentioned in the comments here), former Trump administration Council of Economic Advisers chair Stephen Miran makes the case for an "optimal tariff in the region of 10% to 40%."

Previous posts on this blog have looked at trends in U.S. exports under the Trump administration’s trade policies, focusing on either specific categories of products or on the top U.S. trade partners. This post combines these two elements.

Last month, USTR made a determination in its Section 301 investigation into "Acts, Policies, and Practices of Various Economies Related to the Failure To Impose and Effectively Enforce a Prohibition on the Importation of Goods Produced With Forced Labor."

The trade community mourns the loss of David Kleimann, a formidable trade expert and friend. David was most recently at S-Curve Economics, but also held posts at ODI, Bruegel, and Georgetown Law, among others. His research sat at the intersection of international trade law, EU external economic governance, and

I've seen several recent calls for the EU to get tougher in its economic relations with China, along with arguments that it has been too slow to act against the Chinese economic threat.

This is from SIEL:Reimagining International Economic Law: Reasons, Challenges, and Future Directions 7-9 July 2027, Christchurch (New Zealand) The Tenth Biennial Global Conference of the Society of International Economic Law (SIEL) will take place in Christchurch, New Zealand, from 7 till 9 July 2027, hosted by the University

Today, as part of the first joint review of the USMCA, the three governments held a virtual meeting.

It's interesting to watch how political leaders craft narratives around economic competition that reflect their own country's strengths and weaknesses.

This is an exchange in a recent conversation between former U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Gerald Butts of the Eurasia Group: Butts: And just to be clear about this, because I think it's a really important point, and this is one point we definitely agree

Earlier this week, Simon Lester posted about the EU’s concerns with the undervaluation of the Chinese currency. He situated the recent demands for trade restrictions against a longstanding debate about the function of GATT Article XV:4.

An important element of the piece by Sander Tordoir and Brad Setser that I talked about in my last post was their argument that the EU should address Chinese currency undervaluation.

Recently, economists Sander Tordoir and Brad Setser suggested that the EU may need its own version of Section 301 in order to "confront China’s systemic distortions beyond piecemeal trade defence." Here's the case they made:A European 301  Safeguards are meant to be