Read on Twitter
This new WSJ op-ed ( https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-to-set-world-trade-straight-11597966341) by Lighthizer repeats a lot of his previous talking points, but let me offer a couple thoughts. 1/
First, he correctly points out the protectionist abuses by other countries, but he ignores the corresponding US ones (excessive IP protection, abuse of trade remedies, farm subsidies, etc.). 2/
If there were a good faith negotiation by all WTO Members to, as he puts it, "recommit to the principles of market reform and most-favored-nation status," it might actually work. 3/
Indeed, it's quite possible the US could have gotten countries to lower their tariffs more if it hadn't been pushing so hard for various forms of non-market oriented IP protection. 4/
Second, not surprisingly, he still doesn't like the Appellate Body. But his panel-based system with no appeals will not avoid, as puts it, an "ever-evolving body of free-trade jurisprudence." It will just give us an incoherent one, as different panels use different reasoning. 5/
Also, he is very critical of the Appellate Body, but there are a bunch of panel decisions (e.g. Shrimp/Turtle, Asbestos) that I would think the US was very happy to see reversed by the Appellate Body. 6/
Instead of an automatic right of appeal, he wants to see "a mechanism that allows the WTO membership to set aside erroneous panel opinions in exceptional cases." I'm not sure what he means, but I'd be interested to hear the details. 7/
Finally, I like the idea of moving away from bilateral FTAs, and focusing on multilateral instead. Overall, I'm not sure this piece is a jumping off point for this and other WTO reforms. But it would be nice if it got the ball rolling and others put forward their ideas. /End
