David LaRoss

The World Trade Organization still has a “practical” path forward for reform even after members failed to agree on a work plan at the 14th ministerial conference in March or a General Council meeting last month, Chief Economist Robert Staiger argues in a newly posted analysis for the WTO. Although MC14, in Yaoundé, Cameroon, produced no outcome on reform, discussion there “points toward a reform agenda that is more practical than rhetorical,” Staiger writes in a June 17 post titled...

Companies and individuals who say they paid President Trump’s now-reversed International Emergency Economic Powers Act duties through importers are asking a federal judge to make Customs include them in its refund process, saying the current model leaves them unable to recover even “discrete and identifiable” tariff payments.

Dozens of federal and state courts are weighing lawsuits aimed at forcing importers to pay customers at least some of the refunds for President Trump’s overturned International Emergency Economic Powers Act tariffs, but lawyers say the legal principles involved are uncertain, with results possibly turning on complex questions of plaintiff standing, corporate transparency and ripeness, among others.