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Simon Lester

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Join date: Mar 17, 2025

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At the time of publication, Simon Lester is a trade policy analyst with Cato’s Herbert A Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies. His research focuses on WTO disputes, regional trade agreements, disguised protectionism and the history of international trade law.

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Lester

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Simon

Posts (21)

Dec 10, 2020 ∙ 4 min

President Biden Must Restore American Trade Leadership

In January, President Joe Biden will inherit a trade policy that has left the U.S. role as a leader of the world trading system in grave doubt. After World War II, the United States helped construct a carefully balanced trading system with modest liberalization and a limited but important role for international agreements and institutions.

Jul 1, 2020 ∙ 6 min

Congressman DeFazio’s Misinformed Arguments for Leaving the WTO

A few weeks ago, Senator Josh Hawley wrote a New York Times op‐ed calling for “abolishing” the World Trade Organization (WTO). I responded to Hawley’s piece here, pointing out the various ways that he had misunderstood the WTO. Hawley’s op‐ed was apparently intended to lay the foundation for the joint resolution he introduced to withdraw...

Apr 13, 2020 ∙ 4 min

The Coronavirus Is Not a Good Argument for Protectionism

Protectionists have been emboldened by the Trump administration’s approach to trade policy, and some are now using COVID-19 as an argument to support their cause. In most cases, it’s not worth responding, but I don’t think of economics columnist Noah Smith as an economic nationalist, so if he is saying things along these lines...