GLOBAL TRADING SYSTEM
TRADE REMEDY 

CD28 Syllabus                                                                       Course Structure Index
Professor Michael Hart

Wednesday 6:00-9:00

Spring Term

This module will examine the main provisions of the US antidumping, countervailing and escape clause laws and regula­tions and their relationship to the rules and provisions of the WTO and NAFTA. The module thus seeks to  familiarize students with the details of one of the more challenging areas of international trade law and provide them with an understanding of why governments have found these very detailed provisions governing particular aspects of international trade both helpful and problematic. Students who have successfully completed the course should be able to analyze various situations relating to fair and unfair competition and determine whether or not a case can be made for the application of one of these remedies and advise future employers or clients on the steps involved in pursuing the applicable remedy.

Topics

Following a brief introduction of the basic concepts and procedures involved, the course will consider a number of specific antidumping, countervailing duty and escape clause cases, tracing the origins of the problem the remedy is meant to address, the nature of the complaints and defenses, the very detailed pro­cedures and information pursued, and the extent to which the procedures did – or did not – address the problem. In the course of discussing cases, students will also consider the WTO rules involved in the various aspects of each case in an effort to understand the interaction between domestic and interna­tional rules and procedures.

Readings

The readings for each week may amount to more than what most students have either the time or inclination to read. That is understood. The available material is of uneven quality and no single source provides adequate coverage or explanation. As a result, the readings are divided into required and suggested selection. Together, they provide a range of selections on the material to be covered each week, written from a variety of perspectives. Since this module will require no written work other than the take-home exam to be distributed at the end of week three, students are encouraged to read as much as possible. A copy of the required reading has been placed on one-hour reserve in the library.

Grading

Students should be able to describe the basic steps and concepts involved in any of the three principal trade remedy measures; a take-home exam, worth 80 percent of the final grade, will provide students with a hypothetical situation involving the application of one of these remedies. Class participation will count for the final 20 per cent of the course grade.

Office Hours

Professor Hart  will maintain office hours at the Trade Center on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10:00-12:00 or by appointment (647-6524).

 

Week One, February  19

Topics

Fair and Unfair Trade

Maintaining political support for the economic objective of trade liberalization

Regulatory capture and rent seeking

Use and abuse of trade remedies

The interrelationship between domestic law and practice and international rules

Required Readings

1.     Richard Boltuck and Robert E. Litan, “America’s ‘Unfair’ Trade Laws,” in Boltuck and Litan, eds., Down in the Dumps: Administration of the Unfair Trade Laws (Washington: Brookings, 1991), 1-21.

2.     James Bovard, The Fair Trade Fraud (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1991), 1-6, 306-320.

3.     Pietro S. Nivola, Regulating Unfair Trade (Washington; Brookings Institution, 1992), 1-68.

Suggested Additional Readings

4.     William Robson, Dahlia Stein, and Rafael Fernandez de Castro, “What’s the Fight About: An Ovreview of Trade Disputes in North America,” in Beatriz Leycegui, William Robson, and Dahlia Stein, eds.,  Trading Punches: Trade Remedy Law and Dis­putes Under NAFTA (Washington: National Planning Association, 1996), 1-23.

5.     Thomas M. Boddez and Michael J. Trebilcock, Unfinished Business: Reforming Trade Remedy Laws in North America (Toronto: C.D. Howe Institute, 1993), 1-21.

6.     Rodney deC. Grey, United States Trade Policy Legislation: A Canadian View (Montreal: Institute for Research on Public Policy, 1984), 5-18.

7.     Ronald A. Cass and Richard D. Boltuck, “Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Law: The Mirage of Equitable International Competition,” in Jagdish Bhagwati and Robert E. Hudec, eds., Fair Trade and Harmonization, volume 2: Legal Analysis (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1996), 351-414.

Cases and Empirical Material

Case material will be available on a number of antidumping, countervailing duty, and escape clause ac­tions to be used as the focus for discussion of specific US trade remedy laws.

US Statement of Administrative Action on the Results of the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotia­tions.


Week Two, February 26

Topics

The antidumping system – why it exists, how it works, who benefits, who gets hurt.

Required Readings

1.     John H. Jackson, “Dumping in International Trade: Its Meaning and Context,” in Jackson and Edwin Vermulst, eds., Antidumping Law and Practice (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1989), 1-22.

2.     Alan V. Deardorff, “Economic Perspectives on Antidumping Law,” in  John H. Jackson and Edwin Vermulst, eds., Antidumping Law and Practice (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1989),  23-40.

3.     Tracy Murray, “The Administration of the Antidumping Duty Law by the Department of Commerce,” in Richard Boltuck and Robert E. Litan, eds., Down in the Dumps: Administration of the Unfair Trade Laws (Washington: Brookings, 1991), 22-60.

4.     Terence P. Stewart, “Administration of the Antidumping Law: A Different Perspective,” in Richard Boltuck and Robert E. Litan, eds., Down in the Dumps: Administration of the Unfair Trade Laws (Washington: Brookings, 1991), 288-330.

5.     Pietro S. Nivola, Regulating Unfair Trade (Washington; Brookings Institution, 1992), 69-108.

Suggested Additional Readings

6.     James Bovard, The Fair Trade Fraud (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1991), 107-168.

7.     Stanley Metzger, Lowering Non-Tariff Barriers (Washington: Brookings Institution, 1974), 62-101.

8.     N. David Palmeter, “The Antidumping Law: A Legal and Administrative Nontariff Barrier,” in Richard Boltuck and Robert E. Litan, eds., Down in the Dumps: Administration of the Unfair Trade Laws (Washington: Brookings, 1991), 64-89.

9.     Gary N. Horlick, “The United States Antidumping System,” in John H. Jackson and Edwin Vermulst, eds., Antidumping Law and Practice (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1989), 99-168.

10.   Jean-François Bellis, “The EEC Antidumping System,” in John H. Jackson and Edwin Vermulst, eds., Antidumping Law and Practice (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1989), 41-98.

11.   Brian Hindley, “The Economics of Dumping and Antidumping Action: Is There a Baby in the Bathwater?” in P. K. M. Tharaken, Policy Implications of Antidumping Measures (New York Elzevier Science Publishing, 1991), 25-44. 


Week Three, Spring Break


Week Four. March 12

Topics

The countervailing duty system – why it exists, how it works, who benefits, who gets hurt.

Required Readings

1.     Thomas J. Prusa, “An Overview of the Impact of U.S. Unfair Trade Laws,” in Beatriz Leycegui, William Robson, and Dahlia Stein, eds.,  Trading Punches: Trade Remedy Law and Dis­putes Under NAFTA (Washington: National Planning Association, 1996), 183-205.

2.     Pietro S. Nivola, Regulating Unfair Trade (Washington; Brookings Institution, 1992), 69-108.

3.     John H. Jackson, The World Trading System: Law and Policy of International Economic Relations (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1989), 249-273.

4.     Colleen Morton, “Subsidies Negotiations and the Politics of Trade,,” Canada-U.S. Outlook, vol. 1, No. (Washington: National Planning Association), pamphlet.

Suggested Additional Readings

5.     James Bovard, The Fair Trade Fraud (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1991), 169-195.

6.     Stanley Metzger, Lowering Non-Tariff Barriers (Washington: Brookings Institution, 1974), 101-127.

7.     Gary Clyde Hufbauer and Joanna Shelton Erb, Subsidies in International Trade  (Washington: Institute for Inernational Economics, 1984), 1-124.

8.     Rodney deC. Grey, United States Trade Policy Legislation: A Canadian View (Montreal: Institute for Research on Public Policy, 1984), 33-66.

9.     Michael Finger, “Subsidies and Countervailing Duties,” in P. K. M. Tharaken, Policy Implications of Antidumping Measures (New York Elzevier Science Publishing, 1991), 175-190.

10.   Alan M. Rugman and Andrew D. M. Anderson, Administered Protection in America (London: Croom Helm, 1987), 56-98.

Week Four, March 19

Topics

The safeguards system - origins, evolution, demise

Dispute Settlement and Unfair Trade

The Use and Abuse of Section 301

Proposals for reform

Required Readings

1.     Pietro Nivola, “Trade Policy: Refereeing the Playing Field,” in Thomas E. Mann, ed., A Question of Balance: The President, the Congress and Foreign Policy (Washington: Brookings Institution, 1990), 201-253.

2.     Pietro S. Nivola, Regulating Unfair Trade (Washington; Brookings Institution, 1992), 129-149.

3.     Tyson, Laura D’Andrea, Who’s Bashing Whom? Trade Conflict in High-Technology Industries (Washington: Institute for International Economics, 1992), 253-296. 

Suggested Additional Reading

4.     Robert E. Baldwin and Michael O. Moore, “Political Aspects of the Administration of the Trade Remedy Laws,” in Richard Boltuck and Robert E. Litan, eds., Down in the Dumps: Administration of the Unfair Trade Laws (Washington: Brookings, 1991), 253-287.

5.     Gary N. Horlick and Eleanor C. Shea, “Alternatives to National Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Laws: Are They Feasible or Appropriate in the Context of NAFTA?” in Beatriz Leycegui, William Robson, and Dahlia Stein, eds.,  Trading Punches: Trade Remedy Law and Dis­putes Under NAFTA (Washington: National Planning Association, 1996), 206-238.

6.     Thomas M. Boddez and Michael J. Trebilcock, Unfinished Business: Reforming Trade Remedy Laws in North America (Toronto: C.D. Howe Institute, 1993), 162-259.

7.     Willam Davey, Pine and Swine: Dispute Settlement under the Canada-US FTA (Ottawa: Centre for Trade Policy and Law, 1996), 7-19, 89-10, 151-184. 

 

OUTLINE
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