NATIONAL TRADE LAWS AND INSTITUTIONS
 UNITED STATES

CD16 Outline                                                                         Course Structure Index

Introduces students to the main features of U.S. laws and regulations regulating or influencing the flow of trade in goods and services into and out of the United States, including the tariff and related issues, antidumping and countervailing duties, safeguard procedures, government procurement regulations, export controls, and export assistance programs.

Goals
To familiarize students with the structure and substance of the principal US trade laws and policies, their evolution and their relationship to international agreements and institutions. As a result, students should be better positioned to advise future employers or clients on how to structure their own affairs to take advantage of such laws, how to avoid placing themselves in difficult positions, how to design policy and other measures in conformity with these laws, and how to reform these laws to deal with changing needs and requirements.

Topics Covered
The course will focus principally on the laws and regulations governing the import and export of goods including the tariff and related customs regulations such as valuation, classification, rules of origin, remissions, and free-trade zones, marks of origin, licensing and quantitative restrictions, dumping and antidumping duties, subsidies and countervailing duties, escape clause action, export controls as well as some commodity-specific laws and regulations governing trade in agriculture and textiles and clothing. In recognition of the growing importance of the knowledge-based service economy, this module will also provide a brief overview of the broad range of laws that can effect the flow of goods, services, capital and technology, including those related to the protection of intellectual property rights, foreign direct investment, and competition policy.

Key Books and Articles

  Baldwin, Robert E., The Political Economy of U.S. Import Policy (Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, 1985).

 Cohen, Stephen D., Joel R. Paul and Robert A. Blecker, Fundamentals of U.S. Foreign Trade Policy: Economics, Politics, Laws, and Issues (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996).

 Jackson, John H., and William J. Davey, Legal Problems of International Economic Relations; Cases, Materials and Text on the National and International Regulation of International Economic Relations (Minneapolis: West Publishing, 1986).

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

 Trebilcock, Michael J. and Robert Howse, The Regulation of International Trade (New York: Routledge, 1995).

Case Material
The course will use excerpts from US Congress, Committee on Ways and Means, Overview and Compilation of US. Trade Statutes, most recent edition (1996?) and GATE, Trade Policy Review of the United States, most recent edition (1995?) to consider how the United States regulates the flow of goods, services, capital, and technology across its frontier.

Criteria for Evaluating Teaching and Student Performance
Throughout the course, students will develop written analyses of various specific problems in international trade and determine which of the various available remedies or measures can be applied to solve the problem.

 

SYLLABUS
Course Structure Index