This module will introduce students to the main features of U.S. laws and regulations governing 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. The module will 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 strategies in conformity with these laws, and how to reform these laws and regulations to deal with changing needs and circumstances.

 Topics

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 of 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 affect the flow of goods, services, capital and technology, including those related to the protection of intellectual property rights, foreign direct in­vestment, and competition policy.

 Suggested Readings

The suggested readings for each week amount to more than what most students have either the time or inclination to read. That is understood. Nevertheless, since this module complements the module on international trade law, many of the readings are the same for both modules, while class discussion will emphasize the international and domestic perspective. Thus, students taking both modules should be able to cover more material. 

 Grading

Throughout the course, students will develop four, short written analyses, each worth 20 per cent of the course grade, of various specific problems in interna­tional trade and determine which of the various available remedies or measures can be applied to solve the problem. 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

 Topics

 What is Trade law and Policy

•       ideas and practice                                                           •                sources of information

•       From Smith and List to Krugman and Tyson                •                politics, economics, business and law

•       trade and foreign policy                                                 •                trade and domestic policy

The General Orientation of US Trade Law and Policy

•       trade in the US economy                                                •                emerging trade policy challenges

•       nature of the US economy                                             •                the role of trade policy

•       place of the US in the world economy                          •                the global institutional setting

•       historical development of US trade law and practice

The Domestic Legal and Institutional Framework

•       basic laws and institutions                                            •                laws, regulations and policy

•       interest groups and consensus building                        •                Congress and the Executive

•       the place of trade policy within federal                       
and state policy and practice

•       organization and delivery of US trade policy

Suggested Readings

Stephen D. Cohen, Joel R. Paul and Robert A. Blecker, Fundamentals of U.S. Foreign Trade Policy: Eco­nomics, Politics, Laws, and Issues (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996),. 1-24, 105-120.

Jackson, John H., The World Trading System: Law and Policy of International Economic Relations (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1989), 59-82.

Low, Patrick, Trading Free: the GATT and US Trade Policy (New York: Twentieth Century Fund, 1993), 53-140.

Cases and Empirical Material

•       The course will use excerpts from US Congress, Committee on Ways and Means, Overview and Compi­lation of U.S. Trade Statutes, most recent edition [1996?] and GATT, 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. 

 

Week Two

Topics

Customs or border measures

•       tariffs and tariff policies                                     •                rules of origin

        (EPZs, remissions, drawbacks, GPT)                •                valuation

•      quantitative restrictions                                      •                licensing 

•       export controls                                                  •                escape clause (s. 201)

•       exceptions                                                         •                marks of origin

Suggested Readings

Stephen D. Cohen, Joel R. Paul and Robert A. Blecker, Fundamentals of U.S. Foreign Trade Policy: Eco­nomics, Politics, Laws, and Issues (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996), pp. 141-161.

John H. Jackson, The World Trading System: Law and Policy of International Economic Relations (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1989), 115-132, 149-188.

Michael J. Trebilcock and Robert Howse, The Regulation of International Trade (New York: Routledge, 1995), 73-96, 162-190.

Week Three

Topics

Measures to address unfair trade practices or policies

•       dumping and antidumping duties                •                subsidies and countervailing duties

•       unfair methods of competition (s337)
Regulatory Measures

•       product standards                                        •                government procurement
Export policies

•       trade promotion                                          •                export financing

Suggested Readings

John H. Jackson, The World Trading System: Law and Policy of International Economic Relations (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1989), 217-248, 249-274.

Michael J. Trebilcock and Robert Howse, The Regulation of International Trade (New York: Routledge, 1995), 97-124, 125-161.

Krueger, Anne O.,  American Trade Policy: A Tragedy in the Making (Washington: AEI Press, 1995), 33-50.

Week Four

Topics

Sectoral Laws and Regulations

•                agriculture                                                       •                textiles and clothing

•                energy                                                             •                industrial policy

•                transportation                                                •                broadcasting

•                financial servcies                                            •              Trade-related measures

•                protection of intellectual property                •                investment policies
Enforcement of treaty rights

•       unfair trade practices (s301)

Suggested Readings

Michael J. Trebilcock and Robert Howse, The Regulation of International Trade (New York: Routledge, 1995), 191-214 and 215-300.

Jagdish Bhagwati, “Aggressive Unilateralism: An Overview,” in Bhagwati and Hugh T. Patrick, eds., Aggressive Unilateralism: America’s 301 Trade Policy and the World Trading System (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1990), 1-45.

Geza Feketekuty, “U.S. Policy on 301 and Super 301,” in Bhagwati and  Patrick, eds., Aggressive Unilateralism: America’s 301 Trade Policy and the World Trading System, 91-103.

****                Hudec, Robert E., Enforcing International Trade Law: The Evolution of the Modern GATT Legal System (Salem, New Hampshire: Butterworth, 1993), ------------.