NATIONAL TRADE LAWS
OTHER MAJOR DEVELOPED COUNTRIES

Goals

 To provide students with a comparative appreciation of the trade laws and policies of the other three members of the Quad (i.e., the three countries or entities who, together with the United States, represent the preponderance of world trade and investment:  the European Union, Japan and Canada). The course will indicate the extent to which these policies are based on a common body of international law (the GATT/WTO) and the extent to which they reflect unique historical and national circumstances. As a result students should be well placed to analyze how best to pursue trade and investment opportunities in these jurisdictions, how to negotiate with these jurisdictions and resolve problems.

 Topics Covered

 The course will cover the principal trade laws and policies of the European Union, Japan and Canada, including the tariff and related customs regulations, licensing and quantitative restrictions, dumping and antidumping duties, subsidies and countervailing duties, escape clause action, export, commodity specific laws and regulations governing trade in agriculture and textiles and clothing, as well as 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, and consider how these laws and policies reflect similar or conflicting goals and interests. The course will address how in each of these entities different institutional and constitutional conventions have developed to address conflicting interests and reach politically satisfactory solutions.

 Key Books and Articles

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

 Wallace, William, Regional Integration: The West European Experience (Washington: Brookings, 1994).

 Wistrich, Ernest, After 1992: The United States of Europe (London: Routledge, 1991).

 Wolferen, Karel van, The Enigma of Japanese Power: People and Politics in a Stateless Nation (New York: Knopf, 1989).

Case Material

 The course will use material excerpted from the GATT Trade Policy Reviews of the European Union, Japan and Canada to illustrate how these three major trading entities approach similar problems, deal with competing interests within their jurisdiction, and reach and implement decisions.

Criteria for Evaluating Teaching and Student Performance

Throughout the course, students will develop written analyses of various specific problems in international trade and determine how each of the three major players is likely to apply the various available remedies or measures to solve the problem.