NATIONAL TRADE LAWS
OTHER MAJOR DEVELOPED COUNTRIES

This module considers the role of the European Union (EU), Japan, and Canada in the international trading system. It will:

•       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). Class discussion 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.

•       equip students to analyze how best to pursue trade and investment opportunities in these countries, how to negotiate with these countries, and how to resolve problems with them, either as government or private sector officials.

Topics

The course will examine 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 controls, commodity specific  laws and regulations, as well as 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, and consider how these laws and policies reflect similar or conflicting goals and interests.

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 relations an determine how best to resolve the issues. 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

•       Trade law, trade policy, trade relations, and trade promotion – four slices of the same pie.

•       Bilateral relations within a multilateral system – tools and attitudes

•       Canada – the giant partner everyone takes for granted – problems real and perceived.

•       The organization and delivery of trade policy in Canada

•       The basic contours of Canadian trade policy

Suggested Readings

Miles Kahler, International Institutions and the Political Economy of Integration (Washington: Brookings, 1994), 1-79.

Chapter describing basis of policy-making in Canada

William Diebold, “Change and Continuity in Canada-U.S. Economic Relations,” Canadian- American Public Policy, Number 5, March 1991.

Robert Bothwell, Canada and the United States: The Politics of Partnership (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992), 139-156.

Cases and Empirical Material

Excerpts from GATT, Trade Policy Review for Canada

Week Two

Topics

•       The European Community/Union – rival or partner in meeting the challenges of the future

•        origins                      •        structure

•       basic rules                  •        evolution

•        decision-making        •        influence and impact

 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), 196-216.

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

Dennis Swann, The Economics of the Common Market, new edition (London, Penguin 1992), 1-72, 334-350.

 Cases and Empirical Material

 Excerpts from GATT, Trade Policy Review for the European Union

Week Three

Topics

•       Sense, nonsense and Japan – is there a problem and can it be resolved.

•       Japanese trade and industrial policies and decision-making

•       The organization and delivery of trade policy in Japan

•       The basic contours of Japanese  trade policy

•       Japan’s place in the trading system

•       The challenge of accessing the Japanese market

Suggested Readings

Good description of Japanese decision-making, trade policy etc.

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), 175-195.

Plus one of the following:

C. Fred Bergsten and Marcus Noland, Reconcilable Differences? United States-Japan Economic Conflict (Washington: Institute for International Economics, 1993), 1-22, 199-248.

Denis J. Encarnation, Rivals Beyond Trade: America Versus Japan in Global Competition (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1992), 183-218.

Edward J.Lincoln, Japan’s Unequal Trade  (Washington: Brookings, 1990), 12-38.

Karel van Wolferen, The Enigma of Japanese Power: People and Politics in a Stateless Nation (New York: Knopf, 1989), 1-24.

Shintaro Ishihara, The Japan that Can Say NO! (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1991), 128-139.

Clyde V.Prestowitz, Trading Places: How We Are Giving Our Future to Japan and How to Reclaim It (New York: Basic Books, 1989), 448-485.

Cases and Empirical Material

Excerpts from GATT, Trade Policy Review  for Japan

Week Four

Topics

•        managing trade relations in an interdependent world

•        emerging issues in relations among the Quad

Suggested Readings

C. Fred Bergsten and Marcus Noland, eds., Pacific Dynamism and the International Economic System(Washington: Institute for International Economics, 1993), 135-269.

Good source on conduct of trade relations

Cases and Empirical Material