Exploring the political and economic determinants of trade protection, this study provides a wealth of information on key American industries and documents the process of seeking and conferring protection. Eight analytical histories of the automobile, steel, semiconductor, lumber, wheat, and textile and apparel industries demonstrate that trade barriers rarely have unequivocal benefits and may be counterproductive. They show that criteria for awarding protection do not take into account the interests of consumers or other industries and that political influence and an organized lobby are major sources of protection. Based on these findings, a final essay suggests that current policy fails to consider adequately economic efficiency, the public good, and indirect negative effects. This volume will interest scholars in economics, business, and public policy who deal with trade issues.
This clear, concise summary of the in-depth analyses presented in The Political Economy of American Trade Policy examines the level, form, and evolution of American trade protection. In case studies of trade barriers imposed during the 1980s to help the steel, semiconductor, automobile, lumber, wheat, and textile and apparel industries, the contributors trace the evolution of efforts to obtain protection, protectionist measures, and their results. A chapter assessing the common themes that emerge from the studies concludes that the focus of current trade law is exclusively on the individual protection-seeking industries, with little regard for indirect effects on using industries or for consumers. Reform could usefully take these effects into account. This volume will interest policymakers, business executives, and anyone interested in trade policy formulation and practice.
This book examines how trade policy is determined in democratic countries, and illustrates how protectionist policies are engendered by political processes that allow groups to pursue their own interests.
In our increasingly globalized world, U.S. trade policy stands at the intersection of foreign and domestic affairs. This book explains trade policy in terms of domestic politics, presenting a concise account of its origins and political significance. Although trade policy is a component of foreign policy, Philip A. Mundo explains how it is rooted in the domestic policy process and carries with it enormous implications for domestic affairs. He reviews the growing importance of trade policy since World War II -- particularly over the past twenty years -- and shows how recent policies like NAFTA are shaped by the domestic agenda. Mundo explains trade policy as the product of a three-stage process comprising agenda setting, program adoption, and implementation. He reviews this process in terms of the ideas that inform trade policy, the interests that seek to influence it, and the institutions that shape it. He also addresses the importance of specific measures, such as administrative relief and trade sanctions. This book distills the essence of the trade policy process into a concise, innovative framework accessible to students and general readers. With the growing importance of trade policy, it makes explicit many of the subtleties surrounding policymaking while fully explicating the legal and international context in which trade operates.
This reference accords recognition to the recent revolution in macroeconomics wrought by imperfect competition. Grossman and Rogoff (Princeton U.) present chapters by two dozen contributors on two prime areas of research interest: international trade theory and policy (e.g. strategic trade patterns and policies, the relationship between trade and technological progress), and open economy macroeconomics and international finance (covering such topics as exchange rates, foreign lending, and policy coordination). The volume commences with Krugman's overview of the positive theory of international trade, and concludes with analyses of sovereign debt. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.
The contributors to this volume, economists and political scientists from academic institutions, the private sector, and the Ways and Means Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, came together to discuss an important topic in the formation of U.S. international trade policy: the representation of constituent interests. In the resulting volume they address the objectives of groups who participate in the policy process and examine how each group's interests are identified and promoted. They look at what means are used for these purposes, and the extent to which the groups' objectives and behavior conform to how the political economy of trade policy is treated in the economic and political science literature. Further, they discuss how effective each group has been. Each of the book's five parts offers a coherent view of important components of the topic. Part I provides an overview of the normative and political economy approaches to the modeling of trade policies. Part 2 discusses the context of U.S. trade policies. Part 3 deals with the role of sectoral producing interests, including the relationship of trade policy to auto, steel, textile, semiconductor, aircraft, and financial services. Part 4 examines other constituent interests, including the environment, human rights, and the media. Part 5 provides commentary on such issues as the challenges that trade policy poses for the new administration and the 105th Congress. The volume ultimately offers important and more finely articulated questions on how trade policy is formed and implemented. Contributors are Robert E. Baldwin, Jagdish Bhagwati, Douglas A. Brook, Richard O. Cunningham, Jay Culbert, Alan V. Deardorff, I. M. Destler, Daniel Esty, Geza Feketekuty, Harry Freeman, John D. Greenwald, Gene Grossman, Richard L. Hall, Jutta Hennig, John H. Jackson, James A. Levinsohn, Mustafa Mohatarem, Robert Pahre, Richard C. Porter, Gary R. Saxonhouse, Robert E. Scott, T. N. Srinivasan, Robert M. Stern, Joe Stroud, John Sweetland, Raymond Waldmann, Marina v.N. Whitman, and Bruce Wilson. Alan V. Deardorff and Robert M. Stern are Professors of Economics and Public Policy, University of Michigan.
Although international trade has been much studied by both economists and regional scientists, the nature, causes, and the consequences of interregional trade, i.e., trade between regions within countries has received far less attention. In addition, given recent advances in new economic geography on the theoretical front and in the development of both input-output and computable general equilibrium models on the empirical front, the important subject of interregional trade is now open to study using these theoretical and empirical methodologies. Given this state of affairs, this book aims to present chapters written by a carefully selected group of experts in the field and thereby shed valuable light on key outstanding questions concerning the region and trade. These questions include, but are not limited to, the role of external economies in shaping the pattern of interregional trade, the role of natural resources versus traditional factors of production such as labor and capital in driving interregional trade, the relationship between transport and interregional trade, “high value” interregional trade in services, and the role of interregional trade estimation in the construction of a multi-regional, input-output system.
Although international trade has been much studied by both economists and regional scientists, the nature, causes, and the consequences of interregional trade, i.e., trade between regions within countries has received far less attention. In addition, given recent advances in new economic geography on the theoretical front and in the development of both input-output and computable general equilibrium models on the empirical front, the important subject of interregional trade is now open to study using these theoretical and empirical methodologies. Given this state of affairs, this book aims to present chapters written by a carefully selected group of experts in the field and thereby shed valuable light on key outstanding questions concerning the region and trade. These questions include, but are not limited to, the role of external economies in shaping the pattern of interregional trade, the role of natural resources versus traditional factors of production such as labor and capital in driving interregional trade, the relationship between transport and interregional trade, "high value" interregional trade in services, and the role of interregional trade estimation in the construction of a multi-regional, input-output system.
Latin America has been pursuing intense structural reforms since the mid-1980s. The reforms have been a primary instrument for achieving the development goals of stable and higher rates of economic growth, more social equity, and a solid democratic setting. The region has advanced on all three fronts, but much more needs to be done. Bridges for Development explores options to strengthen policies and institutions for deepening structural reforms in all areas of development through trade and integration. Making advances in these areas is critical because the multilateral negotiations in the Doha Development Round are contingent on the complex dynamics of worldwide consensus -- and Latin America's capacity to adequately represent its interests in terms of determining the direction of unilateral policy and regional initiatives. However, as the book points out, it might be said that the easystages of unilateral trade and regional integration are over; the next steps toward consolidation will require countries to redouble their political will to confront difficult challenges as well as to refine policies, build stronger institutional structures to support them, and work better with civil society. The wave of market opening and regionalism in the 1990s has provided new opportunities in these areas.
