International Trade

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International Trade
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What is international trade?

• imports, exports
• foreign investment
• WTO, NAFTA, EU
• and, potentially, everything else

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Trade terms

• Dumping -- selling imports into a domestic market
  at a price lower than the cost of production in
  the country of originless than fair value
  (LTFV)
• Tariff --A fee (or duty) levied upon goods
  transported from one customs area to another
• Trade subsidies -- government payments or other
  benefits to producers that make their prices
  unfairly low
• Countervailing duties extra fee levied by
  importing country to counter unfair subsidy

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Legal framework

• most countries members of WTO
• many countries also have bilateral or regional
  trade agreements
• trade agreements generally have dispute
  resolution mechanisms
• trade obligations may affect/supplant national law

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WTO history

• Began in 1995, built on GATT
• GATT began in 1947.
• GATT intended as tariff-cutting agreement.
• Rounds are series of negotiations intended to
  cut tariffs.

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3 main principles of GATT/WTO

• convert all trade barriers to tariffs
• transparent
• easier to administer
• most-favored-nation (MFN)
• any favorable trade treatment must be given to
  all members
• national treatment
• imports treated equally with domestic

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WTO 6 components

• trade in goods 1994 GATT agreement all bound
• product standards all bound
• GATS trade in servicesnot all bound
• TRIPs all bound
• plurilateral agreements (e.g., govt procurement)
  some bound
• dispute resolution all bound

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WTO structure

• Ministerial Body (meets every 2 years e.g.,
  Seattle)
• General Council main governing body
• Secretariat permanent professional staff

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WTO dispute resolution process

• request for consultations complaint
• panel
• appellate body (appeals routine)
• loser must bring itself into compliance
• if not, winner can retaliate

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Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs)

• permitted by WTO
• multilateral or bilateral
• important because of stalled progress on Doha
  round
• US aggressively pursuing

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NAFTA

• earlier CFTA (US-Canada)
• decreases, then removes tariffs
• Anti-dumping, countervailing duty disputes
  (Chapter 19) arbitration before bi-national
  panels
• investment disputes (Chapter 11)ICSID
  arbitration, UNCITRAL

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Researching WTO law

• Jeanne Rehbergs guide
• http//www.law.nyu.edu/library/
• wtoguide.html
• treatises for background, concepts, details
• WTO site
• USTR site for US perspective

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WTO site

• documents from 1995 (selected older documents)
• treaties
• WTO Analytical Index Guide to WTO Law and
  Practice (travaux and interpretation)
• reports, news, statistics

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WTO site Documents Online

• accessible from Trade Topics with drop-down menus
• browse or search
• document symbol e.g., G/SCM/59/Add.2
• document number e.g., 04-4872

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WorldTradeLaw.net

• part free, part subscription
• search engine for WTO docs
• easier to download WTO docs
• expert commentary, index

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Tariff schedules

• US Harmonized Tariff Schedule
• US International Trade Commission site
• WTO site schedule of concessions
• national trade department sites

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Other resources

• Westlaw, Lexis
• WTO panel and AB decisions
• NAFTA decisions
• treaties
• GATT documents Stanford http//gatt.stanford.edu
  /bin/search/simple
• BNAs International Trade Reporter