International Trade Law, including Beyond Trump, in a Nutshell
Author:
Folsom, Ralph H.
Edition:
8th
Copyright Date:
2021
15 chapters
have results for trade
Chapter 3. Imports 97 results (showing 5 best matches)
- The Trade Agreements Act of 1979, the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988, the Uruguay Round Implementation Act of 1994, the Trade Act of 2002 and the Trade Preferences Extension Act of 2015 cover many GATT/WTO trade rules. Trade is thus governed principally by a matrix of separate U.S. trade laws ranging from the Tariff Act of 1930 to the Trade Preferences Extension Act of 2015.
- For U.S. international trade law, there is no easy single statutory source of law. New trade statutes do two things. They create some new trade rules and thus have some permanency standing alone. But they also modify earlier trade statutes. A search often requires checking several U.S. trade laws, although certain subjects tend to be identified with a single trade Act. For example, the Tariff Act of 1930 is where the tariff schedules are located along with several U.S. “trade remedies” for domestic interests impacted by imports.
- In response to Section 1104 of the Trade Agreements Act of 1979, the President reviewed the structure of the international trade functions of the Executive Branch. Although this did not lead to the establishment of a new Department of International Trade and Investment, it did lead to enhancement of the Office of the Special Representative for Trade Negotiations, which has since been renamed the United States Trade Representative (USTR).
- Rules and sources of law for United States international trade are mostly found in a sequence of specific trade acts which make up the basic framework for import and export trade. To these, however, must be added numerous provisions of other laws which are directed to specific trade issues. For example, the Export Administration Act of 1979 details U.S. export controls, the subject of Chapter 5. United States trade case law tends to be limited. Trade rules have evolved in legislative chambers and multilateral organizations rather than in the courts. There is no common law of trade. The decisions which do exist are almost exclusively interpretations of statutory rules.
- Other trade acts were enacted after the 1930 Act, notably the
- Open Chapter
Chapter 1. World Trade and Multinational Enterprises 42 results (showing 5 best matches)
- The United States is one of a few central players in the world of international trade. It has engaged in foreign trade from the moment of its independence over two centuries ago. Indeed, one reason independence was sought was England’s imposition of severe restrictions on trade between the colonies and foreign nations, intended to preserve the benefits of international trade for England.
- In recent years, attention on items of trade and therefore value has shifted from an exclusive focus on tangibles and technology, to an area of trade and economic relations far more difficult to define. That area is trade in services such as advertising, banking, insurance, accounting, consulting, entertainment, construction, tourism, education and the vast area of computer services. For the most part, trade in services is not subject to tariffs. Nontariff barriers (NTBs), often in the form of licenses or permits, predominate. Cross-border trade in legal services, particularly by multinational law firms, is part of this picture. U.S. trade in these “invisibles” is measured in billions annually. Trade in tangibles is marred by an increasing deficit, but U.S. trade in services is marked by an increasing surplus.
- Regional economic relations have also increased trade among groups of nations. The European Union and NAFTA/USMCA are the two most important areas which have reduced barriers to internal trade, although sometimes at the expense of increasing barriers to external trade. Free trade and customs union agreements have been proliferating. See Chapter 7. But however important may be participation in bilateral or multilateral trade agreements or organizations, the will of a single participant to abide by freer trade rules will be expressed in its domestic trade laws and policies. It is under such national laws that multinational enterprises operate.
- Less than two centuries from achieving independence, the United States became a leading trade power in the world. For over a decade after World War II, the United States was in the envious and economically advantageous position of being the major center of production of finished goods for export. But with extraordinary economic growth in Japan and Europe, by the 1980s the United States no longer dominated world trade. It had to compete for sales abroad and in the domestic market within the United States. Traditional surpluses in the balance of trade with most nations in some cases began to be reversed. The United States has had to deal with increasingly large trade deficits with Japan, and more recently, the most challenging trade partner—China.
- The trade surplus of earlier decades has become a trade deficit of disturbing proportions. The deficit status of U.S. international trade in the 1990s and into the new millennium caused trade to be a topic of common conversation. The U.S. trade deficit is often perceived as threatening jobs for American workers and the consequent diminishment of quality of life of the American people. This has generated annual Congressional proposals of an increasingly restrictive nature. U.S. exports have continued to grow, especially in the service and technology areas, but imports of goods have grown more rapidly. Even the periodic fall of the dollar, making U.S. exports cheaper, has not reversed the trade deficit.
- Open Chapter
Chapter 5. Exports 29 results (showing 5 best matches)
- When the Arab boycott was extended beyond the primary level (no trading with Israel), to the secondary level (no trading with any nation’s enterprise which trades with Israel), and to the tertiary level (no trading with any third party nation’s enterprise trading with Israel if it obtained components from a nation trading with Israel), Congress began to debate whether U.S. companies ought to be allowed to assist the boycott of a nation friendly to the United States.
- All the Trump administration examples of using export controls as coercive tools noted above will be scrutinized but not likely rolled back by the Biden administration. More likely there will be Biden efforts to collaboratively assert with major U.S. trade allies technology control measures targeted at maintaining competitive edges (such as semiconductors) with China. Success in forming trade alliances after Trump’s damage to trusted U.S. trade relations is not a given.
- The pattern of governance is a broad assets control law with additional laws directed to specific countries, such as the Cuban Assets Control Regulations. The various country specific regulations prohibit specific transactions and transfers. By controlling the flow of currency, whether to pay for imports or be paid for exports, trade is thereby restricted. Terminating the flow of currency is intended to terminate trade. It works, but not completely, because considerable trade may take place through third nations. Many U.S. goods are sold in Cuba, transferred first to middle-men in such nations as Mexico or Panama. Unilateral boycotts which are unpopular in other nations are difficult to enforce.
- The answer is less than clear. National export controls have certainly been less numerous, and therefore less on the international trade radar screen. Restricting exports is often counterintuitive to trade policy. Exports represent local production, employment and earnings, whereas imports may disrupt domestic companies, jobs and economic growth. Governments are therefore inclined to promote exports, not inhibit them. In the developing world, for example, there has been a major policy shift away from import substitution in favor of export enhancement.
- To understand the U.S. regulation of imports, one must understand a complex matrix of trade acts and agreements. See Chapter 3. To understand the as opposed to imports, the path is somewhat less cluttered. There is no comparable extensive matrix of laws regulating U.S. exports. There is one major U.S. export law which is especially important to those engaging in international trade. It is the Export Administration Act of 1979 (EAA).
- Open Chapter
Preface 5 results
- Nutshell focuses on customs and tariff law, regulation of imports and exports, trade remedies against import competition, foreign corrupt practices, technology transfers, free trade agreements and customs unions, the World Trade Organization, and the trade policies of President Trump and potential
- International Trade Beyond Trump.
- International trade law is a very broad subject, one which is constantly affected by change, as former President Trump made dramatically clear.
- Without doubt, the Biden administration will focus first on COVID and the U.S. economy. That said, as Trump proved, trade is an area where Presidential power runs deep. Changes in approach more than direction may predominate.
- For many years I have been graciously aided by academic and professional colleagues in the USA and abroad. I also wish to thank students around the globe for their continuing interest in my international trade classes and writings.
- Open Chapter
Chapter 2. Global Trade Law 101 results (showing 5 best matches)
- encouragement of trade across national borders is a recurrent theme in the law of international economic relations. There has been a shift in recent years toward freer international trade because of diminished restrictions on imported goods. However, trade problems associated with the movement of goods across national borders still arise because of restrictive trade devices which impede or distort trade. In most countries, “trade adjustment assistance” to adversely damaged workers has been inadequate.
- At Cancun in 2003, the WTO developing nations rejected these issues while focusing on agricultural trade protectionism by industrial nations. Marathon talks in July of 2008 failed to resolve agricultural trade issues, suggesting that the Doha round was dead. This has caused many nations to accelerate their participation in bilateral and regional free trade agreements. See Chapter 7. WTO trade initiatives since Doha have largely been limited to trade facilitation, information technology, environmental goods and agricultural export subsidy agreements.
- Annexed to the WTO Agreement are several Multilateral Trade Agreements. As to trade in goods, they include Agreements on Agriculture, Textiles, Antidumping, Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (SCM), Safeguards, Technical Barriers to Trade, Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS), Pre-shipment Inspection, Rules of Origin, and Import License Procedures. In addition to trade in goods, they include a General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and Agreements on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and Trade-Related Investment Measures (TRIMS).
- Early efforts by countries to limit disruptive trade practices were commonly found in bilateral treaties of friendship, commerce and navigation (FCN). More recently, bilateral and regional trade treaties, open the territory of signatory nations to imports. Such treaties are usually linked to other preferential trade agreements, most often through a reciprocal “most favored nation” (MFN) clause. In a MFN clause, both parties agree not to extend to any other nation trade arrangements which are more favorable than available under the treaty, unless the more favorable trade arrangements are immediately
- package of agreements. These are the Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization and its Annexes, which include the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 (GATT 1994) and a series of Multilateral Trade Agreements (the Covered Agreements), and a series of optional Plurilateral Trade Agreements.
- Open Chapter
Chapter 4. Trade Remedy Responses to Import Competition 94 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Such expansions and extensions of trade adjustment assistance often are closely connected with the granting of Trade Promotion Authority (“fast track”) by Congress to the President for free trade agreements, as well as to actual congressional approval of such agreements once concluded by the President. An example is the extension of the enhanced TAA programs in 2011 in connection with the approval of the free trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia, and Panama. The 2015 expansion was coordinated with the President’s revived fast track trade promotion authority.
- Trade adjustment assistance decisions for workers are made by the U.S. Department of Labor, for firms by the Department of Commerce. Such assistance
- Although the U.S. was a strong supporter of the GATT from its inception in 1947, Section 301 reflects U.S. frustration with the multilateral methods and procedures of GATT 1947. It received hostile responses from United States trade partners, especially after the amendments to Section 301 implemented in 1988 through the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act. Section 301 certainly created a bargaining chip as the U.S. pushed hard for the creation of the World Trade Organization, a goal it realized in 1995.
- Many Section 301 proceedings have been resolved through negotiations leading to alteration of foreign country practices. Ultimately, if the President or United States Trade Representative (USTR) is not satisfied with any negotiated result in connection with a Section 301 complaint, the United States may undertake unilateral retaliatory trade measures. Unlike subsidy, dumping, and safeguard proceedings, Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 has no origins in or other imprimatur of legitimacy from the GATT/WTO.
- Because escape clause proceedings do not concern any unfair trade practice, protective relief measures typically are a source of substantial friction in world trade. This perspective helps explain why the President frequently decides that it is not in the economic interest of the United States to impose escape clause relief or, if granted, decides to terminate the relief before three years have expired.
- Open Chapter
Chapter 7. Free Trade Agreements and Customs Unions 145 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Already more than half of world trade is conducted under FTAs and CUs. While international trade lawyers may celebrate full employment, it bears remembering that FTAs and CUs discriminatory. They could render MFN the least favored status in world trade. Such an outcome would be especially harmful to the world’s poorest nations, those with whom few WTO partners seek a preferential trade agreement.
- Article 24 of the GATT (1947 and 1994) attempts to manage the internal trade-creating and external trade-diverting effects of FTAs and CUs. Free trade area and custom union proposals must run the gauntlet of a formal GATT/WTO review procedure during which “binding” recommendations are possible to bring the proposals into conformity. Such recommendations might deal with Article 24 requirements for the elimination of internal tariffs and other restrictive regulations of commerce on “substantially all” products originating in a customs union or free trade area.
- Notification to GATT of Enabling Clause arrangements is mandatory. Since 1995, the WTO Committee on Trade and Development (CTD) is the forum where such notifications are reviewed, but in practice not examined in depth. Enabling Clause arrangements should be designed to promote the trade of developing countries and not raise external trade barriers or undue trade difficulties. Consultations with individual GATT members experiencing such difficulties must be undertaken, and these consultations may be expanded to all GATT members if requested.
- U.S. withdrawal from the TPP had broad consequences in the world of international trade. Perhaps most significantly, China, Japan, the EU, Canada and others moved away from U.S. trade policy leadership and pursued free trade partners elsewhere around the globe.
- Given the withdrawal of the United States from the TPP, the uncertain future of Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations between the U.S. and the EU, and the onslaught of FTAs Britain is expected to seek after BREXIT, one free trade agreement that now stands out as a trade policy model in the developed world is CETA, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between Canada and the EU, provisionally operational since 2017.
- Open Chapter
Introduction 22 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Although there are significant variations in the trade laws and economic relations of different nations, for most nations there are some accepted norms. Roughly 165 trading nations are members of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT 1947). Since its formation at the end of World War II, the GATT/WTO has grown in membership, significantly reduced tariffs, and worked towards abolishing many nontariff trade barriers. The rules noted above of various nations which allow countervailing duty, dumping and safeguard (escape clause) protective remedies all have their roots in the GATT/WTO. Hence, exports by either of the U.S. companies may encounter the same international trade remedies in, say, Brazil or India.
- Beyond these areas, the 1995 WTO “package” of agreements covers many other relevant issues: Customs law, trade quotas, agricultural products, health regulation of foods, textiles and clothing (hello Boston and Bartow!), technical product regulations, trade in services, trade-related intellectual property rights and dispute settlement. These agreements are reviewed in Chapter 2.
- organizations and entities, and the people involved in international trade and economic relations. This Nutshell covers tariffs, government-imposed restrictions on imports and exports, trade remedies, the GATT and the WTO, and the explosion of free trade agreements and customs unions, all in the context of President Trump’s highly controversial trade policies summarized in Chapter 8.
- The path to that result will be the recommended course of action suggested by the client’s counsel. Counsel must know about the full array of choices available under the U.S. trade laws, and (if U.S. exports are involved) how to defend against trade remedies in foreign jurisdictions. Trade organizations such as the WTO may grant developing nations like India and Brazil, and more controversially China, special rights to impose barriers against imports, or assist exports.
- The Bartow company never intended to engage in international trade. It has not. But it is fearful that soon it will sell nothing in Florida as well. Its officials and lawyers must learn about international business and trade law if the company is to survive, or even if it is not to survive, to provide its former employees with U.S. trade adjustment assistance made available to companies which lose out to foreign competition.
- Open Chapter
Chapter 8. Beyond Trump and Trade 49 results (showing 5 best matches)
- After a lengthy study by the USTR of China’s trade and technology acquisition practices, generally treated as not falling within WTO jurisdiction, President Trump invoked another dormant U.S. trade remedy, Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. Section 301 focuses on “unreasonable”, “unjustifiable” and “discriminatory” trade practices of foreign countries. The President has broad powers to respond with tariffs and trade restraints against “actionable” Section 301 conduct. In addition, expanded restrictions on Chinese tech and other investments and acquisitions in the USA were recommended in the USTR’s report.
- Murmurs of “trade wars”, described by President Trump as “good, and easy to win”, emerged everywhere after the U.S. steel and aluminum Section 232 tariffs. Indeed, just when trade experts believed the United States, Japan, Korea, Canada and the EU should be uniting their strength to counter China as a trade and technology superpower, President Trump made making that extremely difficult.
- President Trump then waited for China’s support against North Korea, which had been mostly limited to U.N.-derived trade sanctions. Relatively minor foreign trade and investment law changes were made
- The Trump Administration launched an extensive review and report on U.S. participation in the World Trade Organization (WTO), the ultimate rules-based multilateral agreement embraced by approximately 165 countries and customs territories. Special attention was given to WTO “most-favored-nation” trade principles, trade remedies and dispute resolution discussed previously in this chapter. That report was also highly critical of WTO procedures, specific trade remedy decisions, and especially “activism” and “overreach” on the part of the WTO Appellate Body.
- To put it simply, world trade and world trade law were seriously buffeted by the winds of COVID-19. China, for example, required global food exporters to sign affidavits their goods were COVID-safe. Tyson chicken and other U.S. meat exporters immediately signed up. Japan began paying companies to relocate from China back to their mother country. Decades of globalization were hit with re-shoring and national/nativist pressures. All that said, by the end of 2020, global trade and particularly the trade of countries that had best navigated the COVID crisis (China, Korea and Japan) had bounced back significantly.
- Open Chapter
A Foreword on “Politics matter” 9 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Above all, the experts noted that the U.S. after Trump has a huge deficit in trust around the globe on trade matters. One expert even suggested that Trump may have been the beginning of the end of the liberal world trade order that emerged under U.S. leadership after WWII. In such a one-term-for-Biden environment, it may be hard for traditional U.S. trade allies to see the USA as a reliable long-term alliance partner, particularly with Trump and the Republicans in the wings. If you were the EU, Japan, Korea, the UK (post BREXIT), Canada or Mexico, would you expect a Biden trade deal or policy change to last beyond four years?
- It will be hard for Biden to clean up U.S. trade relations in a world focused on greater self-sufficiency, nativist trade protection, and national security (including frequent cyber intrusions and powerful climate change). Four years under the one-term conditions noted above may simply not be enough even if Biden successfully organizes a united trade front with major U.S. allies. Whether a united front can be accomplished is the topic addressed in the final pages of this book.
- Biden clean-up efforts on trade will be politically risky for Democrats and must be handled delicately with U.S. allies. It will be difficult to overcome Trump’s legacy of mistrust and unreliability. His self-centered bully boy tactics and insults will not be readily forgotten. Already traditional U.S. allies have demonstrated they are willing to move forward on trade matters without the United States. See Chapter 7. The January 2021 assault by pro-Trump mobs on the U.S. Capitol during election proceedings is likely to reinforce the perception of risk associated with U.S. trade alliances and undermine Biden’s Summit for Democracy efforts.
- Prior to going to print on this book, I circulated the topic to various international trade experts. Consistent U.S. political themes that emerged from their comments went something like this:
- This picture lessens the likelihood of sharply significant Biden changes in trade policies undertaken during the Trump era. Rather, there will more likely be incremental developments, perhaps primarily procedural versus substantive in nature, particularly so if the Democrats lose control of the House of Representatives or Senate in the 2022 midterm elections.
- Open Chapter
Chapter 6. Technology Transfers 25 results (showing 5 best matches)
- The 1995 WTO package of trade accords include an agreement on trade-related intellectual property rights (TRIPs). This agreement is binding upon the roughly 165 nations that are members of the World Trade Organization. In the United States, the TRIPs agreement has been ratified and implemented by Congress under the Uruguay Round Agreements Act. There is a general requirement of national and most-favored-nation treatment among the parties.
- The Special 301 procedures established by the 1988 Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act are permanent features of United States trade legislation. See generally U.S. Section 301 Proceedings below. These procedures are in Section 182 of the Trade Act of 1974. Under these procedures the United States Trade Representative is required to identify foreign countries that deny adequate and effective protection of intellectual property rights or deny fair and equitable access to United States persons that rely upon intellectual property protection.
- Acting under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 (see Chapter 4), President Trump’s U.S. Trade Representation (USTR) completed in March 2018 a lengthy study of China’s intellectual property and technology acquisition practices. The Report was divided into three major arguments:
- A trade secret is defined in both the Law of the PRC against Unfair Competition (“Unfair Competition Law”) and the PRC Criminal Code as technical and business information which is private, able to bring economic benefits to the rightful party, is practical, and for which that party has adopted measures to maintain its confidentiality. A non-exhaustive list of measures to maintain confidentiality is set forth in the Several Provisions on the Prohibition of Acts of Infringement of Trade Secrets (the “Trade Secrets Provisions”), effective from November 23, 1995 and amended on December 3, 1998. Such measures include disclosing secrets on a need-to-know basis only, adopting physical preventive measures such as locking, marking information “confidential”, requiring access codes and passwords, and requiring confidentiality agreements.
- is not commonly recognized as protectable IP. Like trade secrets, knowhow is a high-risk area of technology. Once released (say on the Net by a disgruntled employee or retiree) knowhow is almost impossible to secure against use by others.
- Open Chapter
Outline 49 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Publication Date: February 24th, 2021
- ISBN: 9781647083038
- Subject: International Transactions and Trade
- Series: Nutshells
- Type: Overviews
-
Description:
This Nutshell examines the economics and rules governing international trade, with special emphasis on global and U.S. trade agreements in the disruptive Trump tariff war era.
After introductory chapters on trade transactions and cross-border enterprises, it analyzes the World Trade Organization (WTO) package of agreements, Trump blockage of WTO dispute settlement, regulation of imports (including customs law), and trade remedy responses to import competition. Export controls, foreign corrupt practices, preferential free trade and customs union agreements, technology transfers and a chapter on Beyond Trump and Trade follow. Trade policy alternatives are discussed and highlighted as Biden Impacts throughout this Nutshell.