Improving trade policy reviews in the world trade organization

The Trade Policy Review Mechanism is part of the World Trade Organization. Its purpose is to strengthen observance of WTO commitments and promote trade liberalization by providing all member countries with objective information about the trade policies and practices of each member individually an...

Is the u.s. trade deficit sustainable?

The global financial crisis of 1997-98 and the widening US trade deficit have precipitated fresh inquiry into a set of perennial questions about global integration and the US economy. How has global integration affected US producers and workers, and overall growth and inflation? Is a chronic and ...

Job loss from imports

There is an important question lost in the debate over the number of jobs created or destroyed by trade liberalization: as the dynamic American economy continues to change, with freer trade and technological advances, what kind of work will Americans do? In a dynamic economy jobs are created and ...

Launching new global trade talks

The end of the 20th century will mark the beginning of a new era for the world trading system. More than 130 member countries of the World Trade Organization (WTO) will begin negotiations in 1999 on a broad range of subjects, including agriculture, services, intellectual property, and trade and t...

Measuring the costs of protection in china

Measuring the costs of protection in europe

Trade protection costs the European Community between 6 and 7 percent of its gross domestic product, or the equivalent of the annual economic output of Spain. Continuing the Institute's series on trade protection in major countries (which already includes the United States, Japan, Korea, and Chin...

Measuring the costs of protection in the united states

This comprehensive study finds that tariffs and quantitative import restrictions in place in 1990 cost American consumers about $70 billion, more than 1 percent of GDP. The net national welfare loss, after deducting tariff revenues and transfers to domestic producers, was $11 billion, of which pe...

Nafta and climate change

NAFTA remains a centerpiece of US trade-policy debate, but its provisions have sacrificed environmental concerns for the sake of trade liberalization. This timely volume analyzes the national policies of the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The authors explain how the competing priorities of pr...

Nafta and the environnment

Air and water pollution blighted northern Mexican cities long before the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was a glimmer on the political horizon. Not surprisingly, when NAFTA became a political reality, environmentalists argued that commercial competition would weaken environmental sta...

New regional trading arrangements in the asia pacific?

What are the choices the Asia-Pacific community will face if it proceeds further down the path of developing preferential regional trading arrangements? Fragmentation of the region into preferential trading arrangements on a bilateral or subregional basis promises relatively little economic gain ...

No more bashing

For more than three decades, the United States has conducted a unique Japan-specific economic policy. This policy was motivated by Japan's economic size and dynamism, fears that a unique "Japanese model of capitalism" enabled it to compete unfairly and threaten American prosperity during a period...

Prospects for a us-taiwan free trade agreement

Taiwan has a special status for the United States, as both a leading high-technology economic partner and a place of political and security concern. The authors look at both the quantitative and qualitative evidence on the potential effects of a US-Taiwan free trade agreement (FTA), both for maxi...

Prospects for free trade in the americas

Negotiations on a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) were officially launched at the Santiago Summit in April 1998. This study examines the prospects for the FTAA in light of recent economic and political turmoil in Latin America and the continuing impasse over US "fast-track" authority. The ...

Reciprocity and retaliation in u.s. trade policy

Should the United States use retaliatory threats to open foreign markets or deter unfair trading practices? This study reexamines the arguments for and against reciprocity and retaliatory threats in light of actual experience since early 1975, especially the United States' aggressive use of the s...

Regional trading blocs in the world economic system

This book explores whether the world economy is breaking up into regional trading and currency blocs centred on the European Community, Japan and the United States. Frankel uses trade, investment and financial data to assess this issue. He concludes with an analysis of how trends in regional econ...

Rising tide

In 1963, John F. Kennedy said that "a rising tide lifts all the boats. And a partnership, by definition, serves both parties, without domination or unfair advantage." US international economic policy since World War II has been based on the premise that foreign economic growth is in America's eco...

Sustaining reform with a us-pakistan free trade agreement

The United States and Pakistan established diplomatic relations in 1947, shortly after Pakistan gained its independence. Since then, relations have alternated between episodes of close partnership and sharp friction—reflecting the ups and downs of global and regional geopolitics. The tides of for...

The new politics of american trade

Imports pour into the United States, up by 79 percent in six years. The trade deficit more than doubles. The House of Representatives solidly rejects a bill that would liberalize global and regional trade and endorses import quotas for a major manufactured product by a two-to-one margin. Although...

The shape of a swiss-us free trade agreement

At first sight, a free trade agreement (FTA) between Switzerland and the United States seems implausible, but this important new study concludes that an FTA between the two countries would be highly worthwhile to both. As leading advocates of market capitalism, Switzerland and the United States a...

The trans-pacific partnership and asia-pacific integration

While global trade negotiations remain stalled, two tracks of trade negotiations in the Asia-Pacific—the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement and a parallel Asian track—could generate momentum for renewed liberalization and provide pathways to region-wide free trade. This book inves...

The united states should establish permanent normal trade relations with russia

In the coming year, Congress is likely to face a critical vote on granting Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) to Russia in connection with its impending membership to the World Trade Organization (WTO). A "yes" on PNTR for Russia could set the tone for economic relations between the United S...

The world trading system

The wto after seattle

The failure of the Seattle trade ministerial in December 1999 to launch a new round of multilateral trade negotiations dealt a major blow to the World Trade Organization (WTO). The Seattle meetings exposed significant policy differences among the WTO member countries as well as shortcomings in th...

Toward a north american community

The Mexican peso crisis struck in late December 1994, coinciding with a new Mexican administration and the end of the first year of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The crisis poignantly highlighted the success and the inadequacy of the treaty—success in the expansion of trade and...

Toward a us-indonesia free trade agreement

Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world. Would a free trade agreement (FTA) with the country be beneficial both economically and politically to the United States? What kind of benefit could Indonesia expect? This book presents a case for improved trade relations between Indonesia and...

Trade and income distribution

For more than a decade, there have been two important trends in the American economy. The first trend has been toward increasing openness of the economy to the international flows of goods, money, people, and ideas. The second has been very slow or even negative growth in real wages and a widenin...