Fundamentals of U.s. Foreign Trade Policy: Economics, Politics, Laws, and Issues

About the Author Stephen D. Cohen is professor of international relations at the School of International Service at American University. Robert A. Blecker is professor of economics at American University and a research associate of the Economic Policy Institute. Product Description This unique text integrates for the first time the three critical aspects of U.S. foreign trade policy formulation and implementation: economics, politics, and laws. In a comprehensive and nonjudgmental manner, a political scientist, an economist, and a legal scholar combine efforts to present a well-rounded view of the nature and impact of trade policy as well as how it is made. First, they give a quick review of the history of U.S. trade policy and follow this with an explication of key economic principles and theories. They outline political processes and actors, then examine the laws that emanate from the political arena as they apply to imports, exports, the GATT, and the World Trade Organization.A final section combines the three perspectives in an analysis of key challenges to contemporary U.S. trade: Japan, the European Union, nonindustrialized countries, NAFTA, and the Uruguay Round of GATT trade negotiations. Looking toward the future, the authors conclude that given constant changes in the political, economic, and legal environments of trade, the import and export policies of the United States (and of most other countries) are subject to constant evolution—and occasional revolution.