S. International Trade Regulation Issues

This seminar focuses on a specific trade issue, and has a different substantive content each year. The purpose of the seminar is to provide a comprehensive discussion of a particular topic that comes under the aegis of the WTO (World Trade Organization) mandate. Following an introduction by Profs. Janow and Mavroidis, well-known experts in the field of international trade (economists, lawyers and political scientists from both academia and international organizations) will present papers that will be discussed in class. In past editions, we have dealt with preferential agreements and the problems they raise for WTO, concerns of developing countries, the challenges posed by Chinese state owned enterprises etc. The seminar is open to students of both CLS, and SIPA, and enrollment in the class is limited to 24 students (14 CLS students, 10 SIPA students) in order to facilitate classroom discussions. Students are required to write a comprehensive paper by the end of the semester on a topic that has been discussed during the semester, and has been agreed with the two professors.

Industrial policy is returning big time, and this is not just a US phenomenon. China, the European Union (EU), Japan, and Korea, have each identified and increased their subsidies in support of key industries, while a number of countries, such as Australia, and the United Kingdom (UK) have been updating their national lists of sensitive sectors that should remain national. New export control measures have been introduced by the United States and other nations, and a combination of legal and policy tools are being utilized to support priority sectors, limit and direct foreign investment and collaboration, and alter trade and investment flows. All in the name of national security. Market segmentation happens at a time of increased connectivity, the result of trade integration and investment liberalization. The stand-off between the US (and some of its allies) and China is at the background, as the world community finds it hard to get together and address the global challenges that it is now facing (climate change etc.).

The key questions we want to address are:


Within less than thirty years, we have moved from the prevalence of the "Washington consensus" (when history had ended, to the return of history.
What are the economic and political reasons for the apparent change in tenor?
How have these changes come to be reflected in the major legal and policy tools that are being utilized by major jurisdictions (US, Europe, China, Japan) as expressions of this change in tenor and application?
How significant are these shifts and approaches?
Are these trends akin to a new Cold War between the US and its allies versus China? Or is it possible to develop a broader and different configuration of policies and legal frameworks around international trade and investment, if so what are the alternatives to be considered??
Importantly, what does the recent return of sector specific and broad industrial policies mean for the significance (relevance) of the world trading system, and international cooperation at large?
What are the best ideas and approaches (legal, policy, other) that could be considered to move beyond current approaches that have parochial features, if any?


To this effect, we have invited experts from trade, investment and national security to present short papers that address specific issues on the themes mentioned above. Students participating in the seminar will be requested to write three reaction papers each to three of the papers presented at the semester (maximum 1,500 words each).