International Trade

What is international trade?  imports, exports  foreign investment  WTO, NAFTA, EU  and, potentially, everything else

Trade terms  Dumping -- selling imports into a domestic market at a price lower than the cost of production in the country of origin—”less 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

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

WTO history  Began in 1995, built on GATT  GATT began in  GATT intended as tariff-cutting agreement.  “Rounds” are series of negotiations intended to cut tariffs.

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

WTO: 6 components  trade in goods –1994 GATT agreement –all bound  product standards –all bound  GATS –trade in services—not all bound  TRIPs –all bound  plurilateral agreements (e.g., gov’t procurement) –some bound  dispute resolution –all bound

WTO structure  Ministerial Body (meets every 2 years; e.g., Seattle)  General Council –main governing body  Secretariat –permanent professional staff

WTO dispute resolution process  “request for consultations” = complaint  panel  appellate body (appeals routine)  loser must bring itself into compliance  if not, winner can retaliate

Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs); Free Trade Agreements (FTAs)  permitted by WTO  multilateral or bilateral  important because of stalled progress on Doha round  US aggressively pursuing

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

Researching WTO law  Jeanne Rehberg’s guide: /researchguides/wtogattresearch/index.htm  ASIL’s Elec. Res. Guide  treatises for background, concepts, details  WTO site  USTR site for US perspective

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

WTO Analytical Index

WTO Analytical Index—find decisions by treaty article

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.,

WorldTradeLaw.net  part free, part subscription  search engine for WTO docs  easier to download WTO docs  expert commentary, index

TradeLawGuide  citator for WTO panel and AB decisions  interprets key terms  WTO jurisprudence by treaty, article

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

Other resources  Westlaw, Lexis WTO panel and AB decisions NAFTA decisions treaties  GATT documents – Stanford simple simple  BNA’s International Trade Reporter