United States Foreign Trade Law Of The Political And Economic Analysis

The U.S. foreign trade occupies a large percentage of global international trade and contributes a lot to the development of world economy. The U.S. foreign trade laws are important methods to stipulate and promote the U.S. foreign trade. They have a great effect on the evolution of the world trade and formation of trade regimes. Choosing the U.S. foreign trade laws as its research subject, this essay analyses the formation and development of these laws from the both political and economic perspectives.There are 5 chapters in the essay as well as introductory and conclusive remarks.It presents the question and its significance, defines the researching scope, contents and methods, reviews the current literatures, and points out the insufficientcy of present studies and the innovations and prospects of this essay in the introductory remarks.The text, consisting of chapters 1 to 5, includes three main parts:The first part carries out the hisdorical analysis of the political and economic backgrounds that attributed to the shaping and development of important foreign trade laws in every stage from the independency of the U.S. till now. It includes Chapter 1.The U.S. foreign trade laws have adapted themselves to the changes of political and economic trends from time to time. The evolution is devided into three main stages as the stage of "trade protection" from the independency of the U.S. till 1930s, the stage of "encouraging free trade " from 1930s till 1970s and the stage of "fair trade " from 1970s till now. The important foreign trade laws developed in the first stage include Navigation Acts, Embargo Act, the Tariff Act of 1816, Mckinley Tariff Act, Dingley Tariff Act, Underwood Tariff Act, the Anti-Dumping Act of 1916 and the Tariff Act of 1930. The important laws in the second stage are the 1934 Reciprocal Trade Agreement Act and the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. The ones in the third stage are the 1974 Trade Act, Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988, Bipartisan Trade Promotion Authority Act of 2002 and Byrd Amendment. This chapter chooses these laws as the study subjects, and centres on the political and economic backgrounds that giving their birth. It's concluded that every law was the result of political and economic environment at that time, stood for the situation and objectives of political and economic area and fully reflected the changes of the historical backgrounds.The second part carries out the realistic analysis on typical laws including the changed political and economic environment faced by 1934 Act which serves as a link between past and future and the basis of prevailing legal systems and the adjustment taken by 1934 Act according to these changes, the political and economic nature and effects of sections 301-310 of 1974 Trade Act as typical export law and Byrd Amendment as typical import law, as well as the developing trend of the U.S. foreign trade laws given current political and economic factors. It includes chapters 2, 3 and 4.1934 Act is a milestone of the development of the U.S. foreign trade laws and is the basis of the prevailing laws. The 1934 System established by 1934 Act is still in its effect. Before 1934, the Congress owned the complete right to make laws in foreign trade. However, the pressure brought by all kinds of interest groups were so big that the Congress had to creat the new 1934 System to absorb the President into the legislative regime, shifting the pressure as well as controlling the legislative power indirectly. Reciprocal trade agreements became the main forms of the U.S. foreign trade laws after 1934. The principles created by 1934 Act, such as Most-Favored Nation Treatment, have been adopted by multilateral trade system and still in effect. Chapter 2 chooses 1934 Act and 1934 System as its study subjects, and centres on the changed international political and economic environment such as the "declination" of the U.S., the emergency of new competitors, the weakenness of GATT, the stagflation, the misalignment of U.S. dollars, three poles of economy and the conclusion of the Cold War, and the changed national political and economic environment, such as descending of power of the Congress for self protection, the dilemma of government and the continuing prosperity of foreign trade, faced by the system after its establishment. It points out the corresponding adjustments taken by the system. The remarks on its advantages, disadvantages and contradictions are made at the end of this chapter.Sections 301-310 of 1974 Trade Act which consist of the "System of Clause 301" stand for the transformation of legislative basis from "free trade"to "fair trade". The "System of Clause 301" is a mechanism of threaten and invites the dissatisfaction of WTO members. With reviewing the main contents and the case, Chapter 3 analyses its nature as the violation of multilateral trade rules, a mechanism of threaten and retaliation, an offensive mechanism aiming at stimulating export, and a clause of dispute settlement. It reveals unilateralism taken by the U.S. in foreign trade area for a long time. Byrd Amendment is taken as typical example of important laws. The Congress brought it into effect regardless of its "illegal nature" on the very beginning, its done failure and its invitation of suits and retaliation from trade partners. It absorbed the attention and research efforts from all over the world. With reviewing the main contents and the case of Byrd Amendment, Chapter 3 analyses its nature as abusing anti-dumping measures and establishing of protection barriers. It reveals the political and economic effects, such as encouraging more anti-dumping and counter-vailing petitions and support, encouraging inefficient production inside, involve endless trouble with foreign enterprises, increasing transaction cost, inviting retaliation from trade partners, weakening impetus to settle disputes by negotiation, and relieving political and economic pressure of Bush Administration successfully.Forteign trade laws are influenced by both international and national political and economic factors. Combined with the conclusions above and the environment recently, Chapter 4 forecasts the changing trend of the U.S. foreign trade laws, including: (1) the labour standards and environment protection will be concerned about greatly; (2) safety regulations will be incorporated into import laws; (3) laws of anti-dumping, counter-vailing and anti-circumvention will be used in the meanwhile; (4) applicable conditions of counter-vailing measures will be relaxed; (5) the crack of export control will be greater; (6) protection of intellectural property rights will be one of the most important areas; (7) regional and bilateral trade agreements will be more active than multilateral trade system; (8) some important trade laws will be modified; (9) fast track authority will be in its "vacuum" period for the second time; (10) liberalism will be in an inferior position in the condending with protectionism.The third part carries out the empirical analysis of Sino-U.S. legal trade disputes from the political and economic perspectives. It includes chapter 6.All the legal trade disputes in the U.S. are the outcomes of implementation of foreign trade laws. But their objectives are not only rectifying the violation of inappropriate actions that violating trade regulations and procedures. There are deep political and economic motives beyond them. Sino-U.S. legal trade disputes are chosen as the example of the implementation of such laws. On one hand, China and the U.S. are two most important countries in the world both in political and economic areas. Their ideology, social regime, developing level and style of action are quite different. They are big trade partners to each other. Their disputes are of typical meaning. On the other hand, the study of Sino-U.S. trade disputes plays a practical role as far as nationality of the author is concerned. Starting with the general situation of their trade disputes, this chapter analyses the common legal tools such as "non-market economy" anti-dumping system, safeguard and special safeguard measures and "System of Clause 337", and the new trend of their implementation. It centres on the political and economic sources of such disputes from the global, the U.S. and China perspectives, and puts forwards our tacticts dealing with them thereof.In the conclusive remarks, it reveals the advanced quality and limitations of the U.S. foreign trade laws and points out that the laws can be referred, predicted and tackled from political and economic points of view.