The Legal Thinking Of American Interest Group And The Foreign Trade Policy

Interest groups, which affect the decision of American domestic and foreign policies directly or indirectly, are indispensable parts of American democracy. With the development of American government's multiplex and dispersant, the interest groups who advocate the realization of personal interest are being pushed into the main part of American politics. The decision-making procedure of US foreign trade policy is completed in its political market, which provides constitutional conditions for the participation of interest group in the US foreign policy. After the Cold War, with the forward of American interest group's participation into the decision-making procedure, the influence on American trade policies to China was strengthening. Therefore, it has great and profound meaning that we study American interest group systematically and explore the correlation.This article adopts the systematology research method, using several subjects such as international economic law, economic law, international economy, international politics and sociology to make research on the interest group. And use historical analysis method to research the reason of the genesis and the development of the US interest group, the influence of the decision-making subject and the interest group inserting on the US trade policy vicissitude.This first part of the article is to analyze and define the object of study-the interest group, and clarify the reason of the genesis and the development of interest group in the view of the social benefits conflicts, the concept of US Constitution, the political system, multi-cultural and the associational tradition of American.The second part discuss the effects that the US Congress, USTR, partial politics put on the US trade policies, which under different historical conditions and jurisdiction of trade policy formulation, combining the formulation subject with the change of the US trade policies.The third part analyzes the interest group's function in the decision-making of American foreign trade policies through the US political system. This part analyze the partial politics and the election under the parties and groups system, the role of Congress and president in the decentralization system, the Court under judicial system, beginning with the method and the way that interest group influence the trade decision-making. Then, the article clarifies the interest group's effects on trade policies profoundly in historical analysis method, dividing the vicissitude of the US trade policies in two stages with the 1934 "Reciprocal Trade Agreement Act" and in 1974 "Trade Reform Act".The fourth part empirically analyzes the two interest groups' function in American's trade policies decision-making towards China through PNTR, which advocate and oppose China. Then, proposing China's counter-measures in Sino-US trade on the analysis.Though the analysis, we can have the conclusion. The reason, which interest group can affect the US foreign trade policy decision-making, is its closing relationship with American unique political system and political tradition. Decentralization power structure creates favorable conditions for the interest groups' solicits. US Constitution and political tradition encourage the different viewpoints and interest groups' existent, which guarantee and foster the interest groups' participation in decision-making process. Interest groups, as non-official factor in policy formulation, are working on policy-making subject under the political system. Currently, none interest group with the absolute superiority has formed domestically, therefore, the American trade policy towards China are lacking one overwhelming benefits goal, and the interest pattern will preserve the coexisting of all kinds of benefits for longtime. At the same time, the divergence, the competition and the changing strength of interest groups, inevitably induce the vacillation of the American trade policy towards China. Consequently, we should take the line of benefits into the consideration our policy-making, and learn the expression mechanism of interest group, urge the status legalization of our interest group, establish the regulatory cooperation platform, and make the trade policy serve and insure our country benefit in the greatest degree.