International Trade

International Political Economy Trends: International Trade

Introduction to International Trade

In the 21st century, international trade has grown to 20 percent of the world’s total production of goods and services-around $6.5 trillion per year. This volume of trade is almost seven times larger than the world’s military spending.

New institutions have developed to promote and manage the world’s trade. From 1948 to 1995, nations negotiated a series of treaties through the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which gradually lowered tariffs for most manufactured goods. In the 1990s the GATT transformed itself into the World Trade Organization (WTO), with more powers of enforcement and a broader mandate to promote trade. Overall, most political activity related to trade is concentrated in the industrialized countries of North America, Western Europe, and East Asia. Together, these countries account for about two-thirds of all international trade.

The goal of WTO is “free trade,” the open exchange of goods and services without tariffs. Proponents of free trade argue that increasing trade promotes economic growth, to the benefit of all. Many activists and developing nations have recently spoken out against free trade at WTO meetings, instead arguing that states should be allowed to protect their environment, workers’ rights, and infant industries with tariffs and other trade restrictions.” (1)

Legal Materials

To get acquainted with the major U.S. trade treaties, see Trade Law: An Introduction to Selected International Agreements and U.S. Laws (June 29, 2010) by the Congressional Research Service. To learn more international trade law, see the books referenced in the Georgetown Law Library’s list of International Trade Treatises.

Global Trade Information Services database provides extensive data on international trade, covering over two dozen major countries. However, the reports are pricey, so you may want to consider less expensive alternatives, such as the Web sites listed below in this entry.

U.S. world trade data is available from the St. Louis Fed’s FRED database, the Census Bureau’s USA Trade Online and Foreign Trade sites, the International Trade Administration, International Trade Center and the International Trade Commission’sInternational Tariff and Trade Dataweb.

Lexis has an EXPORT library, which includes the Dun & Bradstreet Export Encyclopedia (DBEXEN) and a list of people and companies denied U.S. import/export licenses (DENIED).

PIERS provides extensive information on U.S. and international shipping trade. PIERS is particularly known for their Trade Profiles provides on significant import/export companies. You can search for and purchase Trade Profiles through Piers.com. Similar information is available through Panjiva (which has historical data back to 2007) andImportGenius.com (which has historical data back to November 2006).

To identify U.S. companies — or companies in a particular U.S. state or region — doing business in a particular foreign country, look in the Directory of American Firms Operating In Foreign Companies, in print or online, from Uniworld. You could also contact the U.S. Embassy in the relevant country and ask if they have a list.

To identify importers or export companies located in a state or region, use Piers.com and/or the D&B Million Dollar Directory (the Advanced Search lets you select “Importer,” “Exporter” or both).

To identify foreign companies doing business in the U.S. or in a particular U.S. state, use the Directory of Foreign Firms Operating in the United States, in print or online, from Uniworld.

Useful online resources for international trade include:

The U.S. Commerce Department’s Market Research Library, which provides reports on U.S. exports by industry and country;
Lex Mercatoria
International Trade Administration
Export-Import Bank of the United States
The United States International Trade Commission, which allows you to search filings through EDIS, the Electronic Document Information System
The U.S. International Trade Commission’s Tariff Information Center, which includes the current Harmonized Tariff Schedule
The U.S. Census Bureau’s Foreign Trade Statistics page
The NTIS Business Collection, where you can buy U.S. government reports and other publications.
The U.S. International Trade Commission posts the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States.
The European Union posts Trade Issues pages discussing EU foreign trade policy. The Bilateral Trade Relations section provides data on EU trade with specific countries.
The U.S. International Trade Library on HeinOnline contains a large collection of International Trade Commission materials and international trade-related legislative histories (by subscription only).
The “International” section of Globalex has guides for researching a number of trade agreements including NAFTA, CAFTA, APEC, Asean, ECOWAS, CEMAC and MERCOSUR.
For more sources, see the Georgetown Law Library’s International Trade Law Research Guide.

Customs: Following are some resources I have found useful for customs law research.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP; formerly the U.S. Customs Service) websites posts U.S. import and export rules, particularly the Legal Decisions/Publications page.
The Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) database provides selected U.S. Customs and Boarder Protection rulings (1989-present).
The CUSTOMS Info database contains more US rulings than CROSS as well as EU rulings and WCO Explanatory Notes (subscription only).
Trade and Customs (from the Getting the Deal Through series) summarizes customs rules of a dozen trade organizations including the WTO, WCO, TPP, NAFTA, Mercosur, the European Union and the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia.
The International Trade Today covers new U.S. “Federal rules and regulations for trade and customs professionals.”

Export Controls: To get a grip on U.S. export controls, check out the current edition ofCoping with U.S. Export Controls, a PLI Course Handbook in the Commercial Law series. See the Practicing Law Institute entry, in the legal Encyclopedia, for options on obtaining PLI content. For more, see the “United States” chapter of the Export Control Law and Regulations Handbook: A Practical Guide to Military and Dual-Use Goods, Trade Restrictions and Compliance (Aspen) and/or Corporate Counsel’s Guide to Economic Sanctions and Embargoes (ThomsonReuters/West).

See also the materials posted by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (including the Introduction to Commerce Department Export Controls), the State Department’s Directorate of Defense Controls (which is responsible for the International Traffic in Arms Regulations or “ITAR”), the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Controls and any other relevant agencies.

Note: The International Traffic in Arms Regulations or “ITAR” are published at 22 C.F.R. Chapter 1, Subchapter M, Parts 120-130. An annotated edition with practice tips by called Bartlett’s Annotated ITAR (“the BITAR”) by James Ellwood Bartlett III is available from Full Circle Compliance.

For other countries, the Export Control Law and Regulations Handbook: A Practical Guide to Military and Dual-Use Goods, Trade Restrictions and Compliance (Aspen) has chapters on China, the European Union, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Russia, Spain, and the United Kingdom. You may also want to see also information on the Wassenaar Arrangement, an international agreement “on Export Controls for Conventional Arms and Dual Use Goods and Technologies.” The Trade and Customsvolume from the Getting the Deal Through series lists the major sanctions and embargoes put in place by the countries covered.

Economic Principles of International Trade and the World Trade Organization

Economic Principles of International Trade in relation to the World Trade Organization (WTO) covers several issues.See more related entries to International Trade in this legal encyclopedia.

Resources

Notes and References

Information about International Trade in the Encarta Online Encyclopedia

Guide to International Trade

In the United States

For information about International Trade in the context of international trade, click here