Dumping is one of the most poorly understood and contentious issues in trade policy. The primary reason is that the agreed definitions of dumping are not based on a solid economic foundation. This allows antidumping measures to be used for protectionist ends and to harass trade partners. While...

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was made among three nation-states, Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Each of these nation-states has indigenous populations within its borders. Each has chosen different legal mechanisms for interacting with indigenous peoples. For example,...

This paper examines whether government-sponsored export credit arrangements have the same effect on trade as direct export subsidies. The export credit programs for several major agricultural exporters are described. These programs are compared to OECD disciplines for export credit arrangements,...

This article examines trade and intellectual property rights questions associated with agricultural biotechnology in the Western Hemisphere and goes on to chart a potential course through which they could be addressed by an agreement on a Free Trade Area of the Americas. Issues pertaining to...

The NAFTA increasingly looks like a "one-shot" deal with little of the ongoing deepening of economic relationships expected at the time of its negotiation and no provisions for ongoing negotiations. As a result, alternative trading arrangements may provide an opportunity to move the North...

Article 22 of the Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU) of the WTO offers, as last resort countermeasures, withdrawal of the concessions the state parties had agreed to in their schedules of commitments. The problem is that such a withdrawal of concessions would have very little impact on the...

Pesticides are an important farm input both in terms of cost and in terms of their impact on crop yields and quality. With freer trade in agricultural output, differences in cost of production, yield and quality can have a large effect on competitiveness. Thus there is an increased demand by...

Not everyone in the Americas thinks that negotiating an FTAA is desirable. Some argue that the timing of the negotiations is being set by the agenda of the developed countries, particularly the US, and not that of the rest of the region. Others say that negotiating tariff reductions will do...

The technological revolutions that underlie the new information age will tax considerably the abilities of existing international institutions to bring order to international relations. Rapid rates of change may lead to chaos if international institutions cannot evolve to accommodate those...

Professionals in the field of international trade policy tend to receive their knowledge on-the-job, often with a considerable component of mentoring. While this was a reasonable knowledge transfer mechanism in a period when interest in trade policy was confined to narrow constituencies and a...