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The Structure and Evolution of Recent U.S. Trade Policy

The trade policies addressed in this book have far-reaching effects on the world’s increasingly interdependent economies, but until now little research has been devoted to them. This volume represents the first systematic effort to analyze specific U.S. trade policies, particularly nontariff measures. It provides a better understanding of how trade policies operate, how effective they are, and what their costs and benefits are to trading nations.

The contributors chart the history of U.S. trade policy since World War II, analyze industry-specific trade barriers, and discuss the effects of tariff preferences and export-promoting policies such as export credits and domestic international sales corporations (DISCs). The final section of essays examines the worldwide impact of import policies, pointing out subtleties in industry-specific policies and providing insight into the levels of protection in developing countries. The contributors blend state-of-the-art economics with language that is accessible to the business community, economists, and policymakers. Commentaries accompany each paper.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Robert E. Baldwin and Anne O. Krueger
I. U. S. Trade Policy since World War II
Introduction
1. The Changing Nature of U.S. Trade Policy since World War II
Robert E. Baldwin
Comment: Richard N. Cooper
Comment: Alfred Reifman
II. Industry-Specific Nontariff Trade Barriers
Introduction
2. Voluntary Export Restraint in U.S. Autos, 1980-81: Quality, Employment, and Welfare Effects
Robert C. Feenstra
Comment: Ronald W. Jones
Comment: Mordechai E. Kreinin
3. U.S. Antidumping Policies: The Case of Steel
Barry Eichengreen and Hans van der Ven
Comment: Wilfred J. Ethier
Comment: Gary N. Horlick
4. The Multifiber Arrangement and Its Effect on the Profit Performance of the U.S. Textile Industry
Joseph Pelzman
Comment: David G. Tarr
Comment: Martin Wolf
III. Trade Policies to Facilitate Domestic Adjustment, Promote Developing Country Exports, and Meet Strategic Concerns
Introduction
5. Costs and Benefits of Trade Adjustment Assistance
C. Michael Aho and Thomas O. Bayard
Comment: J. David Richardson
6. The U.S. Generalized System of Preferences and Its Impacts
André Sapir and Lars Lundberg
Comment: Tracy Murray
7. The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve: An Analytic Framework
Jonathan Eaton and Zvi Eckstein
Comment: John Whalley
IV. Export-Promoting Policies
Introduction
8. The Domestic International Sales Corporation and Its Effects
John Mutti and Harry Grubert
Comment: Stephen P. Magee
Comment: William R. Cline
9. The Benefits and Costs of Official Export Credit Programs
Heywood Fleisig and Catharing Hill
Comment: Rachel McCulloch
V. Levels of Protection in the Developed Countries
Introduction
10. The Effects of the Tokyo Round on the Structure of Protection
Alan V. Deardorff and Robert M. Stern
11. Effects of Protection in Developed Countries on Developing Countries’ Exports of Manufactures
Helen Hughes and Anne O. Krueger
Comment: Irving B. Kravis
List of Contributors
Author Index
Subject Index

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