International Trade Law

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

This course is about international trade policy and law. It offers an introduction to the political economy of international trade policy, and the law of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The first part of the course is about how governments balance offensive (i.e., export-competing) interests and defensive (import-competing) liabilities in formulating a country’s trade policy. The second part of the course turns to the role of the WTO in settling disputes that arise among countries balancing defensive and offensive interests. This involves an examination of WTO case law; we will take an in-depth look at several of the most important WTO disputes. Finally, the course looks at the rise of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).