Clashing Over Commerce


Book Description

A Foreign Affairs Best Book of the Year: “Tells the history of American trade policy . . . [A] grand narrative [that] also debunks trade-policy myths.” —Economist Should the United States be open to commerce with other countries, or should it protect domestic industries from foreign competition? This question has been the source of bitter political conflict throughout American history. Such conflict was inevitable, James Madison argued in the Federalist Papers, because trade policy involves clashing economic interests. The struggle between the winners and losers from trade has always been fierce because dollars and jobs are at stake: depending on what policy is chosen, some industries, farmers, and workers will prosper, while others will suffer. Douglas A. Irwin’s Clashing over Commerce is the most authoritative and comprehensive history of US trade policy to date, offering a clear picture of the various economic and political forces that have shaped it. From the start, trade policy divided the nation—first when Thomas Jefferson declared an embargo on all foreign trade and then when South Carolina threatened to secede from the Union over excessive taxes on imports. The Civil War saw a shift toward protectionism, which then came under constant political attack. Then, controversy over the Smoot-Hawley tariff during the Great Depression led to a policy shift toward freer trade, involving trade agreements that eventually produced the World Trade Organization. Irwin makes sense of this turbulent history by showing how different economic interests tend to be grouped geographically, meaning that every proposed policy change found ready champions and opponents in Congress. Deeply researched and rich with insight and detail, Clashing over Commerce provides valuable and enduring insights into US trade policy past and present. “Combines scholarly analysis with a historian’s eye for trends and colorful details . . . readable and illuminating, for the trade expert and for all Americans wanting a deeper understanding of America’s evolving role in the global economy.” —National Review “Magisterial.” —Foreign Affairs




The Tariff


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Collected Papers


Book Description

The appearance of this volume in the Harvard Economic Studies merits a word of explanation. Metzler's doctoral thesis, "Interregional Income Generation," was accepted by Harvard University in 1942 and awarded the Wells Prize for the year 1944-45. Thus the prize essay now appears in print, vastly enriched by the company of Metzler's later papers, all of which have been lighly edited for consistency. The opening chapter of Metzler's thesis investigated the comparative statics and stability properties of a two-country world with Keynesian internal conditions. The second chapter of Metzler's thesis approached the classic "transfer problem" in the context of a Keynesian two-country model. The extensive final chapter of Metzler's thesis, which had not been published, dealt with financial equilibrium in the context of international capital transfers, augmenting the Keynesian income-equilibrium conditions that underlie the basic analysis of the foreign-trade multiplier with the requirement of equilibrium in the market for securities. Metzler's later work in international economics touched upon a number of topics. One of these was the joint influence of tariffs on the terms of trade and distribution of income, explored in two papers published in 1949. Metzler's contributions have also done much to advance the theory of monetary adjustments in the international economy.




Importing Into the United States


Book Description

Explains process of importing goods into the U.S., including informed compliance, invoices, duty assessments, classification and value, marking requirements, etc.







Handbook of Deep Trade Agreements


Book Description

Deep trade agreements (DTAs) cover not just trade but additional policy areas, such as international flows of investment and labor and the protection of intellectual property rights and the environment. Their goal is integration beyond trade or deep integration. These agreements matter for economic development. Their rules influence how countries (and hence, the people and firms that live and operate within them) transact, invest, work, and ultimately, develop. Trade and investment regimes determine the extent of economic integration, competition rules affect economic efficiency, intellectual property rights matter for innovation, and environmental and labor rules contribute to environmental and social outcomes. This Handbook provides the tools and data needed to analyze these new dimensions of integration and to assess the content and consequences of DTAs. The Handbook and the accompanying database are the result of collaboration between experts in different policy areas from academia and other international organizations, including the International Trade Centre (ITC), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and World Trade Organization (WTO).