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Apr 29, 2022 · Trade policy is a government’s stance on international trade, or a combination of laws and practices that affects imports and exports. Trade policies can include regulations, tariffs, and quotas.
In this free resource on trade policy, explore how countries leverage their economic power to advance their foreign policy interests.
Feb 4, 2021 · Key trade functions of the U.S. government include formulating and coordinating trade policy; negotiating trade and investment agreements; enforcing U.S. trade laws and U.S. rights under trade agreements; and administering trade and investment programs, such as export financing, import inspection and safety, and trade adjustment assistance.
- Bilateral trade agreements
- Reciprocity
- The most-favoured-nation clause
A bilateral trade agreement usually includes a broad range of provisions regulating the conditions of trade between the contracting parties. These include stipulations governing customs duties and other levies on imports and exports, commercial and fiscal regulations, transit arrangements for merchandise, customs valuation bases, administrative for...
In a trade agreement, the parties make reciprocal concessions to put their trade relationships on a basis deemed equitable by each. The principle of reciprocity is extremely old, and in one form or another it is to be found, implicitly at least, in all trade agreements. The concessions may, however, be in different areas. In the Anglo-French Agreem...
The most-favoured-nation (MFN) clause binds a country to apply to its partner country any lower rate of import duties that it may later grant to imports from some other country. The clause may cover a list of specified products only, or specific concessions yielded to certain foreign countries. Alternatively, it may cover all advantages, privileges, immunities, or other favourable treatment granted to any third country whatever. The clause is intended to provide each signatory with the assurance that the advantages obtained will not be attenuated or wiped out by a subsequent agreement concluded between one of the partners and a third country. It guarantees the parties against discriminatory treatment in favour of a competitor.
The effect of the MFN clause on customs duties is to amalgamate the successive trade agreements concluded by a state. If the rates in different agreements are fixed at varying levels, the clause reduces them to the lowest rate specified in any agreement. Thus, goods imported from a country benefiting from MFN treatment are charged the rate of duty applicable to imports from another country which, in a subsequent trade agreement, has negotiated a lower rate of duty.
The coverage of the MFN clause can be considerably reduced by a minute definition of a particular item so that a concession, while general in form, applies in practice to only one country. A historical illustration of this technique can be found in the German Tariff of 1902, which admitted at a special rate
large dappled mountain cattle, reared at a spot at least 300 metres above sea level, and which have at least one month’s grazing each year at a spot at least 800 metres above sea level.
The advantages granted under the MFN clause may be conditional or unconditional. If unconditional, the clause operates automatically whenever appropriate circumstances arise. The country drawing benefit from it is not called on to make any fresh concession. By contrast, the partner invoking a conditional MFN clause must make concessions equivalent to those extended by the third country. A typical wording was that of the 1911 treaty between the United States and Japan, which stated that
in all that concerns commerce and navigation, any privilege, favour or immunity…to the citizens or subjects of any other State shall be extended to the citizens or subjects of the other Contracting Party gratuitously, if the concession in favour of that other State shall have been gratuitous, and on the same or equivalent conditions, if the concession shall have been conditional.
Feb 21, 2024 · U.S. trade policy has generally sought to advance U.S. economic growth and competitiveness by: reducing international trade and investment barriers; fostering an open, transparent, and nondiscriminatory rules-based trading system through the World Trade Organization (WTO); enforcing partner countries’ trade commitments and U.S. trade laws; and o...
Jan 3, 2024 · The U.S. trade policy and investment system includes the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements which form the "multilateral bedrock of U.S. trade policy" 1, its tariff, tariff rate quotas, 14 reciprocal free trade agreements, 5 preferential trade programs, 51 trade and investment framework agreements, 48 bilateral investment treaties, trade ...
Trade policies. Reforms since World War II have substantially reduced government-imposed trade barriers. But policies to protect domestic industries vary. Tariffs are much higher in certain sectors (such as agriculture and clothing) and among certain country groups (such as less developed countries) than in others.
