US TRADE 2007

GLOBALIZATION

Hearing on Trade and Globalization

House - Committee on Ways and Means – Hearing - January 30, 2007

http://waysandmeans.house.gov/hearings.asp?formmode=detail&hearing=512

“During the hearing, Members hope to elicit responses from witnesses on the following: (1) the philosophy that more trade is always better, no matter its terms or contents; (2) whether the benefits of globalization are being spread broadly to working people, farmers, businesses and consumers in the United States, and if not, what specific changes to U.S. trade policy and international trading rules should be recommended to maximize the benefits and minimize the costs of globalization; and (3) what have been some of the most important successes of U.S. trade policy in the recent past in terms of maximizing the benefits of globalization and minimizing its costs.”

Robert L. Thompson

Globalization and the Benefits of Trade

Chicago Fed Letter - March 2007 (Number 236) Essays On Issues – 4 pages

http://www.chicagofed.org/publications/fedletter/cflmarch2007_236.pdf

“Globalization involves increasing integration of economies around the world, from the national to the most local levels, thereby promoting international trade in goods and services and cross-border movement of information, technology, people, and investments. This article examines the benefits and costs to the U.S. and other countries.”
Pan A. Yotopoulos

The Asymmetric Benefits of Globalization

Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research - Policy Brief – March 2007 – 6 pages

http://siepr.stanford.edu/papers/briefs/policybrief_mar07.html

“Although this brief has focused on the risk that globalization becomes the epitaph of growth in the third world, the increasing divide between the rich and the poor within countries, be they developed or developing, may prove even more ominous for the future of globalization itself. Unless the gains from free trade are shared more equally between rich and poor countries, and among the rich and the poor within them, the future of this second globalization may be short-lived.”

Jeff Faux

Globalization That Works for Working Americans

Economic Policy Institute - Briefing Paper - January 11, 2007 – 22 pages

http://www.sharedprosperity.org/bp179/bp179.pdf

The author advocates for better management of globalization through better international trade and investment agreements and policies. The author states that the present system rewards those at the top of the income ladder while working families suffer from stagnant wages and benefits. He further writes that over the last two decades, the mismanagement of trade policies has damaged the U.S.’s competitiveness and has caused trade deficits to soar. The paper offers a new, comprehensive strategy to change these imbalances.

Lee Hudson Teslik

The Global Auto Industry

Council on Foreign Relations – Backgrounder - March 2, 2007

www.cfr.org/publication/12764/global_auto_industry.html

“In February 2007, DaimlerChrysler executives announced a plan to restructure Chrysler's operations. As part of the restructuring, the company will cut thirteen thousand jobs, reduce its total production capacity, and consider divesting the Chrysler brand altogether. The announcement, analysts said, could mark the beginning of the end for an unhappy nine-year marriage between the companies, a merger celebrated in its time… Regardless of what happens to Chrysler, DaimlerChrysler’s woes highlight the shifting realities of the global auto industry. As Detroit’s automakers have struggled, Japan’s Toyota is commanding increased influence. A handful of Chinese manufacturers are also elbowing for global significance, especially in the auto-parts market.”
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INTERNATIONAL TRADE

U.S. Trade Agenda

House Committee on Ways and Means – Hearing - February 14, 2007

http://waysandmeans.house.gov/hearings.asp?formmode=detail&hearing=526

The hearing will examine the direction and content of U.S. trade policy, including:

(1) the status of the WTO Doha Round negotiations and the role U.S. positions on agriculture, services, and industrial market access (including non-tariff barriers) have played in the talks; (2) the status of signed and yet-to-be-completed U.S. FTAs, including a review of open issues; (3) the U.S. policy responses to the U.S. trade deficit and debt… (4) the operation of the WTO Dispute Settlement Body…; (5) the status of Russia’s, and other countries’, accession to the WTO; (6) whether U.S. preference programs are effective in promoting growth and economic development, particularly in low-income and least developed countries, including Haiti; (7) issues related to extension of presidential trade negotiating authority; and (7) other issues.

Perspectives on the 2007 Trade Agenda

Senate – Committee on Finance – Hearing - March 8, 2007

http://finance.senate.gov/sitepages/hearing030807.htm

Testimonies by:

Larry Summers, Harvard University

Fred Smith, CEO, Federal Express, Washington, DC

Bob Baugh, Executive Director, Industrial Union Council, AFL-CIO, Washington, DC

Craig Lang, President, Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, West Des Moines, IA

Andy Warlick, President, Parkdale Mills, Inc., Gastonia, NC
Daniella Markheim

Renew Trade Promotion Authority

The Heritage Foundation - Backgrounder #2014 - March 2007

http://www.heritage.org/Research/TradeandForeignAid/bg2014.cfm

“Congress should renew TPA as it is without adding new conditions that open the door to protectionist policies that undermine America's ability to remain a dynamic and dominant player in the global economy. Current TPA rules support the development and protection of effective labor and other economic policies without forcing unrealistic and detrimental regulations on developing economies.”

Robert Z. Lawrence

The United States and the WTO Dispute Settlement System

Council on Foreign Relations – Report – March 2007 - 56 pages

http://www.cfr.org/content/publications/attachments/WTO_CSR25.pdf

“In this Council Special Report, Professor Lawrence addresses the critics of the dispute settlement mechanism—both those who think it should be tougher on countries that violate trade rules and those who think it is already so tough as to violate sovereignty. He points out the successes of the WTO since its creation in 1995 and argues that radical changes to the system are ill-advised. Lawrence nonetheless suggests several areas for reform, from steps that require multilateral negotiations, such as improving opportunities for nonstate actor participation in and enhancing transparency of the process, to changes the United States could make in its own behavior.”

C. Fred Bergsten

Toward a Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific

Peterson Institute - Policy Brief – February 2007 – 13 pages

http://www.petersoninstitute.org/publications/pb/pb07-2.pdf

“At their latest annual summit in Vietnam in November 2006, the leaders of the 21 members of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum agreed to “seriously consider” negotiating a Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP). The FTAAP initiative may well turn out to be the best, or perhaps only, way to catalyze a substantively successful Doha Round. If it cannot do that, an FTAAP can still offer a Plan B to restore the momentum of trade liberalization, prevent further proliferation of bilateral and subregional preferential trade arrangements, avoid renewed risk of ”drawing a line down the middle of the Pacific,“ channel the US-China economic conflict into a more constructive, less confrontational context, and revitalize APEC itself.”

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U.S-CHINA ECONOMIC RELATIONS

Trade with China

House Committee on Ways and Means – Hearing - February 15, 2007

http://waysandmeans.house.gov/hearings.asp?formmode=detail&hearing=525

“This hearing is the first in a series on U.S.-China economic and trade relations. The hearings will focus on the impact of U.S.-China trade on jobs, wages, prices, manufacturing competitiveness, and other aspects of the U.S. economy; the causes of the U.S. trade deficit with China; China’s compliance with its WTO commitments; and China’s role in the world economy. This hearing will be divided into two panels. The first panel will focus on the role and effect of subsidies in the Chinese market and their impact on competition with U.S. products in China. The other panel will focus on China’s enforcement of intellectual property rights.”

C. Fred Bergsten

China and Economic Integration in East Asia: Implications for the United States

Peterson Institute - Policy Brief – March 2007 – 10 pages

http://www.petersoninstitute.org/publications/pb/pb07-3.pdf

“An essential pillar of a US strategy toward East Asian integration is acceptance of the legitimacy and desirability of that process. US acceptance of the economic integration of Europe is the model. Further, the United States—as well as Canada and Mexico—should seek to nest any new Pacific-Asia trade arrangements in a broader Asia-Pacific framework: Creation of a Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP) would embed Pacific Asia in the Asia Pacific. Another part of the US strategy should be to strengthen the substantive capabilities and political legitimacy of the global economic institutions, especially the World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund, to minimize the need for (and appeal of) new Asia-only regional compacts.”

Craig K. Elwell

Chinese Economic Growth: How Will It Affect the U.S. Gains from Trade?

Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress Report - December 6, 2006 – 19 pages

http://opencrs.cdt.org/rpts/RL33744_20061206.pdf

The size and source of the U.S. gains from trade with emerging markets like China are not static--economic growth and economic circumstances change constantly. “China’s main impact on the U.S. terms of trade over the last decade has been through the falling price of U.S. imports from China, transmitting a favorable impulse to the U.S. terms of trade. It also seems likely that the impact of the economic growth of China on the U.S. terms of trade over the near term will continue to be dominated by the favorable effects of a falling price for imports from China.” Several factors point to a favorable outcome for the U.S over the long term.

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