Talking Trade

Book excerpt: Challenges from Japan, opportunities in the new European Community, and prospects for developing countries’ economies all revolve around trade and all have implications for U.S. economic strengths and interests. The cases in this book have been selected to illustrate a variety of contemporary trade policies, practices, and partners. The volume begins with an overview of the multilateral trade regime embodied in the GATT; it then moves on to specifics, including two different cases of U.S.-Japanese exchanges (goods versus services), trade strategies of Brazil as a newly industrializing country, and the EC as the world’s largest trader. Throughout the cases, larger themes are traced, connecting trade with economic policy, foreign policy with domestic politics, and change in U.S. economic strength with the rise of new economic powers in the world arena.