To what extent does domestic politics affect the agreement reached in an international trade negotiation? In order to address this question, Christopher C. Meyerson develops an approach to analyzing the relationship between domestic politics and international relations in trade policymaking. This approach is used to analyze both American and Japanese trade policymaking and US-Japan trade negotiations, especially during the GATT Uruguay Round agriculture negotiations that occurred between 1986 and 1994. Meyerson not only develops an innovative approach to the analysis of the relationship between domestic politics and international relations in trade policymaking, but also, using publicly available GATT documents and publications, US Congressional hearings and Japanese-language sources, provides a strong narrative description of the roles of the United States and Japan in the GATT Uruguay Round agriculture negotiations.

"In Japan and the European Union, Dr. Abe sets out to answer a number of crucial questions on the effect of Japan's international relations upon its internal affairs - in particular how international issues, and Japan's growing relationship with the EU, have come to penetrate the political economy and decision-making structure in Japanese industry and legislation. Japan/EU affairs have never been marked by any significant political relations, and until the past twenty years, characterised by a reserved indifference. However, as a result of accelerated political and economic changes in the past decade, the two economic giants have made considerable efforts to nurture bilateral relations largely initiated by trade concerns. The author examines the development of this relationship informed by International Relations perspectives and taking into account the growing dependence of successful bilateral relations on the international political economy." "Furthermore, Dr. Abe explains the attempt that has been made to resolve Japanese/EU disputes by way of a Joint Declaration. This includes an examination of the 1991 Automobile Agreement involving Japan, the EC Commission and the Japanese manufacturers; and the Liquor Tax dispute which ran from 1986-1995. Throughout this account, the concerns of the United States, and its impact on this relationship, are fully registered."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

In our increasingly globalized world, U.S. trade policy stands at the intersection of foreign and domestic affairs. This book explains trade policy in terms of domestic politics, presenting a concise account of its origins and political significance. Although trade policy is a component of foreign policy, Philip A. Mundo explains how it is rooted in the domestic policy process and carries with it enormous implications for domestic affairs. He reviews the growing importance of trade policy since World War II — particularly over the past twenty years — and shows how recent policies like NAFTA are shaped by the domestic agenda. Mundo explains trade policy as the product of a three-stage process comprising agenda setting, program adoption, and implementation. He reviews this process in terms of the ideas that inform trade policy, the interests that seek to influence it, and the institutions that shape it. He also addresses the importance of specific measures, such as administrative relief and trade sanctions. This book distills the essence of the trade policy process into a concise, innovative framework accessible to students and general readers. With the growing importance of trade policy, it makes explicit many of the subtleties surrounding policymaking while fully explicating the legal and international context in which trade operates.

The balancing of competing interests and goals will have momentous consequences for Japan—and the United States—in their quest for economic growth, social harmony, and international clout. Japan and the United States face difficult choices in charting their paths ahead as trading nations. Tokyo has long aimed for greater decisiveness, which would allow it to move away from a fragmented policymaking system favoring the status quo in order to enable meaningful internal reforms and acquire a larger voice in trade negotiations. And Washington confronts an uphill battle in rebuilding a fraying domestic consensus in favor of internationalism essential to sustain its leadership role as a champion of free trade. In Dilemmas of a Trading Nation, Mireya Solís describes how accomplishing these tasks will require the skillful navigation of vexing tradeoffs that emerge from pursuing desirable, but to some extent contradictory goals: economic competitiveness, social legitimacy, and political viability. Trade policy has catapulted front and center to the national conversations taking place in each country about their desired future direction—economic renewal, a relaunched social compact, and projected international influence. Dilemmas of a Trading Nation underscores the global consequences of these defining trade dilemmas for Japan and the United States: decisiveness, reform, internationalism. At stake is the ability of these leading economies to upgrade international economic rules and create incentives for emerging economies to converge toward these higher standards. At play is the reaffirmation of a rules-based international order that has been a source of postwar stability, the deepening of a bilateral alliance at the core of America's diplomacy in Asia, and the ability to reassure friends and rivals of the staying power of the United States. In the execution of trade policy today, we are witnessing an international leadership test dominated by domestic governance dilemmas.

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.

Schoppa documents how U.S. pressure has been misapplied in the past, insisting on the need for a strategy more informed about internal Japanese politics. While a strategy reliant on brute force is liable to backfire, he argues, one which works with domestic politics in Japan can succeed.