Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T00:41:41.434Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

America and the Trade Regime: What Went Wrong?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2021

Judith Goldstein  and
Robert Gulotty
Get access

Abstract

The era of American leadership in the multilateral trading regime has ended. This paper argues that this current antipathy to trade is unsurprising: support for US leadership of the regime has always rested on a precarious balance among domestic interests. To overcome a historic bias in favor of home market production, American leaders created incentives for exporters to organize while creating roadblocks for import-competing firms and their employees. The dominance of the exporters’ voice had a significant influence on the policies the US pursued in the design and execution of the global trade regime. Most importantly, the absence of labor's voice undermined the prospect for “embedded liberalism” and instead resulted in an anemic system of adjustment for job loss at home and limited support for worker interests within the regime. While policymakers’ decision to shift power away from potential “veto” groups may have been necessary for US leadership of the Liberal International Order, this institutional design undermined a robust response to the economic dislocation thought to be a result of globalization. The result was a fracturing of the coalition in support of American leadership in the GATT/WTO regime.

Keywords

United Statescompensationtradenegotiation
Type
Internal Challenges to the Liberal International Order: Economic
Information
International Organization , Volume 75 , Special Issue 2: Challenges to the Liberal International Order: International Organization at 75 , Spring 2021 , pp. 524 - 557
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation, 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aggarwal, Vinod K. 1983. The Unraveling of the Multi-Fiber Arrangement, 1981: An Examination of International Regime Change. International Organization 37 (4):617–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alben, Elissa. 2001. GATT and the Fair Wage: A Historical Perspective on the Labor-Trade Link. Columbia Law Review 101 (6):1410–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alt, James E., Frieden, Jeffry, Gilligan, Michael J., Rodrik, Dani, and Rogowski, Ronald. 1996. The Political Economy of International Trade: Enduring Puzzles and an Agenda for Inquiry. Comparative Political Studies 29 (6):689–717.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alt, James E., and Gilligan, Michael. 1994. The Political Economy of Trading States: Factor Specificity, Collective Action Problems and Domestic Political Institutions. Journal of Political Philosophy 2 (2):165–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Antràs, Pol, and Staiger, Robert W.. 2012. Offshoring and the Role of Trade Agreements. American Economic Review 102 (7):3140–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bagwell, Kyle, and Staiger, Robert W.. 1999. An Economic Theory of GATT. American Economic Review 89 (1):215–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bagwell, Kyle, Staiger, Robert W., and Yurukoglu, Ali. 2015. Multilateral Trade Bargaining: A First Look at the GATT Bargaining Records. Technical report, National Bureau of Economic Research.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bailey, Michael, Goldstein, Judith L., and Weingast, Barry R.. 1997. The Institutional Roots of American Trade Policy: Politics, Coalitions, and International Trade. World Politics 49 (3):309–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barton, John H., Goldstein, Judith L., Josling, Timothy E., and Steinberg, Richard H.. 2007. The Evolution of the Trade Regime: Politics, Law, and Economics of the GATT and the WTO. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Bergsten, C. Fred. 1973. The Threat from the Third World. Foreign Policy 11 (Summer):102–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Börzel, Tanja, and Michael, Zürn. 2021. Contestations of the Liberal International Order: From Liberal Multilateralism to Postnational Liberalism. International Organization 75 (2). <https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020818320000570>.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broz, J. Lawrence, Jeffry, Frieden, and Stephen, Weymouth 2021. Populism in Place: The Economic Geography of the Globalization Backlash. International Organization 75 (2). <https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020818320000314>.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Congress, US 1938. Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the Third Session of the Seventy-Fifth Congress. US Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Eckes, A.E. 2000. Opening America's Market: US Foreign Trade Policy since 1776. University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Edwards, Richard C. 1970. Economic Sophistication in Nineteenth Century Congressional Tariff Debates. Journal of Economic History 30 (4):802–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flaherty, Thomas M., and Ronald, Rogowski. 2021. Rising Inequality as a Threat to the Liberal International Order. International Organization 75 (2). <https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020818321000163>.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frieden, Jeffry A. 1989. Winners and Losers in the Latin America Debt Crisis: The Political Implications. In Debt and Democracy in Latin America, edited by Stallings, Barbara and Kaufman, Robert, 165–79. Routledge.Google Scholar
GAO, US Government Accountability Office. 2013. Anti-dumping and Countervailing Duties: Key Challenges to Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises’ Pursuit of the Imposition of Trade Remedies. GAO-13-575.Google Scholar
Gilligan, Michael. 1997. Empowering Exporters: Delegation, Reciprocity and Collective Action in American Trade Policy. University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldstein, Judith L. 1993. Ideas, Interests, and American Trade Policy. Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Goldstein, Judith L. and Gulotty, Robert. 2014. America and Trade Liberalization: The Limits of Institutional Reform. International Organization 68 (2):263–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldstein, Judith L., and Gulotty, Robert. 2019. The Globalisation Crisis: Populism and the Rise of an Anti-Trade Coalition. European Review of International Studies 6 (3):57–83.Google Scholar
Goldstein, Judith L., Gulotty, Robert, and Liu, Glory. 2020. Economic Ideas and Trade Policy. Unpublished paper, Stanford University.Google Scholar
Gosh, Bimal. 1987. Humanitarianism or Protectionism? Washington Post, 14 September.Google Scholar
Gowa, Joanne, and Hicks, Raymond. 2013. Politics, Institutions, and Trade: Lessons of the Interwar Era. International Organization 67 (3):439–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gulotty, Robert. 2020. Narrowing the Channel: The Politics of Regulatory Protection. University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haggard, Stephan. 1988. The Institutional Foundations of Hegemony: Explaining the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act of 1934. International Organization 42 (1):91–119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Handley, Kyle, and Limão, Nuno. 2017. Policy Uncertainty, Trade, and Welfare: Theory and Evidence for China and the United States. American Economic Review 107 (9):2731–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hiscox, Michael J. 1999. The Magic Bullet? The RTAA, Institutional Reform, and Trade Liberalization. International Organization 53 (4):669–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hull, Cordell. 2013. The Memoirs of Cordell Hull, Volume 1, Part 1. Literary Licensing, LLC.Google Scholar
Hyman, Benjamin. 2018. Can Displaced Labor Be Retrained? Evidence from Quasi-Random Assignment to Trade Adjustment Assistance. Available at SSRN. <http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3155386>.CrossRef.>Google Scholar
Irwin, Douglas A. 2017. Clashing over Commerce: A History of US Trade Policy. University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katzenstein, P.J. 2015. Small States in World Markets: Industrial Policy in Europe. Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Kim, In Song. 2017. Political Cleavages within Industry: Firm-Level Lobbying for Trade Liberalization. American Political Science Review 111 (1):1–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kindleberger, Charles. 1986. The World in Depression, 1929–1939. Revised and enlarged edition. University of California Press.Google Scholar
Krugman, Paul 1991. The Move Toward Free Trade Zones. Economic Review 76 (6):5–25.Google Scholar
Lake, David A., Lisa, L. Martin and Thomas, Risse. 2021. Challenges to the Liberal Order: Reflections on International Organization. International Organization 75 (2). <https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020818320000636>.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mansfield, Edward and Nita, Rudra 2021. Embedded Liberalism in the Digital Era. International Organization 75 (2). <https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020818320000569>.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitchell, Daniel J. B. 1976. Labor Issues of American International Trade and Investment. Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Mosley, Layna. 2010. Labor Rights and Multinational Production. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mutti, John, and Yeung, Bernard. 1996. Section 337 and the Protection of Intellectual Property in the United States: The Complainants and the Impact. Review of Economics and Statistics 78 (3):510–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olson, Mancur. 1965. The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups. Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Osgood, Iain. 2016. Differentiated Products, Divided Industries: Firm Preferences over Trade Liberalization. Economics and Politics 28 (2):161–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Osgood, Iain, Tingley, Dustin, Bernauer, Thomas, Kim, In Song, Milner, Helen V., and Spilker, Gabriele. 2017. The Charmed Life of Superstar Exporters: Survey Evidence on Firms and Trade Policy. Journal of Politics 79 (1):133–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Polanyi, K. 2001. The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time. Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Rickard, Stephanie J. 2012. Electoral Systems, Voters’ Interests and Geographic Dispersion. British Journal of Political Science 42 (4):855–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rogowski, Ronald. 1987. Trade and the Variety of Democratic Institutions. International Organization 41 (2):203–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rogowski, Ronald. 1989. Commerce and Coalitions: How Trade Affects Domestic Political Alignments. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Ruggie, John Gerard. 1982. International Regimes, Transactions, and Change: Embedded Liberalism in the Postwar Economic Order. International Organization 36 (2):379–415.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Staiger, Robert W., and Tabellini, Guido. 1987. Discretionary Trade Policy and Excessive Protection. American Economic Review 77 (5):823–37.Google Scholar
Toenshoff, Christina. 2020. Green Activism in Trade Policy: Exploring the Origins of Environmental Clauses in PTAs. Unpublished manuscript, Stanford University.Google Scholar
Waer, Paul. 1996. Social Clauses in International Trade: The Debate in the European Union. Journal of World Trade 30 (4):25–42.Google Scholar
WTO. 2011. World Trade Report 2011. World Trade Organization.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: Link

Goldstein and Gulotty Dataset

Dataset

https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/HT5VY5
Link
Supplementary material: PDF

Goldstein and Gulotty supplementary material

Goldstein and Gulotty supplementary material

Download Goldstein and Gulotty supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 63.5 KB