Course | Columbia Law School

Members of the seminar will act as a bipartisan Presidential advisory group reviewing priority issues in U.S. foreign economic policy for the new Administration. The political and economic as well as the legal aspects of each issue will be examined, with particular attention to actions that should be taken by Congress and the President. The seminar will draw upon Professor Richard Gardner's current work as a member of the State Department's Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy and his past work on the President's Advisory Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiations.

The spring semester will focus, inter alia, on the following questions: (1) Whether the interests of the U.S. and other countries are served by promoting the continued globalization of the world economy through new measures to liberalize trade and financial flows. (2) The significance of large and continuing U.S. current account deficits and possible corrective actions. (3) The implications of the "war on terrorism" for U.S. foreign economic policy. (4) The future of WTO and bilateral trade negotiations and how to deal with sensitive issues such as agriculture, services, intellectual property, "special and differential treatment" for LDCs and trade remedy laws. (5) How worker rights and environmental issues should be handled in the WTO and in future trade negotiations. (6) The regulation of U.S. investment abroad and foreign investment in the U.S. (7) China as a special trade problem and opportunity. (8) The use of trade sanctions for national security or human rights reasons. (9) U.S. trade and aid policy toward the Arab and Islamic worlds. (10) Strengthening the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank as instruments for financial stability and sustainable development. (11) U.S. energy policy. (12) Domestic and international actions to deal with the problem of global warming.