Congressional Research Service Reports - 150 Matching Results

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The GATT and the WTO: An Overview

Description: Under the auspices of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), eight rounds of trade negotiations lowered tariffs of developed countries to an average 3.9 percent. New areas, such as services, intellectual property rights, agriculture, and textiles and apparel, were brought under the discipline of the GATT for the first time in the Uruguay Round. The World Trade Organization (WTO), a permanent entity agreed on during the Uruguay Round, went into effect January 1, 1995. Multilateral tr… more
Date: March 27, 1995
Creator: Wilson, Arlene
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Japan's Global Trade Surplus: Its Nature and Significance

Description: Japan's global current account surplus is expected to reach $150 billion in 1993, up substantially from a modest $36 billion in 1990. The movement of Japan's current account surplus in this period is, perhaps, more dramatic as a share of GDP, going from a substantial 3.6 percent in 1987, down to a modest 1.2 percent in 1990, and up again to about 3.1 percent in 1992. Japan's growing surplus is criticized as a consequence of that country's barriers to trade, and as a drag on the economic recover… more
Date: October 29, 1993
Creator: Elwell, Craig K.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Japan-U.S. Trade: Results of Trade Negotiations

Description: ave Japan's trade concessions resulted in more U.S. exports? One premise of the more results-oriented trade policy toward Japan now being pursued is that past concessions have not caused U.S. exports to Japan to rise. The only success story seems to be that of semiconductors in which a specific goal of 20 percent of the Japanese market was set and attained.
Date: October 15, 1993
Creator: Nanto, Dick K.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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United States Trade and Trade Balance with Japan 1958-1993: A Brief Historical Overview

Description: The purpose of this brief report is to appraise Congress of some relevant perspectives concerning the experience of U.S.-Japan merchandise trade since 1968. For the first seven years of the period under review, more American goods were sold to Japan than imported from that nascent major Asian economy, which has been,however, trailing Canada by far as our second top trading partner. Somewhat normally acceptable trade deficits were registered between 1966 and 1979, after which the growth of trade… more
Date: April 7, 1994
Creator: Scuka, Dario
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Multilateral Agreement on Investment: Implications for the United States

Description: Ministers of the 29 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) have struggled since 1995 to negotiate a Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI). Negotiations on many aspects of a final agreement have progressed rapidly, but OECD members have been unable to resolve numerous thorny issues before the latest deadline set for the OECD Ministerial meeting in April 1998. U.S. negotiators have indicated that they will not sign the present agreement without significan… more
Date: March 18, 1998
Creator: Jackson, James K.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Japan's Import Protection: Quantitative Measures and Effects on U.S. Exports

Description: Some indirect measures of Japan's import barriers indicate that Japan's import behavior is unusual, but some do not. Japan's trade surplus is large, but the United States exports as much to that market as it does to other major industrialized nations. Japan's imports of manufactures, however, are low relative to levels in other industrialized nations.
Date: August 20, 1993
Creator: Nanto, Dick K.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The U.S.-EC Japan Trade Triangle

Description: The world has entered the age of the economic triad of Europe, North America, and East Asia. These geo-economic centers comprise the leading industrial regions of the world and increasingly set international trade policy, generate consumer and industry trends, and provide much of the capital and expertise for the rest of the globe. Within these regions, the United States, the European Community (EC), and Japan take the leadership roles.
Date: June 4, 1992
Creator: Nanto, Dick K.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Agricultural Exports: Technical Barriers to Trade

Description: Technical barriers to trade (TBTs) are widely divergent measures that countries use to regulate rnarkets, protect their consumers, and preserve natural resources, but which can also discriminate against imports in favor of domestic products. Most TBTs in agriculture are sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures designed to protect humans, animals, and plants from contaminants, diseases, and pests. In the wake of new trade agreements aimed at reducing tariffs, import quotas, and other trade barr… more
Date: October 21, 1997
Creator: Becker, Geoffrey S.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Japan and NAFTA

Description: Japan, as an issue, has entered the debate over U.S. approval of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in several ways. The Clinton Administration has argued that Americans should support NAFTA because if it fails to pass Congress, Japan will rush to negotiate a similar arrangement with Mexico. Proponents of NAFTA also have argued that since Japan opposes NAFTA (because of its presumed protectionism and the benefits it provides to North American businesses), it must be "good for Ameri… more
Date: November 12, 1993
Creator: Nanto, Dick K.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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JETRO and International Trade Promotion by Japan

Description: JETRO, the Japan External Trade Organization, has played a key role in Japan's system for trade promotion. It is a public corporation, a quasi-governmental organization, operating under the general supervision of Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI).
Date: June 10, 1994
Creator: Nanto, Dick K.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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NAFTA: Economic Effects on the United States After Three Years

Description: The main economic benefit of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is that, over time, it is expected to increase productivity and incomes in the United States, Mexico and Canada. In the near term, some reallocation of resources occurs within each country, generating gains for some producers and workers and costs for others. Since the Mexican and Canadian economies are small relative to the U.S. economy, both the long-term benefits and short-term adjustment costs of the NAFTA to the U… more
Date: June 13, 1997
Creator: Wilson, Arlene
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The GATT and the WTO: An Overview

Description: The Uruguay Round Agreement reduced tariffs, brought services, intellectual property, and agriculture under the discipline of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, and established the World Trade Organization. Multilateral trade issues for the future include continuing services negotiations, the relationship of the environment and labor standards to trade, and investment and competition policy.
Date: March 27, 1995
Creator: Wilson, Arlene
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Japan-U.S. Trade Negotiations Under the Framework: Status and Alternative Approaches

Description: It has been more than a year since the United States and Japan established their bilateral framework for trade negotiations and other economic relations. The framework set down rules and deadlines to address various economic issues, particularly market access in Japan for U.S. exports and the Japanese global trade surplus. The two sides have failed to reach agreements on any of the major issues. The United States is left with several policy options to resolve the breakdown in trade negotiations. more
Date: August 2, 1994
Creator: Cooper, William H.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Japan-U.S. Trade Negotiations: Will the Deadlock Be Broken?

Description: The United States and Japan have been deadlocked for over a year in an effort to reach agreements under the July 1993 Framework for a New Economic Relationship. The overriding obstacle has concerned the issue of how to measure progress under future agreements to open Japan's market further to foreign goods and services.
Date: September 13, 1994
Creator: Ahearn, Raymond J.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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U.S.-Japanese Trade: The Semiconductor Arrangement

Description: On June 4, 1991, the United States and Japan agreed to a five-year arrangement to open Japan,s market to U.S.-origin semiconductor devices, replacing a 1986 agreement that was due to expire. Unlike other U.S.-Japanese trade agreement, the U.S.-Japanese Semiconductor Arrangement stipulates a quantifiable objective (20 percent of the Japanese market for foreign-produced semiconductors). It is often identified by those who want the United States to undertake a "results-oriented" trade policy towar… more
Date: May 13, 1993
Creator: Cooper, William H.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Fast-Track Trade Negotiating Authority: A Comparison of 105th Congress Legislative Proposals

Description: This report provides a side-by-side comparison of H.R. 2621 and S. 2400, as reported, 105th Congress bills that would provide the President with trade negotiating authority and accord certain resulting agreements and implementing bills expedited -- or "fast-track" -- legislative consideration.
Date: September 15, 1998
Creator: Grimmett, Jeanne J.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The China-U.S. Intellectual Property Rights Dispute: Background and Implications for China-U.S. Economic Relations

Description: The United States has pressed China over the past several years to improve its protection of U.S. intellectual property rights (IPR) and to afford greater market access to intellectual property-related products, such as computer software, compact disks (CDs), and audio-visual products. U.S. threats of trade sanctions against Chinese products helped produce trade agreements in January 1992 and February 1995 that pledged China to improve its IPR enforcement regime and expand market access for IPR… more
Date: May 24, 1996
Creator: Morrison, Wayne M.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Fast-Track Trade Negotiating Authority: A Comparison of 105th Congress Legislative Proposals

Description: This report provides a side-by-side comparison of the reported versions of H.R. 2621 and S. 1269, 105 Congress bills that would provide the President with trade negotiating authority and accord certain resulting agreements and implementing bills expedited -- or “fast-track” -- legislative consideration.
Date: July 2, 1998
Creator: Grimmett, Jeanne J.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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CBI/NAFTA Parity Proposals: A Comparison

Description: The tariff and quota treatment of U.S. imports from Mexico under the North American Free Trade Agreement has resulted in a distinct and increasing competitive disadvantage for imports from the beneficiary countries of the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act (CBERA). To eliminate this disadvantage, proposals have been made to extend to imports from Caribbean Basin countries preferential treatment equivalent to that accorded imports of identical goods from Mexico. This report compares the provi… more
Date: October 8, 1999
Creator: Pregelj, Vladimir N.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Trade and Environment: GATT and NAFTA

Description: Environmental concerns in trade negotiations have received extensive attention by policymakers both with regard to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
Date: April 4, 1994
Creator: Fletcher, Susan R. & Tiemann, Mary
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The European Community - Japan Automobile Agreement

Description: The European Community (EC) and Japan reached an agreement on trade in automobiles in July 1991. The agreement restricts exports of automobiles from Japan to the EC to 1.23 million cars per year until the end of 1999. The Commission of the European Communities estimates that Japanese transplant production in the EC will amount to 1.2 million cars per year in 1999. The Japanese appear to concur with this estimate but do not agree that it constitutes a cap on transplant investment or production. … more
Date: January 27, 1992
Creator: Harrison, Glennon J.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Congress and Trade Policy Toward Japan

Description: Congressional policymaking with respect to trade with Japan is driven by strong domestic interests, appeals to broad political principles, and numerous horror stories. The $43 billion U.S. trade deficit with Japan continues to be a focus of attention, but the deficit is an issue because it reflects aggressive competition between Japanese companies and U.S. industries.
Date: April 15, 1992
Creator: Nanto, Dick K.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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