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Contents -
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Trade Activity Map
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State oversight comm. |
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Rural policy network |
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Recent presentation |
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Trade staff contacts
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Recent student work
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| Mark Hale and Doug Lucke led a workshop on energy and trade policy at the Idaho State Capitol in 2003. |
| Our projects engage state and local officials in the global trade debate. |
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The trade team analyzes the impact of global agreements on state and local government, and it supports local initiatives to influence global institutions such as the World Trade Organization. The team also develops strategies for lawmaking that can shape the global economy from the bottom-up, particularly with respect to economic development, subsidy reform, fair competition and resource conservation. The trade team includes Robert Stumberg, Matthew Porterfield and six clinic students, with support from Bill Waren and Travis Seegmiller.
The trade team works with several interconnected networks of clients and collaborators:
- Forum on Democracy & Trade organizes seminars for public officials and publishes our work on the web at http://www.forumdemocracy.net/ as an on-line resource for public officials who are engaged in global trade debates.
- Rural Policy Research Institute advises Congress on rural development policy and disseminates our work on the impact of WTO agriculture negotiations at http://www.rupri.org/. RuPRI is based at the University of Missouri, Columbia; it links policy analysts from 67 universities and convenes the National Rural Network of 50 organizations in Washington, DC.
- State legislative committees request our testimony at oversight hearings and analysis for corresponding with congressional delegations and U.S. trade negotiators.
- California - Senate Subcommittee on International Trade Agreements and State Legislation
- Washington - Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Trade Policy
- Maine - Maine Citizens Trade Policy Commission
- North Carolina - House Committee on International Trade and Federal Relations
- Utah - Utah International Trade Commission Vermont - Study Committee on International Trade and State Sovereignty (passed House, pending in Senate)
- Government associations request our presentations at national conventions and use our analysis for corresponding with congressional committees and U.S. trade negotiators.
- National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL)
- National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) National Association of Counties (NACO)
- International Municipal Lawyers' Association (IMLA)
- National Association of Development Organizations (NADO)
- Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA) Council of Great Lakes Governors (CGLG)
- Multi-state working groups combine national associations with participation from more than 15 diverse states.
- Services Working Group Working Group on Energy & Trade Policy
- Public Lawyers' Working Group on Investment
- Task Force on Trade & Prescription Drugs
- International organizations request analysis and presentations to international meetings.
- Andean Parliament
- Conference of Parliamentarians of the Americas (COPA)
- Pacific Northwest Economic Region
- Federation of Canadian Municipalities
Students in the trade team master one or more international agreements and then analyze the potential impact of that agreement on the law-making capacity of local, state or national governments. Some students also draft model legislation or treaty language. Recent topics include:
- Agricultural subsidies - WTO trade rules are affecting the U.S. bargaining position in trade negotiations and options available to Congress for the 2007 Farm Bill. Some options (like supporting coops for distributed energy) are both WTO-consistent and promote diversified rural development. Other options (like extending current subsidy programs for cotton, corn, rice, wheat and soy) are likely to exacerbate trade tensions with developing countries.
- Energy services - Prompted by Enron in 2001, U.S. trade negotiators started negotiating WTO commitments on domestic regulation of electricity and gas utilities including wholesale trade, transmission services, distribution services, power marketing authorities (e.g., Bonneville and TVA), "native load" service obligations, and the authority of state public service commissions. Each of these trade proposals is a contested issue before state legislatures and the Federal Energy Regulatory Comm. (FERC).
- Health services - At the request of PhRMA, the pharmaceutical manufacturers association, U.S. trade negotiators are negotiating rules within Free Trade Agreements (FTAs, e.g., the US-Australia FTA), which could be used to challenge state Medicaid programs that have been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. Other commitments under the WTO services agreement could affect state regulation of health insurance, health professionals and health facilities.
- Gambling - A recent decision by the WTO Appellate Body makes clear that countries that are home to Internet gambling sites or multinational gambling syndicates could challenge state regulation of Internet horse racing as well as tribal monopolies, state lotteries, slots and other markets. Recent FTAs (notably CAFTA) appear to give standing to private investors to seek monetary compensation for state laws that discriminate in favor of domestic monopolies.
- Domestic courts - Over 2,300 bilateral investment treaties (BITs) provide foreign investors with substantive and procedural rights to seek compensation and challenge regulatory power that they cannot challenge in domestic courts. Recent BITs and FTAs negotiated by the United States give standing to U.S. investors to challenge state and federal laws as "foreign investors" through their subsidiaries in another country.
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