Industrial Policy, National Security and the World Trading System

Catalog description

In this course, we focus on two of the factors that have been threatening multilateral (trade) integration, namely, market segmenting measures that either qualify as industrial policy, or are meant to promote national security. The coverage of industrial policy and national security is not clearly delineated, and more and more we observe an overlap between the two. This is not a re-run of past experience, as the justification for measures adopted is (almost consistently) the protection of national security. From Biden's subsidies to chips producers and export restrictions towards Huawei to Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs, the US has been at the forefront of this discussion. Alas, investing in national security triggers the "security dilemma" as others mimic similar policies. We will ask whether the world trading system is well-equipped to deal with these measures that test its resilience, and what are the alternatives, in case the regime collapses. Elements used in grading: Short essays. While the course will be taught as a part of the Global Quarter, it is open to all students (except 1Ls) and is not limited to students enrolled in the Global Quarter.