個案總覽

The U.S. government responded to a surge of tire imports from China using Section 421 of the 1974 Trade Act. This allowed the U.S. government to impose a large increase in tariffs on imports of tires from China over a three-year period. Explanations for President Obama's decision to do this ranged from domestic political explanations-specifically, that he was caving into pressure from the USWA union-to arguments that he was defending the larger national interests.

The U.S. made a deal with the EU to drop its trade dispute in the WTO over the EU's ban on hormone-treated beef. In return for the U.S. ending the WTO case and dropping its retaliatory tariffs on selected EU products, the EU would increase its imports of non-hormone-treated beef from the U.S. While the 14 beef producers who participated in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's non-hormone-treated cattle (NHTC) program were pleased, the bulk of the U.S. beef industry, almost all of which uses growth hormones in its production processes, would not benefit from this deal.

Brazil won a WTO trade dispute against the U.S. over U.S. cotton subsidies. Brazil has been authorized to retaliate, not only by imposing retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. but also by revoking intellectual property rights protection on various items, including patents for selected U.S. pharmaceutical products and copyright protection for U.S. movies and music. Rather than revoke IPR protection, the Brazilian Ambassador to the WTO, Roberto Azevedo, has decided to offer a deal: the U.S. can make an annual payment to Brazilian cotton farmers. The objective is to embarrass members of the U.S. Congress as they negotiate the U.S. Farm Bill, so that they will drop the cotton subsidies altogether.