The first part of the course provides the theoretical and historical background of international trade and trade policy by looking into the main theoretical and historical mechanisms that drive international trade and foreign direct investment. It analyzes the strategies of multinational enterprises and their impact on the global value chain and economic globalization. It also discusses the main tools of trade policy in general. The second part focuses more on EU trade policy, its specific tools, the trade policy of the EU within the multilateral trading system (WTO), the bilateral trade relations of the EU, and its unilateral trade policy instruments.
At the end of this course, students are able to:
- understand the theoretical tools to analyze international trade and foreign direct investment.
- understand the political economy of trade policy (decision-making, stakeholders, distribution of welfare gains and losses)
- understand the specificity of the EU’s trade policy (policy-making process, specific instruments, trade strategies)
- understand the EU’s trade relations at the multilateral and bilateral levels.
- Teacher: Maurer Andreas