This unique text integrates for the first time the three critical aspects of U.S. foreign trade policy formulation and implementation: economics, politics, and laws. In a comprehensive and non-judgmental manner, a political scientist, an economist, and a legal scholar combine efforts to present a well-rounded view of the nature and impact of trade policy as well as how it is made.

First, they give a quick review of the history of U.S. trade policy and follow this with an explication of key economic principles and theories. They outline political processes and actors, then examine the laws that emanate from the political arena as they apply to imports, exports, and the GATT.

. A final section combines the three perspectives in an analysis of key challenges to contemporary U.S. trade: Japan, the European Union, nonindustrialized countries, NAFTA, and the Uruguay Round of GATT trade negotiations. Looking toward the future, the authors conclude that given constant changes in the political, economic, and legal environments of trade, the import and export policies of the United States (and of most other countries) are subject to constant evolution - and occasional revolution.