国际贸易原理教案.docVIP

Chapter 1 International Economics Is Different I.Teaching Objectives: The objective of this unit is to show that international economics addresses important and interesting current events and issues, show why international economics is special, and provide a broad overview of the textbook. II. Teaching Focus 1.The importance of international economics 2. The most important policies that each country can manipulate separately III. Time Allocation 1. Lead-in 10 MIN 2. Study the event Steel 30 MIN 3. Study the event Poor Workers in Poor Countries 20 MIN 4. Study Economics and the Nation-state 30 MIN 5. Discussion 10 MIN IV. Teaching procedures We begin with two sets of events that show the importance of current issues addressed by international economics. The first is the imposition by President Bush in early 2002 of tariffs of up to 30 percent on imports of steel into the United States. Here we introduce the ability of a national government to respond to domestic political pressures by raising barriers to international transactions. In this case pressure by steel firms and steel workers led to new protection. Firms that use steel in the United States knew that they would be hurt by these new tariffs, but their economic case that their industries would suffer more harm than the steel industry would get in benefits failed to win the political fight. We also introduce the role of the World Trade Organization (WTO) as a global arbiter. The governments of foreign countries whose firms lost export sales to the U.S. buyers filed complaints with the WTO that the U.S. government had violated the accepted international rules when it imposed the new steel tariffs. The second is the ongoing protests against low pay and poor working conditions in developing countries, including the protests at the Seattle meeting of the World Trade Organization in 1999. Here w