School of Public Policy 690STE - Navigating Washington

The seminar is designed to give students a preliminary understanding of how history, politics, economics, and the legislative and administrative processes in Washington shape US public policy on international trade, and the impact this has on US international relations. There will be a specific focus on the transition of trade policy from the Trump Administration to the Biden Administration, as well as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia?s invasion of Ukraine on international trade. The course will also review the Trump Administration?s renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which is a trilateral agreement among the United States, Canada and Mexico, as well as the termination of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the impact of the US-China trade war and the Trump Administration?s steel tariffs on the US economy and on international relations. We will compare this with the Biden Administration?s approach and analyze the substantive and rhetorical differences between the two administrations. We will focus on how the politics of the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections shaped international trade policy and analyze whether trade will be an issue in upcoming elections, while also examining the history of US trade policy.

Undergraduate juniors and seniors will be admitted on a space-available basis at the discretion of the Director of Undergraduate Advising for SPP (fnussbaum@umass.edu).