Publications

01 Dec 2018
News

Trade Off

started World War I, and it all collapsed. As percentages of GDP, we didn’t return to those earlier levels of global capital flows until the 1990s. Global free trade is not the... View Details

01 Sep 2010
News

Fair Trade

Related Links Ten Amazing Facts about Beauty Register for a Club presentation with Professor Jones on October 19 In his new book, Beauty Imagined: A History of the Global Beauty Industry (Oxford University Press), HBS professor Geoffrey... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons; Retail Trade; Retail Trade; Retail Trade; Retail Trade

TeachingInterests

Managing International Trade and Investment

By: Dante Roscini

Managing International Trade and Investment (MITI) is designed for students who expect to engage directly or indirectly in commerce and in strategic or financial investments across national borders. It covers concepts that are relevant to a number of operating and... View Details

2025
Working Paper

Trade and Industrial Policy in Supply Chains: Directed Technological Change in Rare Earths

By: Laura Alfaro, Harald Fadinger, Jay Schymik and Gede Virananda

Trade and industrial policies, while primarily intended to support domestic industries, may unintentionally stimulate technological progress abroad. We document this mechanism in the case of rare earth elements (REEs)—critical inputs for manufacturing at the knowledge... View Details

Keywords: Industrial Policy; Global Value Chains; Directed Technological Change; Input-output Linkages; Innovation; Trade; Metals and Minerals; Technological Innovation; Supply Chain; Technology Industry

Read Now

February 1998
Case

Creating the International Trade Organization

By: David A. Moss, George R. Appling and Andrew D Archer

In the late 1940s, officials at the U.S. State Department began campaigning for the creation of an International Trade Organization (ITO). This new organization would oversee global negotiations on trade liberalization, foreign direct investment, cartels, and commodity... View Details

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; Trade; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Policy; Globalized Economies and Regions; Agreements and Arrangements; Foreign Direct Investment; Economic Systems; International Relations

30 Oct 2019
Podcast

How global trade and AI are resetting the terms of white-collar work

International trade expert and former presidential advisor, Richard Baldwin, discusses his latest book, The Globotics Upheaval: Globalization, Robotics, and the Future of Work. He argues that the speed and sweep of economic and social changes resulting from global... View Details

January 2004
Teaching Note

Worker Rights and Global Trade: The U.S.-Cambodia Bilateral Textile Trade Agreement (TN)

Teaching Note to (9-703-034). View Details

Keywords: Rights; Labor; Trade; Agreements and Arrangements; Markets; Business and Shareholder Relations; Development Economics; United States; Cambodia

Mar 2012
Article

Shattering the Myths About U.S. Trade Policy

A free and fair global trading system can result in economic win-wins. Open borders allow companies to grow in foreign markets and, simultaneously, ensure that businesses remain competitive at home. That’s... View Details

September 2019 (Revised July 2021)
Case

Port Competition in the Pearl River Delta

By: Willy Shih

This case examines the competition between ports and port operators in the Pearl River Delta over the last four decades. The cities surrounding the Pearl River estuary are the "workshop of the world," and the development of manufacturing in the region was heavily... View Details

Keywords: Trade Links; Global Business; Globalization; Trade; Supply Chain; Logistics; Transportation Industry; Asia; Hong Kong; China

12 Dec 2018
News

Free Trade Needs Nurturing—and Other Lessons from History

11 Dec 2018
Research & Ideas

Free Trade Needs Nurturing—and Other Lessons from History

and started World War I, and it all collapsed. As percentages of GDP, we didn’t return to those earlier levels of global capital flows until the 1990s. Global free trade is not... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Auto; Aerospace; Chemical; Consumer Products; Electronics; Energy; Industrial Products; Manufacturing; Shipping; Transportation

17 Nov 2003
Research & Ideas

Lessons from a Nasty Trade Dispute

to the World Trade Organization, the WTO later ruled that both Canada and Brazil needed to make changes to comply with international trade rules. Finally, in March 2003, the WTO gave Brazil permission to... View Details

Keywords: by Cynthia Churchwell

15 Jul 2010
Working Paper Summaries

Trade Policy and Firm Boundaries

Keywords: by Laura Alfaro, Paola Conconi, Harald Fadinger & Andrew F. Newman

08 Jun 2011
Lessons from the Classroom

Twenty-first Century Skill: Trading Carbon Credits

Cap and trade has become an increasingly popular mechanism used by governments to induce green behavior among corporate polluters, with news emerging almost daily. Just recently New Jersey Governor Chris Christie withdrew his state from the Regional Greenhouse Gas... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Energy; Utilities

October 2003
Case

ABS Global

By: David E. Bell, Hal Hogan and Jose M. M. Porraz

ABS Global is considering an acquisition in Australia. Efficient production and distribution is becoming more difficult as it becomes global. Yet trade restrictions and local preferences for its product, bull semen, dictate that ABS come up with a new way to... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Production; Global Strategy; Distribution; Adaptation; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Australia

Find at Harvard

August 2019
Case

Huawei and the U.S.-China Trade War

By: Elie Ofek and John Masko

In 2019, Chinese smartphone maker and telecommunications empire Huawei was preparing to launch its new flagship smartphone series, the Mate 30. After years of explosive growth, the previous 18 months had been a challenge for the company. In early 2018, Huawei’s planned... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Global Strategy; International Relations; National Security; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Information Infrastructure; Volatility; Adaptation; Telecommunications Industry; China; United States; European Union

March 1996 (Revised January 2001)
Case

Incidents in Trade Policy

By: Louis T. Wells Jr. and Courtenay Sprague

Discusses a series of incidents of conflict between the United States and foreign governments on trade. View Details

Keywords: Trade; Policy; Agreements and Arrangements; Conflict and Resolution; Globalization; Government and Politics; United States

October 2010 (Revised November 2010)
Case

Belco Global Foods

By: C. Fritz Foley and Matthew Johnson

This case introduces students to the fundamental issues that managers face when deciding what international trade finance terms to use when transacting with other firms. In late 2009, Pam Arnold, the head of global credit at Belco Global Foods, must decide which trade... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Credit; Financing and Loans; International Finance; Globalized Firms and Management; Food and Beverage Industry