The importance of International Trade

The course examines the importance of international trade for a nation´s economic development and growth. It places particular emphasis on how trade regulations will affect the success of modern businesses in the 21st Century. It also addresses the fact that absence of efficient legal frameworks hampers international transactions, and force private firms to adopt sub-optimal investment and production strategies as they adapt to inefficient trade rules in their quest for productivity and profit results. Once having demonstrated the need for an efficient legal framework for international transactions, the course proceeds to evaluate the current legal system under which today´s world trade operates, including WTO´s legal and dispute settlement system, and the diverse regulations established under Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) and other integration schemes which have been established between countries to provide preferential trade systems under which national private firms operate.