Outline the structure of the U.S. trade policy

What will be an ideal response?

Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution gives Congress the power "to regulate commerce with foreign nations" and to "lay and collect duties." In 1934 in the aftermath of the disastrous Smoot– Hawley tariff, Congress passed the Reciprocal Trade Agreement Act, which delegated to the president the authority to negotiate trade agreements. The authority for U.S. trade negotiations has remained largely with the president. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), located in the Executive Office of the President, serves as the president's representative in trade negotiations. The United States has supported trade liberalization through the multilateral policies embodied in the WTO agreements, regional free trade agreements including NAFTA and APEC, and bilateral arrangements such as those promoting competition in international air transport. In the late 1980s, Congress began to assert its constitutional authority. The USTR is now required to consult with Congress on both trade policy and specific actions that implement that policy. Being closer to constituents than the president, members of Congress have been concerned with protecting their constituents' interests. The result has been a series of amendments to the trade laws that make it easier for industries both to obtain protection and to initiate action to open foreign markets to their products. U.S. trade laws establish rights of private parties to initiate trade actions to further their own interests, so U.S. trade actions have both public and private initiation. The politics of international trade takes place in four institutional arenas—cabinet departments, regulatory agencies, Congress, and the Office of the President. The administration of trade policy has been placed with executive branch agencies, primarily the Departments of the Treasury, State, and Commerce. The International Trade Administration (ITA) in the Department of Commerce and the International Trade Commission (ITC), an independent regulatory commission, have administrative responsibilities for certain sections of U.S. trade law. Cabinet departments participate in international trade policy, both administratively and politically, and regularly conduct policy research, provide congressional testimony, and lobby for their policy objectives and the interests they represent.