Topic 1. Governmental Influence on Trade: Catfish Dispute
Begin by reading the following two articles from this
session’s readings list, conduct your own scholarly and reliable non-scholarly
research, and then discuss the two questions listed below:
Brown, T. (2001). South and Southeast, Vietnam embroiled in
catfish controversy. Marketing News, 35(22), 50.
Carter, D. (2001, December 28). Congressional ruling shuts
Vietnamese catfish out of U.S. market. The Washington Times. Retrieved from
www.washingtontimes.com
Discussion Questions:
· What are the
pros and cons of government interventions in this case?
· What lessons
do you see for managers operating within conflicting sets of national
regulation and interests, and any regional agreements?
Topic 2. WTO – Trade Disputes
Select a country from the list of countries posted in
Session 5 — you must choose different countries, first come, first served.
Conduct a search at https://globaledge.msu.edu/global-insights/by/country
to identify the current import policies, tariffs and trade
restrictions in the country. Other useful sites include the World Trade
Organization (https://www.wto.org/).
Enter the country’s name in the WTO search box (top right corner).
Discuss
·
Has the country you selected been a complainant or
respondent in a case before the WTO in the last 5 years? If so, describe
briefly the nature of the dispute. Has the complaint been resolved?
What role did WTO play in the dispute?
What is the country’s trade policy and why have they
established it?
What industries or who benefits from these policies?
Does it affect the country’s economic structure? If so how?
Hybrid sections: Discuss Topic 2 and Topic 3 online.
All sections: Start your discussions by midnight Saturday.
Complete your postings by midnight Tuesday. Respond to at least two of your
classmates’ comments.
Topic 3. Reflections & Lessons Learned
You read about
catfish, WTO disputes, and your classmates’ comments on the questions.
Discuss
What lessons can the industry your team chose to study learn
from the cases?
Taking into consideration the current public opinion on
trade agreements in the U.S., what is your position on keeping or renegotiating
NAFTA? Explain.
Online sections:
Respond to all three topics.
Hybrid sections:
Discuss Topic 1 in class. Respond online to Topics 2 & 3.
Start your online discussions by midnight Saturday. Complete
postings by midnight Tuesday. Respond to at least two of your classmates’
comments.
Session 4 – In the News!
As part of your Discussions participation, post one news
source (your choice of media) as a response to this Main Topic and explain
briefly (3 or 4 sentences will do) how the news story bears on the topics for
the Session or for upcoming topics. Do not post news that are older than 2
months.
A list of resources is posted in Session 1 Discussions.





