The b-methoxyacrylate system is a common structure present in biologically active natural products such as dihydrokawain [1a] (and related six-membered lactones [1b-e] ), tetronic acids [2a] (and related five-membered lactones [2b-e] ), and bmethoxyacrylate antibiotics. [3] Transition-metal-catalyzed reactions of unsaturated systems has recently been widely used for the construction of a variety of carbo-and heterocycles.[4] Palladium-catalyzed carbonylation of alkynes has provided several kinds of transformation. [5] In general, the intermolecular addition of alcohols to alkynes is more difficult to accomplish than the intramolecular process, thus requiring a stronger p Lewis acid catalyst.[6] Although many examples of the intramolecular oxycarbonylation of 4-alkynols, [7] 4-alkynones, [8] and propargyl acetates [9] have been reported, the intermolecular reaction is extremely rare. Tamaru and co-workers reported the palladium-catalyzed carbonylation of 4-alkyl-or 4-aryl-3-butyn-1-ols, in which MeOH attacked the C4 position of the alkyne to afford methoxycarbonylated five-membered lactones (Scheme 1).[5a]The reaction of the terminal alkyne was not described.The intermolecular methoxycarbonylation of terminal alkynes is a synthetically valuable method for the direct conversion of terminal alkyne units into b-methoxyacrylate units. To our knowledge, there is no precedent for the intermolecular methoxycarbonylation of a simple terminal alkyne. Recently, we reported the ligand-controlled tandem carbonylative cyclization of propargyl acetates with 1,4-diyne [10a] and 1,5-diyne structures. [10b] In the absence of the bis(oxazoline) ligand (box), the second triple bond did not react. However, the use of the box ligand caused a significant change to the course of the reaction, and tandem carbonylative cyclization occurred as a result of insertion at the second triple bond. Although box ligands are among the most popular classes of chiral ligands in asymmetric chemistry, examples of the box ligand changing the course of the reaction are rare. [10,11] We believe that the box ligand enhances the p-electrophilicity of Pd II complexes, and thus promotes coordination of the second triple bond to Pd II , leading to the tandem reaction. We hypothesize that {(box)-Pd II } complexes should strongly activate the alkyne, so that the intermolecular methoxycarbonylation of alkynes can be realized. Consequently, we report the [(Phbox)Pd(tfa) 2 ]-catalyzed intermolecular methoxycarbonylation of alkyne 1 (Phbox = 2,2-isopropylidenebis(4-phenyl-2-oxazoline); tfa = trifluoroacetate; Table 1).Initially, the carbonylation of 1 a was performed under the conditions reported by Tamaru and co-workers. However, methoxyacrylate 2 a was not obtained, but instead the acetylene carboxylate [5b] (32 %) and maleate derivatives [5n] (20 %) were afforded, together with an unidentified mixture.[12] The reaction conditions were therefore changed to those used for our previously reported Pd II