Navigating The Free Trade Fair Trade Fault Lines

Is Free Trade desirable? Does it primarily benefit the wealthy? And what are its impacts on individual autonomy and human dignity? These are some of the fundamental questions that acclaimed trade law expert, Michael Trebilcock, sets out to answer in this pithy and insightful journey through the past, present and future of international trade agreements and trade policy.

An internationally renowned scholar of law and economics, Michael J. Trebilcock has spent over fifty years teaching and researching at the intersection between ideas, interests, and institutions. In Public Inquiries, Trebilcock reflects on his extensive experiences and sheds light on the role of scholars in engaging with the Canadian public policy-making process. Drawing on a number of case studies, Public Inquiries gives an informed overview of the role of ideas and interests in shaping the policy-making process. Trebilcock takes readers through his personal experiences and what he has learned throughout his career. He puts forward general lessons about the public policy-making process and reform in areas including consumer protection, competition policy, trade policy, electricity reform, and legal aid. By showing that not all experiences have been triumphant, and that disappointments can be as revealing as successes, Trebilcock draws out personal lessons and insights with a view to improving the structure and effectiveness of public inquiries.

In this volume, contributors look at how the destruction of tariff barriers on a world scale opens the weaker economies to the power of the transnational corporations, and often leads to greater impoverishment of already poor countries and peoples. They discuss strategies and ideas for the creation of an economic climate which would allow free and fair trade for everyone in the 21st century.

"This book argues that fair trade is opposition to trade based on sincere concerns about environmental and labor conditions abroad rather than just protectionism in disguise or labels on coffee products, using public opinion and Congressional voting as evidence that fair trade is sincere and distinct from free trade and protectionism"--

This study analyzes trade performance in the Reagan years by examining policy actions in five areas; import protection, discrimination, reciprocity, subvention of exports, and the use of trade policy to secure other foreign policy objectives. No index. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR