Suchergebnisse

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- LECTURE I. Confronting Conventional Threats to Free Trade: The Postwar Revolution in the Theory of Commercial Policy -- LECTURE 2 "Fair Trade," Income Distribution, and Social Agendas: Using Trade Theory to Meet New Challenges -- LECTURE 3 Getting to Free Trade: Alternative Approaches and Their Theoretical Rationale -- Index

Openness has affected neither poverty nor inequality adversely. When surveyed, people in disproportionately large volumes from all groups say that their fortunes are improving. The essays in this volume show that trade oppenness has helped reduce poverty among most social groups.

Preferential Trade Agreements, many taking the form of Free Trade Agreements, now number over 300 and are rapidly increasing. In this new book, leading economist Jagdish Bhagwati reveals how these agreements have recreated the unhappy situation of the protectionist 1930s, when world trade was undermined by discriminatory practices (today, ironically, as a result of a misdirected pursuit of free trade). The world trading system is definitely at risk again, the author argues, and the danger is palpable. Indeed, PTAs have created a chaotic system of preferences that has destroyed the principle of non-discrimination in trade.

1. Anti-Globalization: Why? -- 2. Globalization: Socially, Not Just Economically, Benign -- 3. Globalization Is Good but Not Good Enough -- 4. Non-Government Organizations -- 5. Poverty: Enhanced or Dimished? -- 6. Child Labor: Increased or Reduced? -- 7. Women: Harmed or Helped? -- 8. Democracy at Bay? -- 9. Culture Imperiled or Enriched? -- 10. Wages and Labor Standards at Stake? -- 11. Environment in Peril? -- 12. Corporations: Predatory or Beneficial? -- 13. The Perils of Gung-ho International Financial Capitalism -- 14. International Flows of Humanity -- 15. Appropriate Governance: An Overview -- 16. Coping with Downsides -- 17. Accelerating the Achievement of Social Agendas -- 18. Managing Transitions: Optimal, Not Maximal, Speed -- 19. And So, Let Us Begin Anew

An analytic and empirical study of unilateral trade liberalization agreements, from the nineteenth century to the present.Since the end of World War II, the freeing of trade has been most visible in reciprocal liberalization agreements negotiated under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, or GATT, and through increasing bilateral and plurilateral agreements. There has also, however, been a significant, if less visible, unilateral freeing of trade by several nations.This book, based on a research project directed by Jagdish Bhagwati, examines the experiences with such unilateral trade liberalization. Part 1 considers historical experiences, following Britain's unilateral embrace of free trade. Part 2 discusses recent examples, and Part 3 discusses unilateral liberalization in specific sectors. The substantive introduction provides a synthesis of the findings as well as theoretical support. It argues that although unilateral freeing of trade is generally less beneficial than reciprocity, it can trigger "sequential" reciprocity through example or by encouraging lobbies abroad to favor trade expansion.

Provocative essays on international trade, with particular focus on U.S. foreign trade policy. In The Wind of the Hundred Days , a new collection of public policy essays, Jagdish Bhagwati applies his characteristic wit and accessible style to the subject of globalization. Notably, he argues that the true Clinton scandal lay in the administration's mismanagement of globalization -- resulting in the paradox of immense domestic policy success combined with dramatic failure on the external front. Bhagwati assigns the bulk of the blame for the East Asian financial and economic crisis -- a disaster that prompts him to use as his title the poet Octavio Paz's image of devastation "I met the wind of the hundred days" -- to the administration's hasty push for financial liberalization in the region. The administration, Bhagwati claims, has also mishandled the freeing of trade. The administration-hosted WTO meeting in Seattle ended in chaos and the launch of a new round of multilateral trade negotiations was dashed. Bhagwati shows how the administration's failure to get Congress to renew fast-track authority can be attributed to an unimaginative response to the demands of a growing civil society. In several essays, he shows how free trade and social agendas both could have been pursued successfully if the concerns of human-rights, environmental, cultural, and labor activists had been met through creative programs at appropriate international agencies such as the International Labour Organization instead of the WTO and via trade treaties. Bhagwati also criticizes the claim that "globalization needs a human face," arguing that it already has one. He faults the administration for embracing unsubstantiated anti-globalization rhetoric that has made its own preferred option of pursuing globalization that much more difficult.