Overview
Growing world trade has helped lift living standards around the world, and yet free trade is always under attack by opponents. Critics complain that trade forces painful economic adjustments, such as plant closings and layoffs of workers, and charge that the World Trade Organization serves the interests of corporations, undercuts domestic environmental regulations, and erodes America's sovereignty. Why has global trade become so controversial? Does free trade deserve its bad reputation? In Free Trade under Fire, Douglas Irwin sweeps aside the misconceptions that litter the debate over trade and gives the reader a clear understanding of the issues involved. This second edition includes a new chapter on trade and developing countries and updates the entire text to deal with new issues such as outsourcing and steel tariffs.
Editorials
Richard N. Cooper
Here he provides an entree to recent empirical literature, which largely demonstrates that most of the charges against free trade do not stand up under serious empirical scrutiny. He offers an especially informative chapter on antidumping duties, which have historically been supported in the name of ensuring "fair trade."— Foreign Affairs