Global Trade

Past Mistakes, Future Choices

Trade, along with the free movement of capital, is at the heart of today's international economy. But international trade is an intensely political and contested subject. In this book, Greg Buckman details possible future directions in global energy supplies and balance-of-payments imbalances. He argues that, just as current trading arrangements have been the product of past decisions emerging out of apparently unrelated considerations, so factors like future fossil fuel costs, global warming, and the economic imbalances between North and South are likely to impel a radical reshaping of the WTO and the principles enshrined in its agreements as well as the global trading system in general. A key contribution to thinking about possible trade policy reforms are the reforms and alternatives - themselves not always agreed or sufficiently thought through -- advocated by the global justice movement. This book outlines these diverse proposals to make global trade more sustainable in some detail. This book has been written to be both informative and empowering. It is an important contribution to clearer thinking, more effective campaigning, and fundamental policy reform in the field of international trade.