War in Iran
The headlines are built on long histories and debates.
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International Trade
Understanding the complexities, pitfalls, and one-upmanship of tariffs and trade agreements.
Posted on April 17, 2025 in Hot Topic
Benton, James C. Fraying fabric: how trade policy and industrial decline transformed America. Illinois, 2022. 304p bibl index ISBN 9780252044656, $125.00; ISBN 9780252086724 pbk, $30.00; ISBN 9780252053665 ebook, $19.95.
Reviewed in CHOICE August 2023
In Fraying Fabric, Benton (Georgetown Univ.) describes the New Deal notion that expanding international trade would create benefits broad enough that the security of the workforce would not need protection beyond the National Labor Relations and Social Security Act of 1935. Benton shows that the outsized economic role the US played during World War II and the postwar period sustained the illusion among government, business, and labor leaders that free trade sufficed for ensuring growing prosperity, despite the appearance of its destructive effects by the early 1950s. Benton focuses on the textile and apparel industries to unravel the factors that allowed American economic and political decision-makers to perpetuate false promises. Such promises persisted even after the Kennedy administration began to confront undeniable economic conditions and pressing human rights and foreign policy issues. Employers’ relentless attacks on labor unions, aided by some labor leaders’ naïveté or indifference, obstructed action against the neoliberal perversion of American trade policy. Benton’s work stands as a model history with a particular focus that expands in both breadth and chronology into a useful account for academics and contemporary policy makers. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Undergraduates through faculty; professionals; general readers. —J. A. Young, emeritus, Edinboro University of PA
Encyclopedia of tariffs and trade in U.S. history: v.1: The encyclopedia; v.2: Debating the issues: selected primary documents; v.3: The texts of the tariffs, ed. by Cynthia Clark Northrup and Elaine C. Prange Turney. Greenwood, 2003. 3 v. ISBN 0313327890, $300.00.
Reviewed in CHOICE March 2004
Media coverage of the recent failed attempt by the US to ratify the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) agreement (an expansion of NAFTA that would include all 34 countries of the Western Hemisphere except Cuba) once again alerted the American public to the critical importance of tariffs and trade agreements to the US economy. Northrup (Univ. of Texas) and Turney (Univ. of Dallas) offer an outstanding reference source treating the tariff acts passed by Congress, 1789-1930. The set will help faculty and students better understand the role these trade agreements play in shaping US history. Volume 1 contains over 500 alphabetically arranged biographical and topical entries and a 20-page bibliography. Biographical entries provide a brief bibliography and see also references to related topics. Volume 2 reproduces 36 primary historical documents, arranged chronologically, that illustrate particular arguments or positions on specific tariffs or trade in general, are critical to understanding US economic policy, and are as relevant today as they were originally (e.g., the “Gore-Perot Debate over the Ratification of the North American Free Trade Agreement”). Volume 3 reprints the text of all tariff acts, 1789-1930. Since this set excludes the texts of trade agreements negotiated by the executive branch after 1930, NAFTA is missing, but Encyclopedia of the North American Free Trade Agreement, the New American Community, and Latin-American Trade (CH, May’95) fills that gap. Both works belong in every university history or economics collection. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Undergraduates through faculty. —A. A. Raymond, Business Subject Specialist
Frankopan, Peter. The new silk roads: the present and future of the world. Knopf, 2019 (c2018). 285p index ISBN 9780525656401, $26.95; ISBN 9780525656418 ebook, $12.99.
Reviewed in CHOICE August 2019
Frankopan (Oxford) provides an up-to-the-moment account of events across Eurasia, all framed in the context of China’s Belt and Road Initiative that is intended to position that state at the center of international trade and commerce. This book is in many ways a follow-up to his 2015 historical study, The Silk Roads (CH, Aug’16, 53-5347), which readers will want to consult for background. But as Frankopan states in the introduction, the world has changed dramatically in the short time since that book was published. He takes readers along five narrative roads that illustrate new ways of understanding how the past and present interact, documenting the rising wealth of the East, new problems in Central Asia, China’s rapid economic growth under Xi Jinping, the details in the emerging rivalry between China and the US, and where the world defined by the silk roads might be in a decade. Frankopan’s story, that the silk roads are rising, is compelling, especially for anyone who follows international news cycles. His accessible prose is, admirably, also supported with ample documentation in endnotes that will make this book useful for everyone from general readers to specialists. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels. —M. C. Brose, Indiana University
Kay, Tamara. Trade battles: activism and the politicization of international trade policy, by Tamara Kay and R. L. Evans. Oxford, 2018. 237p bibl index ISBN 9780190847432, $99.00; ISBN 9780190847449 pbk, $29.95; ISBN 9780190847456 ebook, contact publisher for price.
Reviewed in CHOICE March 2019
Trade policy has always been politically contentious. International markets create winners and losers and impose serious structural adjustments in line with the ebb and flow of comparative advantage—producing net gains in both levels of income and rates of growth. Countries can act to distort markets and secure for themselves a greater share of the gains; losers can apply political muscle to win for themselves a greater share of the domestic pie or avoid having to adjust to new economic realities. Trade policy has been used to target objectives that are remote from the goal of good economic performance, including effecting political change and extracting retaliation against policies of other states—arguably in recent years “weaponizing” trade policy. Kay and Evans provide an excellent account of some of the ways trade policy has been used as a tool of social movements. They focus on NAFTA. Like the EEC in its time, NAFTA has been at odds with the principles of non-discrimination enshrined in the multilateral rules-based system governing global trade, the argument being that the benefits of regional economic and possibly political integration outweigh multilateralism in its ultimate welfare effects. In the charged Trump political environment, American trade policy has again been at the center of things, making this a timely book. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates; graduate students. —I. Walter, New York University
Mavroidis, Petros C. The regulation of international trade: v.1: GATT. MIT, 2016. 613p bibl index afp ISBN 9780262029841, $86.00; ISBN 9780262333894 ebook, $61.00.
Reviewed in CHOICE November 2016
International trade law is a towering achievement of the global economic architecture that evolved after World War II. Economic systems cannot survive without rules that participants agree are in the general interest and convey tangible benefits of adherence—as well as workable adjudication mechanisms governing the inevitable disputes that arise. This notion formed the core of the General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade (GATT), with non-discrimination (most favored nation treatment) and reciprocity as the basis of trading rules that evolved over multiple rounds of negotiations over the decades and resolution of many trade disputes. But even as tariffs were successfully reduced, non-tariff barriers became more important and were much more difficult to liberalize. Meanwhile, regional trade agreements in Europe, North America, and elsewhere became more attractive and feasible vehicles for trade liberalization among members, affecting the importance of the GATT successor, the World Trade Organization (WTO), including the abortive Doha Round of negotiations that was ultimately driven into the sand. This book is a definitive study of the GATT and will be invaluable for students of international trade policy, who can look forward to the author’s volume 2, on the WTO, which promises to be equally authoritative. Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through professionals. —I. Walter, New York University
Mavroidis, Petros C. The regulation of international trade: v.2: The WTO agreements on trade in goods. MIT, 2016. 849p bibl index ISBN 9780262029995, $92.00; ISBN 9780262333719 ebook, contact publisher for price.
Reviewed in CHOICE February 2017
This is the second of two volumes on international trade law, which has evolved since World War II and was initially centered on the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade launched in 1948 and later on the successor World Trade Organization (WTO), which took over as the multilateral forum for trade rules in 1995. Market access in international trade has to rely on a rules-based system centered on key principles, such as non-discrimination, reciprocity, and dispute settlement, which these agreements have overseen for almost seven decades. This book is the definitive treatment of the legal structures forming this system from the WTO launch to the present—starting with classic tariff barriers and proceeding through anti-dumping measures, subsidies, safeguards in the case of trade surges and other unforeseen developments, technical trade barriers related to health and safety, trade-related investment measures, and special issues related to agriculture, civil aviation, textiles, government procurement, and transparency. The book and its predecessor volume will stand for many years as the definitive treatment of the international trading rules of the game. An essential source for college and university libraries. Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. —I. Walter, New York University
Oermann, Nils Ole. Trade wars: past and present, by Nils Ole Oermann and Hans-Jürgen Wolff. Oxford, 2022. 336p bibl index ISBN 9780192848901, $35.00; ISBN 9780191944178 ebook, contact publisher for price.
Reviewed in CHOICE July 2023
German authors Oermann (ethics, Univ. of Lüneburg) and Wolff (retired, Federal President’s Office) bring a wealth of scholarly and policy-making experience to this important and timely study, which incorporates materials and events through March 2022, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The phrase “fair and balanced” may be frequently misused today, but it certainly applies to this book. The authors carefully explicate and place into theoretical and historical contexts the key concepts of international trade, investment, sanctions, protectionism, and economic warfare. They develop criteria for assessing the effectiveness of various trade policies, sanctions, and economic warfare and apply them to specific cases, including Trump’s tariff wars. A separate chapter assesses the challenges China’s rise presents. The authors advocate for improving and strengthening the international rules of trade to avoid the tooth-and-nail economic warfare that deepened the Great Depression. Though it will be imperfect and in need of never-ending adjustments to changing circumstances, such an order will provide the best framework for mutual advancement. This book should be required reading for every policy maker and, ideally, every citizen. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Undergraduates through faculty; professionals; general readers. —M. F. Farrell, emeritus, Ripon College
The Oxford handbook of the political economy of international trade, ed. by Lisa L. Martin. Oxford, 2015. 558p bibl index afp ISBN 9780199981755, $150.00.
Reviewed in CHOICE January 2016
Compiling a handbook on any subject as important and diverse as the political economy of international trade is an overwhelming chore. Martin accomplishes the task successfully and offers readers a comprehensive examination of major issues and theories regarding international trade. The book comprises 27 chapters organized into six sections with each section focusing on a major theme. Reflecting the dominant theories and methodologies in the field, the contributors provide overviews and new insights into international trade. Relying mostly on rationalist perspectives, the contributors to this collection examine techniques to understand the politics of international trade from several levels of social aggregation, such as societal actors, domestic institutions, international institutions, industries, and firms. The last two sections are of particular significance because they address international negotiations and institutional design and issue linkages, respectively. As a handbook, this work stands out as the most comprehensive and up-to-date volume available. The book is truly more than a handbook, however, because it engages in sophisticated debates on such subjects as trade and the environment and trade and human rights. This work belongs on the shelf of every scholar of global political economy. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. —J. R. Strand, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Rolland, Sonia E. Emerging powers in the international economic order: cooperation, competition and transformation, by Sonia E. Rolland and David M. Trubek. Cambridge, 2019. 237p bibl index ISBN 9781107129061, $110.00; ISBN 9781108773331 ebook, $88.00.
Reviewed in CHOICE February 2020
This is an informative study of an important subject: the role of international trade and its relationship to financial investment and economic development, as it pertains to BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa). Rolland (Northwestern Univ.) and Trubek (Univ. of Wisconsin) are both law professors, and in this volume they review the origin of the neoliberal economic order that emerged in the post–WW II era. Given the major world powers’ economic advantage, the less-developed states initially played on the periphery of the global economic order. The authors fully cover what altered the relationship. They discuss how less-developed states employed the WTO to respond to liberal economic policies and transform the hold over the global economic system into a more pluralistic one. The authors detail the law on investment strategies and the international trade regime, and they make a real contribution in looking at the future of international economic law. The narrative is supported by a host of valuable references to related treaties, cases (specifically WTO cases), and a substantial bibliography. Required reading for anyone involved with international political economics. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. —S. R. Silverburg, emeritus, Catawba College
Suominen, Kati. Revolutionizing world trade: how disruptive technologies open opportunities for all. Stanford, 2019. 345p index ISBN 9781503603608, $90.00; ISBN 9781503610712 pbk, $30.00; ISBN 9781503610729 ebook, contact publisher for price.
Reviewed in CHOICE June 2020
This lively, well-written book about international trade policy—a topic that often triggers eye glazing and stem winding—looks at trade policy as it transitions from traditional precepts of nondiscrimination and reciprocity that have served the world well since the late 1930s to the new realities of global trade. Legacy trade negotiations (with a few exceptions) seem to have run their course and given way to unilateralism, unpunished deviations from basic commitments, and weaponization of market-access policy to achieve political goals. Meanwhile, global production and supply chains have become granular, so that earlier concepts of “effective protection” seem prescient. Add technological change that drives down information and transaction costs and introduces wholly new product and services ranges that require rights of establishment and fair competitive conduct, and one has the modern context of trade policy along with welcome excitement and unwelcome populism. Suominen (CEO, Nextrade Group, which seeks to enable world trade through technology) is well versed in these issues, is at home as a policy wonk, and has all the right credentials (and she adds a welcome sense of humor and irreverence). Though the contours of a sensible, sustainable policy for the future remain obscure, this is a good book for those interested in the future of trade policy. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates; graduate students; professionals. —I. Walter, emeritus, New York University