Product Description

How can the poorer countries of the world be helped to help themselves through freer, fairer trade? In this challenging and controversial book Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz and his co-author Andrew Charlton address one of the key issues facing world leaders today. They put forward a radical and realistic new model for managing trading relationships between the richest and the poorest countries. Their approach is designed to open up markets in the interests of all and not just the most powerful economies, to ensure that trade promotes development, and to minimise the costs of adjustments. Beginning with a brief history of the World Trade Organisation and its agreements, the authors explore the issues and events which led to the failure of Cancun and the obstacles that face the successful completion of the Doha Round of negotiations. Finally they spell out the reforms and principles upon which a successful agreement must be based. Accessibly written and packed full of empirical evidence and analysis, this book is a must read for anyone interested in world trade and development.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #49672 in Books
• Published on: 2007-07-26
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 315 pages

Diplomat, September 1, 2007
'A worthwhile read for anyone interested in trade and development.'

Review
'A worthwhile read for anyone interested in trade and development.' (Diplomat )

Jose Antonio Ocampo, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations
'a must read - and must do - if the Doha Round is going to become developmental.'

Customer Reviews

A radical new Trade Model
The authors state rightly that trade policies should be designed to raise living standards and to integrate developing countries into the world trading system. Global poverty (more than 2 billion people live on less than a dollar a day) is the world's most pressing problem.
They say rightly that the developed countries have to date received the lion's share of the benefits from previous trade negotiations. Those ought to do more for the developing countries. The adage should be `help-my-neighbor', nor `beggar-my neighbor'. Right should persevere over might.

Therefore they want to put a radical new trade model on the table of the Doha Round: the Market Access Proposal (MAP). Their model is simple and straight:
All developing countries can have free access to all markets with (1) a larger GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and (2) a larger GDP per capita.

Besides MAP, they give also recommendations for the upcoming trade negotiations, of which many will be extremely difficult to realize, even partly: liberation of labor markets and unskilled services, promotion of labor mobility (immigration), elimination of agricultural subsidies, no technical provisions (like rules of origin), no export subsidies, no tariffs, no non-tariff barriers (dumping duties), no currency exchange manipulations, no arms sales, no briberies, pro-generic drug policies, elimination of secret bank accounts.

They also want better access to financial means for developing countries, institutional reforms (a less costly accession mechanism) and a new international trade tribunal.
By the way, trade negotiations should be about trade, not about intellectual property rights.
Generally, they ask for more democratic media, which are actually controlled by a few rich conglomerates.

Any trade agreement that differentially hurts developing countries more or benefits the developed countries more should be considered as unfair.

J. Stiglitz and A. Charlton have written a most necessary book. The implementation of their simple and radical proposition should constitute a big leap forward for the developing countries and concomitantly for global international trade.

This book is a must read for all participants of trade negotiations and for all those interested in the future of mankind.

N.B. For a viewpoint of the South I recommend Walden Bello's `Dilemmas of Domination'.

A Fair account of both sides of the Trade argument
This book thoroughly explores all the issues in a very balanced and knowledgeable manner, and is worth reading for the well justified arguments made for both sides.

It is also a rather good introduction to the workings of GATT, WTO and the motives behind the various participating nations.

However, this book was tough reading. The authors are not lucid and stray into grotesque minutiae all too often (the graphs and tables of raw data only add to the boredom).

As a book on ways to help poverty there are better reads, e.g. Amartya Sen's outstanding "Freedom as Development". But as a book on the workings of international trade agreements it would be worth reading.

Fixing Globalisation
Joseph Stiglitz is the most important progressive economist of our time. He has stared down the free market orthodoxy and shown how alternative policies can work better.

This book provides positive and realistic solutions for poverty reduction through trade.