American trade policy : a tragedy in the making /

Krueger analyzes the apparent shift in US trade policy from leadership of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) to administered protection where the US negotiates trade policies on a country-by-country, bilateral basis. She makes the familiar pro-free trade and antiprotection arguments in chapter 2. In chapter 3, she provides data on the increasing use of antidumping and countervailing duty forms of protection from import competition by US firms and industries with the active support of the US government. The shift toward bilateralism and administered protection puts the US government in a "good cop, bad cop" game where the administration convinces US trading partners that a bilateral resolution of a trading conflict will be preferable to the protectionist legislation which the US Congress would impose. Examples she offers include the "voluntary" export restraints the US negotiated in auto and steel trade. Following a discussion of bilateral trade negotiations--particularly between the US and Japan--she turns to the question of regional trading blocs. The US has the ability, she argues, to lead the world toward "an open, GATT-consistent, trading arrangement" or toward regional trading conflicts. In the final chapter, she makes a strong case for US support of the Uruguay Round of GATT and the newly developed World Trade Organization (WTO). The monograph is well documented and displays a familiarity with recent research on world trade policies and disputes. Graduate; faculty; professional. R. L. Lucier; Denison University