Jagdish Bhagwati, one of America’s leading economic and political analysts of international trade policy, has just completed a new book, Termites in the Trading System: How Preferential Agreements Undermine Free Trade (Oxford University Press/Council on Foreign Relations, June 2008). The theme and conclusions of Bhagwati’s study will be discussed at...

Bhagwati shines a critical light on preferential trade agreements, revealing how the rapid spread of PTAs endangers the world trading system.

The Obama administration will need to decide whether, on trade issues, it has now cast its lot with a coalition of pro-trade Republicans and internationalist Democrats, or whether it has pushed its labor allies as far as it dares.

In the wake of this week's progress on advancing the U.S.-Colombia free trade agreement, most of the U.S. criticism, naturally, argues that the agreement is not in the U.S. interest.

Two weeks ago, a consultative board to the WTO Director General issued a report calling for significant institutional and policy changes in the multilateral trade organization—including recommendations regarding preferential trade agreements, relations with NGOs, the dispute settlement system, transparency, and the decision-making process. AEI has asked two...

The Bush administration faces major challenges in establishing its priorities in the area of international trade policy. Two of the most important issues concern the role of bilateral and regional trade arrangements and the future direction and functioning of the World Trade Organization. AEI has assembled two panels of...