Myths of Free Trade

by Brown, Sherrod

• ISBN13: 9781565849280
• ISBN10: 1565849280
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-09-30
• Publisher: New Pr

Summary

From the ranking Democrat on the House's Commerce committee, a myth-busting guide to free-trade ideology ten years after NAFTA. "We discovered that the Chilean government had hired Bob Dole to represent them against U.S. salmon farmers. Dole had served as chair of the Senate Finance Committee, the panel with jurisdiction over trade. After my office alerted the media, Dole angrily demanded to know who that Ohio Congressman was who had outed him." from Myths of Free Trade

• Myth #1: Corporate globalization is inevitable
• Myth #2: Free-trade agreements help fight the war on terrorism
• Myth #3: Free trade leaves most people better off rich or poor
• Myth #4: Free trade will bring democracy, human rights, and freedom to authoritarian governments
• Myth #5: NAFTA has been a success
• Myth #6: Free trade is a great American tradition

From the editorial pages of the New York Times to the streets of Argentina, ever more people are questioning the extravagant claims made on behalf of free trade. Now Sherrod Brown, a leading progressive member of Congress, takes apart the free-trade faith, myth by myth, providing a front-row seat to the widescreen spectacle of corporate lobbying and political intimidation that keeps the free-trade mantra alive as American policy, despite all evidence that free trade is failing. Ten years after NAFTA, free-trade policies have not brought prosperity to Mexican workers, and more than one million American jobs have been lost. Brown draws on his travels to meet with Mexican maquiladora workers and laid-off Americans as well as visits paid to him by corporate lobbyists to take on the free-trade proselytizers.

Author Biography

Sherrod Brown had represented Ohio's 13th Congressional District since 1992, and serves on the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection.

Table of Contents

Introduction : mythmaking	p. 1
Myth 1 : Americans believe in free trade	p. 7
Myth 2 : free-trade agreements are necesaary to fight the war on terrorism	p. 27
Myth 3 : free trade is an extension of American values abroad	p. 49
Myth 4 : free trade leaves most people better off - in rich and poor nations alike	p. 69
Myth 5 : free trade will bring democracy , human rights, and freedom to authoritarian nations	p. 97
Myth 6 : the North American Free Trade Agreement has been a success	p. 137
Myth 7 : free trade is a great American tradition	p. 175
A model for fair trade and a call to action	p. 201
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