Pardee Center Paper in The Guardian

In his October 14 column in the The Guardian online, Frederick S. Pardee Faculty Fellow Kevin Gallagher discusses traditional perspectives of free trade policies and references the recent Pardee Center publication 21st Century Trade Agreements:Implications for Long-Run Development Policy that he co-authored with Rachael Denae Thrasher, a Pardee Center Graduate Fellow.

In the column, Gallagher argues that the recent award of the Nobel Prize in Economics to Paul Krugman for his work on "strategic trade policy" signals a movement away from the long-held theory that free trade should rely soley on markets to determine each nation’s priorities in production of goods and services without governments imposing tariffs on imports or providing subsidies for domestic production in support of certain domestic industries. "That may make sense when rich nations compete against each other, but in a world where 57.6% of the population lives on less than $2.50 per day, one size can’t fit all," he writes.

He references the Pardee Center trade paper, which examines the extent to which various trade agreements provide the "policy space" for developing countries to implement strategic trade policies to support the development of certain industries or products.

Gallagher is an Associate Professor of International Relations at Boston University.