Trade and the American Dream (eBook)

A Social History of Postwar Trade Policy

Susan Ariel Aaronson (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2014
264 Seiten
The University Press of Kentucky (Verlag)
978-0-8131-4919-6 (ISBN)

Infos

Every hour of every day Americans see, smell, taste, or hear goods and services traded between the United States and other nations. Trade issues are front-page news but most Americans know little about the potential impact of global economic interdependence on their jobs, standard of living, and quality of life.In Trade and the American Dream, Susan Aaronson highlights a previously ignored dimension of the United States trade policy: public understanding. Focusing on the debate over the three mechanisms designed to govern world trade-the International Trade Organization (ITO), the General Agreement on Tarriffs and Trade (GATT), and the World Trade Organization (WTO)-she examines how policymakers communicate and how the public comprehends trade policy.Since 1947 the U.S. has led global efforts to free trade, and support for freer trade policies and for an international organization to govern world trade has become dogma among policymakers, business leaders, and economists. Relaying on archival research, polling data, public documents, interviews, and Congressional testimony, Aaronson shows that the public also matters in trade policy decisions. If concerns about the implications of economic interdependence remain unaddressed, American trade policy and an international trade organization are vulnerable to a surge of populism and isolationism.While Americans became addicted to imported cars, radios, computers, and appliances, a growing number saw the costs of freer trade policies in the nation's slums, poverty statistics, crime rate, and unemployment figures. Concerns about freer trade policies reached a crescendo in the mid-1990s, especially as Congress debated U.S. participation in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Aaronson suggests ways to create greater public understanding for the GATT/WTO and international trade. If national trade policy is to play in Peoria, Americans must first understand it.

Autor

Susan Ariel Aaronson is assistant professor of history at the University of North Texas and guest scholar of economics at the Brookings Institution, where she researched and wrote much of Trade and the American Dream. Her research on public understanding of global trade policy has been featured in Time, The Wall Street Journal, and on C-SPAN and National Public Radio.

Inhalt

The Roots of Multilateral Trade Policy
Linking Jobs to Trade Policy, 1939-1942
Gaining Congressional Approval for Multilateral Trade Liberalization, 1943-1945
The Planners and the Public, 1943-1946
Public Response to the ITO, 1946-1947
The ITO, the GATT, and U.S. Trade Policy, 1947-1948
Congressional Challenges and Public Apathy toward Trade, 1948-1949
Dead on Arrival: The Fate of the ITO, 1948-1951
The Rise and Erosion of the Freeer Trade Consensus and the Debate over NAFTA, 1949-1994
Present at the Creation of the WTO, 1986-1994
Conclusion: Democracy and Economic Interdependence

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 13.1.2015
• Zusatzinfo: 16 illustrations, 1 figure, 10 tables
• Verlagsort: Lexington
• Sprache: englisch
• Maße: 150 x 150 mm
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Wirtschaftsgeschichte
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Staat / Verwaltung
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Betriebswirtschaft / Management ► Unternehmensführung / Management
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Volkswirtschaftslehre ► Makroökonomie
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Volkswirtschaftslehre ► Wirtschaftspolitik
• Schlagworte: american public and trade policy • free trade in american history • general agreement on tariff and trade GATT • History of Globalization • international trade history • ITO international trade organization • NAFTA history • trade policy and general public • united states trade policy history • WTO world trade organization
• ISBN-10: 0-8131-4919-3 / 0813149193
• ISBN-13: 978-0-8131-4919-6 / 9780813149196