Promoting Free Trade

Abstract

This book provides information which could be useful for students,researchers and academics. It discusses the rationale and benefits associated with promoting the ideal of free trade as opposed to protectionism. It then examines the approach of the GATT 1945 legal regime for regulating economic liberalism and that of the GATT 1994/WTO regulatory regime to promoting this ideal. Whereas the the former trading regime promoted free trade, the latter adopts a green approach to enforcing global trade policies in the advent of sustainable development-a contemporary principle which necessarily requires the integration of free trade, environmental protection and social upliftment. Free trade on the other hand may not always be desirable for a country, as this book evidently discusses. An example of such a scenario, in the current era of sustainable development is the possible adverse effect of trade on the environment. Discussions then centre on the detrimental effects which uncontrolled economic policy and practices could have on economic patterns could have on the environment.