Christian Deblock

NAFTA: The Trump Card of the United States?

The North American Free Trade Agreement, (NAFTA) aims to create a unified North American market. Whether or not such a project is to be beneficial to the participating countries- and to the world economy as a whole- is a controversial issue. Much of the present debate surrounding NAFTA focuses on the uncertainty of NAFTAs viability, appropriateness, and benefits.f Is NAFTA part of a general process of trade liberalization or conducive to the construction of an economic bloc which, as Bergsten suggested, could provoke economic rivalry between the great powers?

Humanizing Trade: A North American Perspective in the Making

Free trade agreements (FTAs) generally face strong opposition from trade unions. Free trade favors enterprises while labor supports the bulk of adjustment costs of a globalization process that lacks adequate regulation. National markets have been increasingly confronted with free trade and increased competition from abroad. While this can stimulate growth, investment, and productivity, growing trade and investment flows have also been accompanied by negative effects on employment, wages, and working conditions. Globalization and the dismantling of welfare states have reduced the bargaining power of the workforce and generally benefited employers; this is illustrated by the shrinking gross domestic product (GDP) share of wage-salaries relative to the GDP share of profit, as well as by an increasing economic insecurity for workers around the world. Although many workers in high-productivity sectors have benefited from globalization, optimism regarding the social cost of globalization has receded (GLG 2007; Roach 2007).

Accords commerciaux : entre coopération et compétition

L’OMC plaide pour la coherence entre les accords commerciaux et le systeme multilateral. Pourtant, l’histoire de ces accords commerciaux preferentiels montre que la tendance generale ne conduit pas a une coherence croissante entre deux systemes de regles, mais plutot a leur decouplage et a un rayonnement des accords a partir d’un petit nombre de modeles. On peut meme se demander si l’on ne va pas vers une incompatibilite entre deux conceptions differentes de la cooperation economique.politique etrangere

New Issues on the NAFTA Front

Under review here is a single-author work and four collections comprising no less than 48 contributions by some 61 authors, not counting commentators and panel discussants. This richness is but a small indication of the unflagging interest the North American Free Trade Agreement (nafta) has spawned among academics, researchers, and analysts. If nothing else, nafta has certainly proven that interactive and integrative forces do carry with them interesting spill-over effects on the research agendas of universities and foundations, thereby con-