Does the World Trade Organization Serve America’s Interests in the Global Economy?
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The U.S. House will soon vote on a resolution to withdraw the United States from the World Trade Organization. Supporters of the WTO maintain that U.S. membership encourages trade liberalization through multilateral negotiations, while establishing a rules‐based system that protects the interests of American consumers and producers. Critics see the WTO as a threat to U.S. sovereignty and a lightning rod for more general discontents about free trade. Assessing the merits of U.S. membership in the WTO will be Douglas Irwin, one of the nation’s leading free‐trade economists and author of the book Free Trade under Fire (2nd ed.), newly published by Princeton University Press; Grant Aldonas, a former top trade official in the Bush administration; and Rep. Ron Paul, a sponsor of the resolution to end U.S. membership.
