Putting Development First:
The Importance of Policy Space in the WTO and IFIs
Edited by Kevin P. Gallagher
Zed Books, 2005
$27.50 paper; $85.00 Cloth
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Nations of the world have embarked on a new round
of global trade negotiations—the so-called
Doha Round under the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Developing countries agreed to enter a new round
of trade negotiations only on the condition that
development would be the centerpiece. There are
growing concerns that this promise will go unfulfilled.
Key among those concerns is the notion that a new
trade agreement will not give the developing world
the “policy space” to use the very instruments
and tools that many industrialized nations took
advantage of to reach their current levels of development.
This book includes original contributions
by an impressive range of Northern and Southern
authors: Alice Amsden, Joseph Stiglitz, Sanjaya
Lall, Ha-Joon Chang, Peter Evans, Robert Wade, Nagesh
Kumar, Carlos Correa, Navroz Dubash, Albert Cho,
Ajit Singh, and Kevin P. Gallagher.
To varying degrees all of these authors
argue that the WTO and the international financial
institutions are shrinking the ability of nations
to put proper polices in place for sustainable development.
Indeed, many of the authors argue that the economic
rationale for preserving policy space in trade negotiations
is justified now more than ever. During the 20th
Century nations in East Asia, Latin America and
elsewhere successfully balanced states and markets
to grow from lower to middle income countries. Today,
in the face of increasing poverty, inequality, and
environmental degradation, states need as many tools
as possible to raise the standards of living of
their people.
Read more: GDAE's
Globalization and Sustainable Development Program
About the author: Kevin P. Gallagher is
Senior Researcher for the institute’s Research
and Policy Program, and an assistant professor in
the Department of International Relations at Boston
University. Gallagher serves as GDAE’s principal
investigator for the Globalization and Sustainable
Development Program. His current research focuses
on the economics and politics of economic integration
in the Western Hemisphere, particularly in relation
to industrial development in Mexico. He is the author
of Free Trade and the Environment: Mexico, NAFTA,
and Beyond. He has presented his work at the
WTO, World Bank, OECD, ECLAC, the World Summit on
Sustainable Development, and at other international
conferences on trade and investment policy, economic
development, and the environment. He is also the
co-editor of International Trade and Sustainable
Development (with Jacob Werksman). Gallagher
holds a Ph.D. in International Political Economy
and a M.A. in International Environmental Policy
from Tufts.
Other books by the author:
Free
Trade and the Environment: Mexico, NAFTA and Beyond
International
Trade and Sustainable Development
