The United States, the European Union, and the Globalization of World Trade: Allies or Adversaries

(Hardback)

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A comprehensive overview of global trade at the start of a new century, from a national, regional and international viewpoint. It looks closely at the four dominant and competing economic systems - the United States, the European Union, Japan and China - and argues that the traditional we-win/you-lose national trade paradigm has been replaced by one that is more collaborative, one that is leaning toward de factor world governance. The author compares foreigners' attitudes toward trade and markets with our own, using four economic models that typify world trade today. He examines the interface between national, regional and international trading systems and between business and government, then at the prospect of global trade management in different trade sectors under the GATT/WTO and other organizations. The result is a provocative discussion of global trade today. Professor Fischer makes it clear that the United States needs allies. Though its influence in the world trade arena will continue, America's hegemony has ended. The European Union is America's most obvious ally, but it has many problems and ambitions of its own. The North American Free Trade Agreement has solidified the North American market but it may isolate and lose South America, while Japan, China, Russia and others are left to develop alliances of their own. All these factors raise global questions, among them: Can American capitalism prevail Should the United States proceed unilaterally, as it has so often Or are regional and multinational arrangements preferable If there is further globalization, as seems inevitable, and if American influence is on the wane, what group or organization will lead To explore these questions and provide the beginnings of answers, Professor Fischer uses his four competing economic systems and "handicaps" the process country by country, sector by sector, with particular attention to transatlanic relations.

Reviews

"An ambitious and compelling book about the two systems (America's and Europe's), the trading system, and the shape of the world to come. The treatment of EU and its history is magisterial."-Don Wallace, Jr. Professor of Law Chairman, International Law Institute Georgetown University Law Center
"Professor Fischer is to be highly commended in bringing his discerning eye and bountiful experience to bear on this current paradigm. Anyone of serious intent to understand more fully the building and stumbling blocks in the EU/US relationship and its paramount relevance for global trade should read this book."-Aneurin Hughes Ambassador, European Union Head of Delegation, European Commission to Australia and New Zealand
"Professor Fischer's pragmatic, comparative approach yields fresh insights, remarkable suggestions, and possible solutions to various problems at a time when the world is getting smaller.' It is this pragmatic, comparative approach that sets Professor Fischer's book apart from all other publications on global trade."-Werner F. Ebke Senior Professor of Corporate and Private International Law University of Konstanz, Germany
"Refreshingly lucid--will be avidly read by Mike Moore. Wide-ranging, timely, lucid and eminently accessible--Professor Fischer's latest opus is an oasis in the desert of world-trade scholarship. Distinguished by a robust conceptual framework and a keen appreciation of the new operating environment of globalization, this text will quickly become standard reading."-Gordon R. Walker Associate Professor Canterbury University School of Law
"This book is the product of mature and insightful reflection on some of the developments that we loosely refer to as the globalization' of world trade. In addition to providing many insights into the process, it contains a great deal of valuable information on it. The book is written in a clear, informal and engaging style that makes it readily accessible for the general reader as well as for college and law school students."-David Gerber Distinguished Professor of Law Chicago-Kent College of Law
"This is a visionary work by an author with in-depth knowledge of the real world. Fischer writes in the tradition of an unjustly neglected stream of thought which sees economic relations in their broader perspective. He stresses that the fierce competitiveness on the surface of globalized capitalism is underpinned by a crucial set of widely shared interests, values, and institutional arrangements. Together, these amount in effect, to a form of global governance (though not of government' in the traditional sense). Some see this as a threat. Fischer sees it as a promise--but one which can all too easily fall victim to short-sighted policies and narrowness of vision. Both the friends and enemies of globalization will be stimulated--and challenged--by Fischer's arguments."-Stephen C. Neff Faculty of Law University of Edinburgh
"This is an adventurous and imaginative study of the globalization' of world trade.... This is a book of undoubted scholarship; and... timely in its identification and explanation of so many of the competing forces in world trade. There are economic, institutional, social, environmental, political and legal challenges to be faced, and Professor Fischer has provided an invaluable guide."-Foreword by Professor Sir David Williams Emmanuel College Cambridge
"Tom Fischer provides a well-needed, insightful tour of the emerging new world economic order. Fischer skillfully traces the major plays, institutions and phenomenon that comprise the emergent process of globalization. The 21st is not likely to be the American, Asian or European century. Rather, we can expect it to be the century of global interdependence. This is a very useful book for the uninitiated, and for those already charting the course of globalization."-Edward Eberle Professor Roger Williams University
"A reader with only a minimal interest in world trade will find this book of intriguing interest in the context of what is termed "globalization" process. A careful perusal of this valuable book will afford the attentive reader an economic map of the world....[a] splendid exploration of an area that looms more and more importantly in the world of Century 21. Trade globalization is a powerful and complicated force in the contemporary world, far beyond the ability of any single nation to control. For a forthright and erudite presentation of this New World, Prof. Fischer's book is enthusiastically endorsed."-Commerical Law Bulletin
A reader with only a minimal interest in world trade will find this book of intriguing interest in the context of what is termed "globalization" process. A careful perusal of this valuable book will afford the attentive reader an economic map of the world....[a] splendid exploration of an area that looms more and more importantly in the world of Century 21. Trade globalization is a powerful and complicated force in the contemporary world, far beyond the ability of any single nation to control. For a forthright and erudite presentation of this New World, Prof. Fischer's book is enthusiastically endorsed.-Commerical Law Bulletin
This is a useful addition to the literature and is suitable for public, academic (lower-division undergraduate and up), and professional library collections.-Choice
"This is a useful addition to the literature and is suitable for public, academic (lower-division undergraduate and up), and professional library collections."-Choice

Author Bio

THOMAS C. FISCHER is Professor of Law and Dean Emeritus, New England School of Law, Boston. Formerly Professor of Law and Associate Dean of the University of Dayton School of Law, he has been a visiting scholar or fellow at numerous universities here and abroad, including Cambridge, Exeter, Edinburgh, Mnster, Konstanz (Germany) and Auckland (New Zealand). In 1997 he held the coveted Inns of Court Fellowship (London). His most recent book, The Europeanization of America, was nominated for the American Bar Association's Gavel Award.