Breaking Down the Barriers: Why Europe Needs More Free Trade

Free trade and globalization are evil and exploitative, cry anti-capitalist protesters all over the world. But is this really true? Is the market to blame? Or should activists really be fighting to eradicate the perverse incentives created by international agreements and European regulations? If we wish to help the poor in the developing world and raise living standards everywhere, should we place our faith in government action or in entrepreneurial activity?

This book explores these complex questions in more detail than is often devoted to them in the hurried and intense world of today's 24 hour demand for news. Policy experts from around the world assembled by the Stockholm Network and the International Policy Network lock horns over issues ranging from the need for reform of Europe's Common Agricultural Policy and the effect of Europe's increasing reliance on the precautionary principle to the impact of parallel trade in pharmaceuticals and the ramifications of the TRIPS agreement for economic growth and innovation.

These questions go to the heart of how best to deal with some of the most urgent questions facing the world today - how to help the millions dying from AIDS in the developing world, how to reduce poverty worldwide and especially in the agriculturally-dependent South, and how to manage risk without stifling economic dynamism or preventing opportunities for new ideas and products to come to market. This book should be read by anyone with a desire to understand globalization and the challenges it faces in the 21st century.