Myths of Free Trade: Why America Trade Policy Has Failed

"We discovered that the Chilean government had hired Bob Dole to represent them against U.S. salmon farmers. Dole had served as chair of the Senate Finance Committee, the panel with jurisdiction over trade. After my office alerted the media, Dole angrily demanded to know who that Ohio Congressman was who had outed him."—from Myths of Free Trade

• Myth #1: Corporate globalization is inevitable
• Myth #2: Free-trade agreements help fight the war on terrorism
• Myth #3: Free trade leaves most people better off — rich or poor
• Myth #4: Free trade will bring democracy, human rights, and freedom to authoritarian governments
• Myth #5: NAFTA has been a success
• Myth #6: Free trade is a great American tradition

From the editorial pages of the New York Times to the streets of Argentina, ever more people are questioning the extravagant claims made on behalf of free trade. Now Sherrod Brown, a leading progressive member of Congress, takes apart the free-trade faith, myth by myth, providing a front-row seat to the widescreen spectacle of corporate lobbying and political intimidation that keeps the free-trade mantra alive as American policy, despite all evidence that free trade is failing.

Ten years after NAFTA, free-trade policies have not brought prosperity to Mexican workers, and more than one million American jobs have been lost. Brown draws on his travels to meet with Mexican maquiladora workers and laid-off Americans —as well as visits paid to him by corporate lobbyists —to take on the free-trade proselytizers.