Fairness in the World Economy: U.S. Perspectives on International Trade Relations (Book Review)

Abstract

WTO supporters and antiglobalization activists do not agree on much. However, they emphatically share the assessment that the international trading system is unfair. Thus, in recent years, substantial diplomatic and scholarly energies have been devoted to making the trade regime fairer. But what features mark a trade system as fair? Is fairness to be found in procedural rules, substantive norms, or economic outcomes? Should we be concerned with fairness to states, or with fairness to individuals in those states?

This essay reviews Americo Beviglia Zampetti's Fairness in the World Economy: US Perspectives on International Trade Relations, which traces the role of fairness in U.S. trade policy discourse. Zampetti argues that U.S. trade policy has focused upon a level playing field conception of fairness. In this short essay, I review Zampetti's main arguments and critically examine the conceptual and normative coherence of the conception of fairness that he describes.

Keywords: International trade, WTO, Global Governance, Fairness