1st Edition

International Trade and Neoliberal Globalism Towards Re-peripheralisation in Australia, Canada and Mexico?

    240 Pages 4 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    240 Pages 4 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    International trade must be analysed within the historical context within which it occurs. Behind the statistics on trade flows lie power structures, class interests and international hierarchies. These change over time and how countries respond to them has critical implications for their citizen’s well-being.

    In this book, the history of trade in Australia, Canada and Mexico is analysed.  Trade agreements are analysed in detail to explore the new forms that dependence and subordination have taken. Arguing that the free trade agreements are significantly biased in favour of the United States, the contributors analyse how each of the three countries are being subject to specific forms of re-peripheralisation and examine possible alternatives for a progressive future based on an integration in the global economy which enhances, rather than limits, democracy and social justice. By providing an historical and critical account of trade policy in the three countries, the book provides a welcome antidote to the ahistorical accounts of free trade supporters.

    1. Introduction  2. The Political Economy of Australian Development in Long-Run Perspective: From Lucky Country to Banana Republic?  3. The Australia-US Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA): Reinforcing Re-Peripheralisation  4. Contesting Neoliberal Globalism in Australia: Opportunities for Progressive Alternatives  5. The Political Economy of Canadian Development in Long-Run Perspective  6. Canada’s Free-Trade Agreements with the US and Mexico: The Exaggeration of North American Trade  7. Contesting Neoliberal Globalism in Canada: A Sovereign Country in an Interdependent World  8. The Political Economy of Mexican Development in a Long-Run Perspective  9. Mexico and NAFTA: Re-Peripheralisation under the Labour Export-Led Model  10. Contesting Neoliberal Globalism in Mexico: Challenges for the Political and the Social Left  11. Re-Peripheralisation and its Alternatives: Comparative Conclusions

    Biography

    Paul Bowles is Professor of Economics and International Studies at the University of Northern British Columbia, Canada.

    Ray Broomhill is Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Adelaide, Australia.

    Teresa Gutiérrez-Haces is Senior Full Time Research Professor at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

    Stephen McBride is Professor of Political Science and Director at the Centre for Global Political Economy, Simon Fraser University, Canada.