Championing Free Trade in the Second Age of Globalisation: Jagdish Bhagwati on trade, democracy and growth

An interview with introduction by Brian Snowdon

Published: December 2001

Professor Jagdish Bhagwati is without question one of the world’s leading economists and an authority on the principles and practice of foreign trade. In his extensive research over the past forty years he has made seminal contributions to trade theory and policy, public finance, the new political economy, development theory and policy and India’s economic development. Recently, Professor Bhagwati has been an outspoken critic of US trade policy, capital account liberalisation in developing countries and the global trend towards establishing preferential trade agreements and regional trade blocs. He also continues to champion the case for free trade against the ‘anti-globalists’ who, in order to achieve a variety of social and environmental agendas, advocate various forms of protectionism. Professor Bhagwati gives his views on these, and several other important global issues.