The World Trade Organization: A Beginner's Guide, Paperback

The World Trade Organization is one of the most important yet least understood organizations in the world. As a lynchpin of globalization, the WTO allows us to enjoy products and services from around the world, but it also lays bare the frailty of many industries, in some cases leading to unemployment and even threatening social cohesion.

In this beginner's guide, Dr. David Collins explores the goals of the WTO and how these have created difficulties for its member countries as they adapt to the pressures of globalization. With high-profile case studies straight from the headlines and textboxes that clearly outline complex issues such as regional trade agreements and currency manipulation, this engaging and highly-informative book explains what the WTO does and how it fits into the world we know. Anti-globalizationists say it should expand its mandate to cover social issues that matter to real people but, as Collins shows, to pursue these goals would likely involve taking steps back from liberalizing international trade -- the primary objective of the WTO and why the organization was created in the first place.

About the Author:

David Collins is an international trade lawyer who began his legal career practicing commercial litigation in Toronto before becoming a prosecutor for the Attorney General of Ontario in the early 2000s. In 2005 he joined City University London where he continues to teach and carry out research in the area of international trade and investment. He is admitted to practice law in Ontario, New York, and England. He lives in London.