The New Rules of Trade

ON THE face of it these should be heady days for the intellectual progeny of Adam Smith. The acronyms of free trade—GATT, NAFTA, APEC, MERCOSUR—triumphantly adorn the headlines. The adversaries of the free market are in full retreat around the globe, and pleas for aid are starting to be drowned out by pleas for trade. Free trade, it seems, is like apple pie and motherhood—almost everyone’s in favor of it.

In a very important sense, this is unfortunate. When everyone supports something, it is inevitably the case that the something has ceased to carry any fixed meaning.

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Benn Steil

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ON THE face of it these should be heady days for the intellectual progeny of Adam Smith. The acronyms of free trade—GATT, NAFTA, APEC, MERCOSUR—triumphantly adorn the headlines. The adversaries of the free market are in full retreat around the globe, and pleas for aid are starting to be drowned out by pleas for trade. Free trade, it seems, is like apple pie and motherhood—almost everyone’s in favor of it.

In a very important sense, this is unfortunate. When everyone supports something, it is inevitably the case that the something has ceased to carry any fixed meaning.