Trade Battles: Activism and the Politicization of International Trade Policy
Tamara Kay and R.L. Evans. Oxford University Press, 2018.
Charles Tilly Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Book Award, Collective Behavior and Social Movements Section of the American Sociological Association, 2019 (co-winner)
Reviewed by Margaret E. Peters for Perspectives on Politics as part of Critical Dialogue. Perspectives on Politics 17(3):834-836. September 2019
Reviewed by Ho-Fung Hung for Contemporary Sociology 49(1):59-61. January 2020
Chinese Edition: 2020, Shanghai University of Finance and Economic Press
“Named CHOICE “Highly Recommended” title 2019
Trade policy has always been politically contentious. International markets create winners and losers and impose serious structural adjustments in line with the ebb and flow of comparative advantage—producing net gains in both levels of income and rates of growth. Countries can act to distort markets and secure for themselves a greater share of the gains; losers can apply political muscle to win for themselves a greater share of the domestic pie or avoid having to adjust to new economic realities....Kay and Evans provide an excellent account of some of the ways trade policy has been used as a tool of social movements. They focus on NAFTA. Like the EEC in its time, NAFTA has been at odds with the principles of non-discrimination enshrined in the multilateral rules-based system governing global trade, the argument being that the benefits of regional economic and possibly political integration outweigh multilateralism in its ultimate welfare effects. In the charged Trump political environment, American trade policy has again been at the center of things, making this a timely book. Summing Up: Highly Recommended.”
—I. Walter, New York University
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““When NAFTA was being debated in the early 1990s, enthusiasm for the neoliberal ‘project’ was at a fever pitch. Yet, against long odds and near unanimous elite support, an emergent coalition of labor and environmental activists managed to politicize the proposed treaty and shape the final agreement in significant ways. In Trade Battles, Kay and Evans offer a compelling account of this outcome. But theirs is also a cautionary tale of how this outcome led state actors to insulate trade policy from movement intervention, eroding democracy in the process.” ”
““Kay and Evans recount a quarter-century of civil society’s ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ advocacy campaigns on labor and environmental standards in trade agreements. Starting with NAFTA and then tracing post-NAFTA trade agreements, the authors explore diverging strategies among advocates who seek a seat at the table and those who view trade agreements as cookbooks, with workers and the environment on the menu. This insightful framing analysis by two prominent scholars is also a ripping good story for those interested in trade, labor, and environmental affairs.” ”
Trade was once an esoteric economic issue with little domestic policy resonance. Activists did not prioritize it, and grassroots political mobilization seemed unlikely to free trade advocates. The passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement in the early 1990s was therefore expected to be a fait accompli. Yet, as Trade Battles shows, activists pushed back: they increased the public consciousness on trade, mobilized new constituencies against it, and demanded that the rules of the global economy protect the collective rights and common good of citizens. Activists also forged a sustained challenge to U.S. trade policies after NAFTA, setting the stage for future trade battles. Using data from extensive archival materials and over 215 interviews with Mexican, Canadian, and U.S. trade negotiators; labor and environmental activists; and government officials, the authors assess how activists politicized trade policy by leveraging broad divisions across state and non-state arenas. Further, they demonstrate how activists were not only able to politicize trade policy, but also to pressure negotiators to include labor and environmental protections in NAFTA's side agreements. A timely contribution, Trade Battles seeks to understand the role of civil society in shaping state policy.