Preferential Trade Agreements, many taking the form of Free Trade Agreements, now number over 300 and are rapidly increasing. In this new book, leading economist Jagdish Bhagwati reveals how these agreements have recreated the unhappy situation of the protectionist 1930s, when world trade was undermined by discriminatory practices (today, ironically, as a result of a misdirected pursuit of free trade). The world trading system is definitely at risk again, the author argues, and the danger is palpable. Indeed, PTAs have created a chaotic system of preferences that has destroyed the principle of non-discrimination in trade.

Jagdish Bhagwati is University Professor of Economics and Law at Columbia University and is Senior Fellow in International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations. His books include In Defense of Globalization, which Barrons and Businessweek named one of the best business books of 2004.

• 1: Proliferating PTAs


• 2: Why the Epidemic?


• 3: Why PTAs are a Pox on the World Trading System


• 4: What can we do?


• Appendix: Analytical Developments in the Theory of Preferential Trade Agreements in Post-war period: A Simple Primer


• Glossary: Acronyms, Phrases and Concepts