Kent Jones – författare

Around the world, populism has weaponized anxieties over globalization and other forms of cultural, social, and economic change. Many populist leaders have succeeded in conflating trade concerns with apprehensions over immigration, thereby creating potent campaigns to overturn existing trade agreements and the multilateral cooperation they embody. In the United States, avowed protectionist Donald Trump set out not only to raise tariffs, but to dismantle the system of global trade embodied in the World Trade Organization. In the UK, the Brexit referendum resulted in that country's withdrawal from the European Union, ending its commitment to trade integration with the continent. Populism and Trade explores the impact of populist regimes on protectionism and the damage they have inflicted on global trade and trade policy institutions. Focusing on the disruption caused by the Trump administration and the Brexit referendum, the book traces the influence of populism on trade policy today. Kent Jones shows how these methods will continue to damage global cooperation--something that is essential when faced with international crises like a deadly pandemic--until the sources of populist anger can be addressed. He argues that economic and institutional reforms, along with better education and adjustment policies, will be necessary to break the populist fever.In an age of global populism, open trade policy has become a victim of anti-globalization and economic nationalism. Populism and Trade traces the impact of these divisive political tactics to explain the fragile nature of global trade institutions and the steps needed to save them.

Who is afraid of the WTO, the World Trade Organization? The list is long and varied. Many workers--and the unions that represent them--claim that WTO agreements increase import competition and threaten their jobs. Environmentalists accuse the WTO of encouraging pollution and preventing governments from defending national environmental standards. Human rights advocates block efforts to impose trade sanctions in defense of human rights. While anti-capitalist protesters regard the WTO as a tool of big business--particularly of multinational corporations--other critics charge the WTO with damaging the interests of developing countries by imposing free-market trade policies on them before they are ready. In sum, the WTO is considered exploitative, undemocratic, unbalanced, corrupt, or illegitimate.This book is in response to the many misinformed, often exaggerated arguments leveled against the WTO. Kent Jones explains in persuasive and engaging detail the compelling reasons for the WTO's existence and why it is a force for progress toward economic and non-economic goals worldwide. Although protests against globalization and the WTO have raised public awareness of the world trading system, they have not, Jones demonstrates, raised public understanding. Clarifying the often-muddled terms of the debate, Jones debunks some of the most outrageous allegations against the WTO and argues that global standards for environmental protection and human rights belong in separate agreements, not the WTO. Developing countries need more trade, not less, and even more importantly, they need a system of rules that gives them--the smaller, weaker, and more vulnerable players in world trade--the best possible chance of pursuing their trade interests among the larger and more powerful developed countries.Timely and important, Who's Afraid of the WTO? provides an overview of the most important aspects of the world trading system and the WTO's role in it while tackling the most popular anti-WTO arguments. While Jones does not dismiss the threat that recent political protests pose for the world trading system, he reveals the fallacies in their arguments and presents a strong case in favor of the WTO.

The collapse of the Doha Round hangs heavily over an already troubled world economy. Some have concluded that this failure is simply the result of a lack of political will and a pre-occupation with issues such as terrorism. But as Kent Jones reveals in The Doha Blues, the World Trade Organization needs serious structural changes, not just political backbone. He shows for instance that the WTO--now with 153 members--has become increasingly unwieldy in terms of concluding trade agreements and he suggests that countries organize around specific platform positions, a strategy that would make the "holy grail" of consensus once again possible. Jones also argues for financial support for poorer countries so that they can participate effectively in negotiations and he contends that the principle of the "single undertaking" (that "there is no agreement until everything is agreed") has become a serious and perhaps crippling constraint, and must be modified. Jones is a leading authority on trade policy and his book illuminates the real stumbling blocks to trade liberalization and highlights the way around them.

The institutional shortcomings of the World Trade Organization (WTO) became apparent during the Doha Round of Trade negotiations that began in 2001 and which aimed to improve the success of developing countries' trading by lowering trade barriers and adjusting other trade rules. This "development agenda " meant different things to rich and poor countries. In addition, many of the circumstances that supported success in General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) negotiations of 1947 were no longer present after the WTO was founded in 1995. In Reconstructing the World Trade Organization for the 21st Century, Kent Jones examines the difficulties of the WTO in completing multilateral trade negotiations and possible ways to restore its ability to do so. The problem lies in the institutional structure it inherited from the GATT, which was designed for a more limited scope of trade negotiations among a relatively small number of wealthier, industrialized countries. Jones presents an institutional model of the GATT/WTO system, which describes why such an organization exists and how it is supposed to accomplish its goals. Institutional reforms will be necessary to restore the WTO's ability to complete global trade agreements, including a more flexible application of the consensus rule, a common understanding among all members about the limits of domestic policy space that is subject to negotiation, and clearer rules on reciprocity obligations. The popularity of bilateral and regional trade agreements, which have emerged as the alternative to WTO agreements, presents a threat to the WTO's relevance in trade negotiations, but also an opportunity to "multilateralize " new and deeper trade integration in future WTO agreements. Aid for trade may also play an instrumental role in bringing more developing countries into WTO disciplines. Above all, WTO members must develop new ways to find common ground in order to negotiate for mutual gains from trade.

There can be few industries which have generated as much political controversy as the world steel industry. Since 1968 the trade policies of both the US and the EEC have created a vicious circle of protectionism and delayed adjustment in their steel industries. In particular, protectionist policies by one government have tended to lead directly to rebound protectionist policies by the other. This book, first published in 1986, begins by tracing the historical roots of steel protectionism and describes the changing competitive structure of the world steel market which has led to increased government involvement in the traditional steel-making countries as they became vulnerable to imports from the newly industrialised countries. The most distinctive feature of the book is its economic analysis of a policy crisis; a crisis whose inner dynamics work against a viable solution.

There can be few industries which have generated as much political controversy as the world steel industry. Since 1968 the trade policies of both the US and the EEC have created a vicious circle of protectionism and delayed adjustment in their steel industries. In particular, protectionist policies by one government have tended to lead directly to rebound protectionist policies by the other. This book, first published in 1986, begins by tracing the historical roots of steel protectionism and describes the changing competitive structure of the world steel market which has led to increased government involvement in the traditional steel-making countries as they became vulnerable to imports from the newly industrialised countries. The most distinctive feature of the book is its economic analysis of a policy crisis; a crisis whose inner dynamics work against a viable solution.