ABSTRACT
One of the central aspects of today’s economic globalization is increasing free trade. The arguments for such a policy go back two centuries, to the time when Smith and Ricardo armed advocates of free trade with the theorem of comparative advantage. Since then they have been ‘winning every battle in the textbooks’ (Pen, 1967). And today opponents of protectionist policies and proponents of globalized free trade are once again claiming victory.1 However, public anxiety about globalization and free trade is rising. In some policy circles and NGOs proposals are being discussed for new forms of protectionism, so as to re-empower the local and regional in the face of the social and ecological consequences of free trade and increased capital mobility.2 Moreover, research on technology and economic development is putting in question the fashionable idea that, as far as policy choices are concerned, national states are virtually dead in today’s global economy.3
