ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explains the fundamental dilemmas that surround international trade and trade policy issues. It introduces the basic principles of international political economy by examining how politics and economics interact to shape trade policies. The book demonstrates that the consequences of these individual choices pose fundamental policy dilemmas for governments as well as for the people directly involved. It describes the dilemmas resulting from the distributional consequences of trade, the competing values affected by trade, and the impact of trade on the concerns of the state. The book illustrates these variations by contrasting the policies of Japan and the United States. It also describes the historical evolution of both mercantilism and liberalism. The book details about the growing importance of global trade and its accompanying dilemmas are exemplified by the experience of the newly industrializing countries (NICs) of East Asia.
